What Do You Think About Mobile Marketing?

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

On the heels of receiving two mobile SPAMs this last week and one legitimate text ad, I found a link to an article from iMedia Connection in my in-box this morning: Why aren’t more brands using mobile advertising?

For those of you who don’t know, mobile marketing includes (but is not limited to) the following types:

• Text messages or SMS marketing (Short Message Service)
• MMS (Multimedia Message Service)
• In-game mobile marketing
• Mobile web marketing
• QR (Quick Response) code mobile marketing

Some of these, particularly QR, Mobile Web, and In-game, are either reasonable (eg. in-game ads in exchange for free use of the game), or voluntary. In short, the customer remains in control of the relationship and voluntarily, sometimes excitedly, participates. I agree that this form of mobile marketing is a great place for brands to get creative and generate interactive excitement.

Where things get touchy is in the realm of SMS or MMS, which is where the author of the article mentioned above feels the most excitement. I did some hard thinking and I honestly can’t imagine a scenario where I would respond positively to a text message – especially one with a multimedia attachment on it. To me, this sort of advertisement feels like a sleazy guy looking in my bedroom window.

In an age where more and more people are conversing in insular spaces (ex. direct messaging, texting), I can see where marketers are frantic to find ways of getting their messages out. Text messaging is even more difficult to ignore than email. No matter what my relationship with the brand, I can’t see myself embracing them into what amounts to a private, intimate conversation with my friends, family, or clients.

Now that I’ve given my obvious bias, I would love it if you’d respond to this poll. Am I a minority in my feelings on the matter?

I really look forward to your responses.

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