"If you're not into mobile, you're missing a whole generation."
	Laura Marriott President, Mobile Marketing Association

It's <insert time here>. Do you know where your customers are? And even more to the point:
How do you connect with them right now?

The sure-fire way to reach them is by mobile phone. People take their phones everywhere! If you could do a survey of your best customers right now, chances are that only 13% are at their computer. About 2% have their mailbox in their pocket (yeah, weird). But almost everyone of them (98%) has or is within earshot of their cell phone. That's powerful stuff!

With relevant messaging, timely delivery, and the ability to track customer preferences for future messages, mobile can be the final piece to your marketing mix, providing true one-to-one, customer-centric advertising.

Mobile numbers

Here are relevant and key data points about marketing in the mobile channel.

• 260,050,000 mobile phones in use in the US today
• An estimated 360 billion text messages will be sent in the US in 2008
• 98%+ of mobile phones can receive text messages
• 85%+ of mobile phones can receive picture messages
• 97%+ of consumers have their mobile phone with them all the time
• 60%+ of mobile customers use unlimited text and picture message services
• 30%+ of consumers are ready to receive and redeem mobile coupons today
• 13%+ of US households are wireless only
• Mobile coupons are redeemed 20 to 80 times more than printed coupons

The sweet spot in mobile marketing

The youth market is the key driver, using predominantly text and picture messaging.
• 60% of consumers send or receive text or picture messages
• 19% of consumers use their mobile device to send e-mail or access the Internet
• 10% of consumers use their mobile device to watch videos

Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit association that strives to stimulate the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies. The MMA is a global organization with over 500 members representing over forty countries. MMA members include agencies, advertisers, hand held device manufacturers, carriers and operators, retailers, software providers and service providers, as well as any company focused on the potential of marketing via mobile devices.

I-Mobile Marketing has been an active and contributing member of the MMA since 2006. IMM has members on two committees and co-chairs the Industry Logo Committee, formed to develop a Mobile Program Mark to quickly indicate price level to consumers.

The Mobile Marketing Association is located in Denver, Colorado. [ Go to MMA website ]

What are all these formats?

There a many ways to communicate with customers over mobile devices. These include:

SMS (Short Message Service) - Text messaging service, limited to 160 characters per message. Text messaging reaches more than 98% of all phones in the market today. In mobile marketing, SMS is the fastest and has the widest reach. Just remember, messages are limited to 160 characters. Messages have to be quick and sometimes creative, u know?

MMS (Multi-Media Service) - Messaging service that includes any combination of picture, sound, text and video. MMS service is only available at a few carriers today, namely Sprint, Alltel and Cricket. However, most carriers are preparing to offer MMS (M7 protocol) in the very near future. For mobile marketing, MMS opens up a world of possibilities. Graphics can be delivered with bar codes, audio can strengthen the message, and video can be delivered.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) - Basically it refers to the Internet on your mobile device. By using your data channel on your mobile phone, you can access the Internet, however, it's a limited, scaled down version. No audio. No video. No flash. And quite a bit smaller.

Video - Video currently has the most limited reach and appeal. Data channels and bandwidth aren't quite at analog television levels, and file sizes for delivery are so small that requirements make a 30-second video almost unrecognizable. Video offers great promise, but networks in the US are probably 3 years away from meeting user expectations.

What good does it do if it can't get to or work on a customer's phone?

What a great question. Well sure it is, we wrote it. But your great mobile campaign gets zero results if it doesn't reach phones. So here's what you need to know.

There are more than 253 million mobile phones in use in the US today. Approximately 3% of users have two (or more) phones, which means there are about 245 million individual users. The top carriers with nationwide coverage account for more than 225 million subscribers (92%).

SMS text messages reach 98% of all mobile phones. Carriers currently report that more than 65% of subscribers have unlimited text plans, and that number continues to grow as carriers push their unlimited text and data plans.

All phones that have cameras (roughly 92% of the market) support picture messages and/or wallpaper. A few carriers offer standard rate MMS programs, including Verizon, AT&T and Alltel. Sprint and Cricket offer only premium rate programs. T-Mobile has plans to offer MMS soon. Carriers who do not support standard rate MMS programs today can receive picture messages via WAP push or deep linking from SMS messages.

I-Mobile makes sure your message gets through. We check the carrier and the phone model that sent the inbound text message request. We check our complete and up-to-date database and deliver your message either as an SMS text message, as an MMS picture message, or as a WAP-push graphic. We're also watching developments in video messaging and may push videos to those carriers and handsets that support it.