Mobile Advertising: Experiences from the Field Trials

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Mobile Advertising Experiences from the Field
Trials
M.Sc. Hanna Komulainen Department of
Marketing University of Oulu hanna.komulainen_at_oulu
.fi Wireless Cities 2006 Oulu, Finland
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Purpose and structure of the presentation

• The purpose of this presentation is to describe
  the testing of a new m-advertising service in
  Rotuaari project, and how it was perceived by the
  local retailers, consumers and advertising
  agencies
• The presentation consists of two parts
• introducing how m-advertising was organized in
  the field trials
• procedures
• m-advertising service system
• statistics
• examining the experiences of the three key
  players in m-advertising
• m-advertisers
• consumers, and
• advertising agencies

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Overview of the field trials

• M-advertising was tested in three field trials
  during years 2003-2005
• Field office at the city center
• recruiting volunteered consumers
• loaning devices for testing the service
• For the retailers Rotuaari project provided
• m-advertising service system
• assistance in designing and implementing the
  m-ads
• database of consumers willing to receive m-ads

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M-advertising service system MAD

• User interfaces for
• administrator (in this case service provider i.e.
  Rotuaari research project)
• advertisers (local retailers)
• end users (consumers)
• M-ads were sent as SMS, MMS or WAP Push messages
• M-ads were received with S40 and S60 mobile
  phones

Reference Komulainen, Mainela, Tähtinen and
Parhi 2005
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Mobile advertising service system (continued)

• Content of m-ads varied from simple text to
  gif-animations and videos
• Sending criteria according to which m-ads were
  targerd
• weekdays (mon-sun), sending times, dates
• gender, age, interest areas, loyal customer cards
• Features
• real time statistics possibility to follow the
  number of sent m-ads
• sending m-ads to selected phone numbers
• consumers had a possibility to define when and
  how many m-ads they received
• possibility to block m-ads
• The main idea is that m-advertising enables
• advertiser to send targeted m-ads to the right
  consumers
• consumer to receive that kind of m-ads s/he finds
  valuable

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General statistics

• M-advertisers
• in total 66 advertisers
• e.g. night clubs, restaurants, clothing stores,
  hairdressers, book stores, traveling agencies,
  advertising agencies, gift shops, insurance
  company, electrical supplies store, dental
  clinic, bakery, jewellery store, science center,
  art museum, movie theater, video store, mobile
  phone store, healt food store, shoe store,
  furniture store, music store, hobby shop.
• Test users
• in total 1015 registered consumers tested
  m-advertising during the field trials
• M-ads
• altogether 11.601 sent m-ads (does not include
  information from the 1st FT)
• altogether 205 different m-ads

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Examples of m-ads Science Centre Tietomaa
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Examples of m-ads Rankagalleria
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Key players in m-advertising
Reference Komulainen, Mainela, Tähtinen and
Parhi 2005
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M-advertisers

• Value creating elements of m-advertising for the
  m-advertisers
• Pioneer status
• showing to be in the spirit of the age, among
  the forerunners
• Commercial utility
• Technical usability
• service easy to use, reliable and free of
  technical problems
• Service support
• technical support to correctly use the service
  and help in problem situations
• Service providers know-how
• knowledge on m-advertising rules and practices
• how to target and design the m-ads, evidence of
  results
• Interaction
• continuous interaction with the right persons on
  right topics
• informing the end consumers about the new
  advertising channel
• Sacrifices
• no direct monetary sacrifices
• e.g. time, efforts

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Comments from m-advertisers

• Some m-advertisers were very satisfied,
• M-advertising functioned very well, it was easy
  and simple and it really worked. We got
  customers.
• and some were disappointed
• The general impression for us was very lame. The
  number of sent m-ads was so small that it is
  impossible to make any business of it.
• Pros and cons of m-advertising at the moment
• Targeting the m-ads to the right consumers
• Making campaigns fast and in real time basis
• Personalisation
• - Good idea but not yet topical
• - Too few test users and interested people ? how
  to collect the databases for permission based
  m-advertising?

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Consumers (1/2)

• Great variations in test users opinions
• Evaluation at two levels mobile channel and the
  content of the m-ad
• Mobile channel
• Personalised m-ads
• Possibility to receive tailored and thus
  interesting m-ads
• ? ordering m-ads or receiving ads targeted at
  loyal customers
• Mobile phone is a highly personal device
• ? permission required
• Contrasting opinions
• I really liked that the m-ad had my name in it
  vs.
• In my opinion m-ads were intrusive
• Context sensitiveness
• Receiving m-ads at the right time in the right
  place
• Consumers power to decide
• Id like to receive m-ads when Im planning
  shopping in the evening at home vs.
• I want to receive m-ads while Im shopping,
  when I pass by a store

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Consumers (2/2)

• Content of the m-ad
• Benefits
• Special offers, entertainment, information
• Innovative features
• Moving picture, voice
• Simplicity and clarity
• Problems during the use
• Technical issues
• M-ads lacked imagination and new ideas, included
  useless information
• Conclusion Consumers want to decide themselves
  from who, when, where and how they receive m-ads!

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Advertising agencies

• Advertising agencies play important role in their
  customers decision making, also in m-advertising
• Three roles for ad agencies can be identified
• connecting agencies
• took the initiative to start m-advertising,
  interested in learning new
• mediating agencies
• simply followed the brief of the client
• distracting agencies
• negative attitudes towards m-advertising
• Ad agency adopting the connecting role would be
  the most beneficial to all network members

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Implications

• For the service provider
• Both advertisers and end consumers expect
  technical functionality and ease of use
• Education and support for the advertiser is
  needed throughout the process
• Assistance in setting specific and realistic
  objectives for the new media
• Different customer segments with different
  capabilities and resources need to be treated
  differently
• Engaging also ad agencies into the process
• For the ad agency
• Importance of developing new skills
• Openness to new advertising mediums and adopting
  the role of connector may be an important trump
  card in the future!

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Implications (continued)

• For the m-advertiser
• Consumer rules!
• Utilisation of the special features of
  m-advertising
• personalisation, targeting, context
  sensitiveness, interaction
• Ad agency may either hinder or enhance the use of
  new advertising media ? negative attitude can
  result in the outcome, i.e. m-ad
• Loyal customer programs

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References

• Komulainen H, Mainela T, Tähtinen J Ulkuniemi P
  (2004), Exploring customer perceived value in a
  technology intensive service innovation, Proc.
  20th Annual Conference of the Industrial
  Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group, Copenhagen,
  Denmark.
• Komulainen H, Mainela T, Tähtinen J Parhi P
  (2005), Expected, realized and potential value in
  a new service setting, Proc. 21st Annual
  Conference of the Industrial Marketing and
  Purchasing (IMP) Group, Rotterdam, The
  Netherlands.
• Komulainen H, Mainela T, Sankari O Tähtinen J
  (2005), Intermediary's role in value co-creation,
  Proc. IMP Conference, Phuket, Thailand.
• Komulainen H, Ristola A Still J (2006),
  Advertising in the mobile channel evidence from
  a real-life experiment, ICORIA 2006 Conference,
  Bath, UK, to appear.

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• Thank you!
• Questions? Comments?