For many people the mobile phone has become their constant companion, which they use not only for phone calls but to selectively send and receive text messages, images, as well as audio and video files.

The most personal mass media and first advertising medium in the pocket seems to have finally hit the road to success. Having mobile portals up their sleeves that offer a new generation of promotional environments also gets higher attention of mobile advertisers. Now they can make their brand a constant companion of their consumers and reach clients personally, anytime, and anywhere.

The mobile web, applications and text messaging are changing the way consumers search, shop, and interact with one another. And since mobile advertising becomes increasingly location and context-aware, consumers are able to conveniently find nearby points of interest, locate coupons and special offers, and employ their mobile browsers to enhance their shopping experience.

Without doubt, mobile has left its pioneer stage behind and is coming of age, including standards in the field of advertising or audience measurement. Just less than two years after the start of mobile advertising some guidelines are uniformly adopted by all partners in the market and defined Mobile Advertising Standards are at hand that recognize the peculiarities of the medium and ensure its effective handling. Thus, the mobile industry has been actually about seven years faster than the stationary Internet back then.

Besides the standard advertising formats, innovative special formats that enable with multimedia elements an effective showcasing of the brand on the phone have been developed. With mobile advertising, marketers can start a dialog with their target group through interactive attempts and ensure that the audience is dealing with their brand. And that is simply invaluable especially in times of increasing resistance to advertising! If a real added value is offered on top, the impact of advertising can be increased significantly.

The mobile phone is both a media to promote messages and a channel to sell and transact. It opens an interactive channel to engage with nearly everyone who carries an end device with an increasing number of those accessing the mobile web.

Especially consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, such as for instance Coca-Cola, can benefit from mobile by developing and executing on a properly crafted mobile advertising strategy, as Microsoft Advertising summarized it in their whitepaper “The Consumer Packaged Goods Industry’s Guide to Mobile Advertising”.

According to their report, mobile advertising, besides developing a one-to-one relationship with consumers, does a lot in addition:

• Builds brand awareness
• Extends special offers and coupons
• Increases sales and in-store traffic
• Acquires and retain customers
• Enhances multichannel campaign efforts
• Stimulates word-of-mouth and social media engagements

As their best practices for mobile advertising efforts of CPG brands are appreciable as well, I am listing them here, too:

1. Specials and promotions within mobile search and banner advertising can be used to sell perishable inventory such as consumer products with time-relevant packaging. Please, ensure to change promotions regularly not to become boring.
2. Aim for long-term communication plans when doing on-package promotions. Consumers may keep product package for a long-time.
3. Mobile coupons, sample redemption and apps with store locators help drive consumers to retailers that sell your product. Make sure that everyone in the delivery chain is aware of and supports your program, especially with programs that encourage retail point-of-sale redemption as in the case of coupons and sample redemptions.
4. Invest in commerce enabled mobile web presence. Landing pages are increasingly mobile commerce-enabled, allowing for a transaction right on the spot.
5. Make sure your message is relevant and targeted, as it increases the response rate of any mobile campaign. CPG companies can target through a combination parameters including location, customer’s online behavior, handset, wireless carrier, age, gender, household income and time of day.
6. Build a mobile database so that you can send consumers offers and deals. Always include an opt-in option on the landing page or in the ad creative.
7. Keep your program calls-to-action clear and simple. Consumers should not have to think about what it is the marketer wants them to do.
8. Think past the click and consider each step of your mobile advertising campaign in advance to be able to react fast once consumers respond.
9. Choose appropriate mobile partners that can help you leverage the power of the various mobile media and mobile advertising practices. Ask for references from successful campaigns to find a vendor that aligns with your needs.
10. Adopt the Mobile Marketing Association’s guidelines (see Legislation)
11. Track, measure and analyze the results of your mobile advertising campaign continuously and be able to make appropriate adjustments if needed.

By Daniela La Marca