• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, October 28, 2005

There are 100 million opt-in devices prowling streets in the United States just waiting to crack your short code.

This fall readers of ELLEgirl magazine fulfilled a marketer's fantasy: They not only thumbed through the magazine's ads, they took pictures of them. Readers who took a camera-phone shot of an August L'Oreal spread, for instance, could e-mail it to the magazine's mobile marketing partner, Mobot, and find out if they were an instant winner.

A calendar in the September issue directed readers to a different shoot-and-send ad for each day of the month. Back at Mobot, the incoming phone photos were run against a visual database that recognized the specific ad and sent readers text messages indicating if they'd won. "We've seen what we think are pretty extraordinary involvement results," says Deborah Burns, vice president, publisher, ELLEgirl. So have the advertisers, 25 of which have lined up to join the premium program in coming months.

While marketers and consumer groups continue to debate how consumers will tolerate new ad formats on their cell phones and wireless devices, industry observers already see the power of mobile marketing to activate existing advertising creative. The underlying technology can make just about any print ad, billboard, or package of candy a clickable event. Marketers are discovering that the wireless phone can speed dial a brand just as easily as it calls Mom for a ride to the mall.

Why settle for static movie posters when you can have in-theater lobby installations broadcast film trailers to consumers' cell phones? In a trial at three Loews multiplexes last summer, content distribution firm WideRay "mobilized" movie stand-ups for several Fox films. Consumers with Bluetooth-enabled phones could download related movie trailers, ringtones, and wallpapers directly from the posters. "The opportunity is to distribute messaging and content where consumers are, instead of getting consumers to come to you," says Alan Cohen, vice president of marketing for WideRay.

In fact, some agencies believe that the best use of mobile marketing lies almost exclusively as an opt-in mechanism and an activation tool for other media. The key is not to push extraneous garbage over wireless handsets. Branded ringtones, wallpapers, and banners are nice, but the real opportunity is in enabling consumers to interact with any ad, at any time, and in any location. Marketers need to invite consumers to opt in.

For example, to support a g4tv G-Phoria videogame awards show, Starcom IP's Digits unit offered viewers instant voting via SMS (short message service), and then allowed recipients to opt into subsequent text alerts for upcoming programming. "We had a hugely successful conversion rate for this second opt-in," says Courtney Acuff, associate director, wireless marketing specialist, Digits. "Tying a mobile extension into a broader communication plan is the No. 1 goal," she says, adding, "We have to be able to support awareness messaging from other routes to make it successful."

Calling All Candy Bars

At the very least, mobile interactive programs get users to look harder and longer at products and content. The ELLEgirl promotion effectively extended readers' interaction with the magazine for the entire month by sending readers back to snap different ads on specific days. Mobot also contracted with Warner Music to have CD shoppers send in camera-phone images of any six Warner CDs to enter a contest. "It puts the focus on the products," says Lauren Bigelow, vice president, marketing and product management, Mobot. For now, the image-matching technology is being used for promotions, but ultimately a snapshot of a CD could send consumers a music sample, a ringtone, or a music video while they are in the store with a prospective purchase in hand.

Sure, the Web adds interactivity to a brand, but who can remember the URL you saw this morning on the freeway billboard or heard during a spot on the morning drivetime? More than half of the 195 million wireless subscribers in the u.s. have phones capable of text messaging, which puts more than 100 million devices on the streets each day waiting to be turned into opt-in opportunities.

"Anywhere you are, you can interact with a brand," says Jack Philbin, president, Vibes Media. Earlier this year, Vibes promoted an SMS short code in a 15-second San Diego radio spot for Jack in the Box and netted 13,000 messages. In the U.K., 65 million Cadbury chocolate bars hit stores with an sms call to action, and the timing of the various return messages unexpectedly revealed that chocoholics tend to eat coconut bars at certain times of the day and pure chocolate at others. "Mobile means the brand is sending you a message, but you are reacting to some traditional media call to action. Mobile marketing is not a new medium unto itself. It utilizes and leverages existing media," Philbin explains.

Mobile marketing platforms don't have to replace URLs, or send the same old content to wireless phone Web browsers. Mobile executions of other media can also change the way even interactive brands relate to consumers. For example, CondeNet's Epicurious.com now has a "send to phone" button adjacent to the familiar "print" and "e-mail this" buttons on all recipes. Epicurious converts ingredient lists into shopping agendas, includes wine recommendations from Gallo's Turning Leaf, and sends them to wireless phones.

"The whole point of mobile applications is to give you timely and geographically relevant information that is personal and actionable when you are in the grocery store," says Nick Desai, founder of Juiced Wireless and designer of CondeNet's "Epi To Go." Without promotion, "Epi To Go" netted 20,000 subscribers since January and a six-figure sponsorship commitment from Gallo.

Is Mobile the New Outdoor?

It's too easy to mistake the mobile phone for a mini-PC or a portable Web. But the context and our relationship to these devices are very different. Intuitively, most publishers and agencies consider their mobile operations a natural extension of the Internet, but some early developers see the on-the-go medium more closely allied to offline disciplines, especially outdoor marketing, because the phone complements offline advertising so well.

Mobile marketer and publisher Zingy owns the Vindigo city guides, on which it places banners and sponsorships for advertisers such as MasterCard and Cadillac. Carrie Himmelfarb, vice president of sales, says that simply repurposing online pitches for mobile marketing is not enough. Zingy recently ran a mobile promotion for a client's TV series. "They gave us their [Web] banner creative, and it did ok," she says. "But then when we used their outdoor creative, the outdoor messaging on the phone had a greater click-through rate. Mobile works more like an outdoor ad...with interactivity," Himmelfarb says. If the PC is "personal," the cell phone has emerged as the most intimate, fully "personalized" media device yet. And marketers don't want to be perceived as intruding on consumers. JupiterResearch recently found that 42 percent of users never want to get an SMS message from a company. On the other hand, In-Stat also found that almost 35 percent of customers were willing to opt into relevant marketing messages.

If marketers can politely obtain permission to appear on our phones, the potential is there for a whole new relationship. "The consumer experience reaches a completely different level," says Jocelyn Lucas Rosenberg, director of content and contact for agency SS+K, which is using Mobot and other mobile techniques to enhance existing assets. By establishing an ongoing dialogue and showing marketers how, when, and where consumers respond to messaging, the phone establishes a unique exchange between brand and customer. For Rosenberg, mobile not only energizes non-interactive creative; it opens up new possibilities for relating to consumers.

"Something we're very focused on is how people relate with a brand and how a brand relates with people," says Rosenberg. "It's a very cultural thing, and that's what the technology allows us to move into. As media usage fragments and disperses out of the home, the mobile phone is the one device that follows us across these new pathways of consumption."

Steve Smith is a regular contributor to MEDIA magazine. This story is re-published from the November issue.