Mobile marketing is a growing trend that boasts great potential. Nearly everyone has a cell phone, and some individuals even carry two phones: one for work and one for personal use.
With cell phones in everyone’s pockets, it high time that advertisers start taking advantage of them as marketing tools. Mobile marketing is taking the telecommunications field by storm. Soon, users will be exposed to a plethora of different types of advertisements trying to get them to buy products.
What is mobile marketing?
Mobile marketing comes in a variety of different packages. For example, a text message containing details about a special offer or new product is mobile marketing in its simplest form. Voting campaigns on television shows are another type of marketing that is growing in popularity. Viewers of shows like American Idol can text message their votes in as part of the campaign. In the future, video downloads to cell phones will also become more important mobile marketing mechanisms. These tools are all fresh and interactive. Cell phone users enjoy them, and that is part of the reason why mobile marketing has the potential to explode in the near future.
Who is advertising on cell phones?
Today, most cell phone advertising is conducted by phone companies, in particular whoever your service provider is. Some entertainment companies that produce games for cell phones are also making use of mobile marketing initiatives. Currently, mobile marketing is essentially limited to these two entities. That could change in the very near future as new players are jumping into the market. Companies with financial resources, like car manufacturers and film studios, are exploring the possibility of executing targeted mobile marketing campaigns.
What does the future hold?
There are some companies that are looking at using advertising to support their entire cell phone service offering. This means that much like the television set in your living room that provides basic channels for free, cell phone service might one day be completed funded by mobile marketing. Mobile marketing may very well change the face of communication as we know it. One day, the display on your caller ID might feature a 10-second advertisement for Toyota before the call from your best friend is connected. It won’t happen tomorrow, but it is a definite possibility in the near future. Mobile marketing is much more than a fad; it is a mechanism that will ultimately drive the future of commerce and the cellular phone industry.
