I came across this press release from Juniper Research, regarding their latest report on mobile advertising, and wanted to share it with you all, because I think this is very interesting news.

HAMPSHIRE, UK: June, 3rd 2009 -- Advertising budgets for mobile channels are expected to buck the downward trend and exhibit strong growth over the next five years, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The report found that constraints on budgets, imposed in the wake of the global economic downturn, had resulted in an increasing migration of adspend from above the line to below the line channels: the need for engagement with the consumer, and a quantifiable ROI, meant that mobile was increasingly being perceived as a key medium through which to pursue this strategy.

However, the Juniper mobile advertising report stressed that, while this was encouraging, the level of growth had to be put into context – that mobile advertising still remained very much a nascent medium, and even by 2014 it would only account for up to 1.5% of total global adspend.

The report noted that, while a number of major brands had made relatively large investments in the mobile platform, advertisers have yet to be fully convinced that mobile has sufficient reach to warrant substantive adspend. As report author Dr Windsor Holden pointed out, “These investments still form only a small proportion of a brand’s total advertising budget: Regardless of mobile’s advantages – its personal nature, the facility for highly targeted advertising – advertisers will not commit more budget until they perceive that the audience for their advertisements has reached a critical mass.”

Other findings from the Juniper report include:

• Mobile Internet will become the most popular mobile delivery channel for advertisers in 2009, and will attract the largest proportion of mobile adspend throughout the forecast period

• Mobile Cost Per Clickthrough (CPC) and Cost Per Mille (CPM) rates have fallen sharply over the past year in large part due the negative impact of the economic downturn

• Mobile advertising response rates remain substantially higher than those in other media

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile advertising based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in the growing mobile advertising industry.

Whitepapers and further details of the study ‘Mobile Advertising: Delivery Channels, Business Models & Forecasts 2009-2014 (Second Edition)’ can be freely downloaded from www.juniperresearch.com. Alternatively please contact John Levett at john.levett@juniperresearch.com, telephone +44(0)1256 830002.

This does come to confirm a growing feeling around the mobile marketing sector, that the economic downturn does not have the effect on mobile marketing and mobile advertising that it is having on most other business sectors. Certainly good news, isn't it?

Today I've put down a few ideas about how Cafes, Restaurants, Bars and Clubs can benefit from proximity marketing.

All these types of business are related to entertainment and leisure activities, and are all places where people go to relax or entertain themselves, and usually spend a considerable amount of time in. During these visits there are often idle times, such as waiting to be seated, or waiting to get served, excellent opportunities to engage with customers.

The opportunity is there, but the bet is still there to be won!

Attempting to engage with a consumer in their leisure time, is much more demanding than engaging in commercial surroundings, such as when they're out shopping. It is a different state of mind for the consumer, and this means it is much harder approaching the consumer when they're in the 'wrong' state of mind.

It can be done. I have seen it working. However, you have to be very careful in selecting your approach and the content of your message (whatever form this takes) if you want to achieve decent acceptance ratios.

Content is king, as you might have heard, and more so in our case. So give your consumers appropriate content, and sit back and watch why mobile marketing is such an exciting and powerful channel.

• Comments/Ratings/Reviews

Mostly in restaurants, but also in cafes with a wider selection on their menu, it is an excellent idea to allow your guests to rate your menu items. This benefits both you and them: they feel their voice is being heard (and are thus more likely to develop a more intimate relationship with your shop) and you can remove low-rated items from the menu / promote highly-rated ones.

You can also allow them to write reviews or leave comments about your cafe / restaurant as a whole, or for particular menu items, which future visitors can also read through while on premises, or through your website. Again, this will help you improve the areas that leave your customers dissatisfied, and more satisfied customers = more customers.

• Menu

You can give your customers the ability to browse through a multimedia menu, with photos or videos for menu items. (e.g. how cool does it sound to be able to view a cocktail preparation video, before you order your cocktail?) Also, being able to see what you're ordering saves you from unpleasant surprises!

Interactive such menus, would also allow your customers to order electronically, meaning faster and less error-prone order-taking.

• Contests

Contests are a great way to keep your consumers on premises for longer (meaning larger consumption), by giving out few 'presents' at random intervals, or every X guests. This way they never know when they could win and they will stick around / come back to find out.

• Pub Quiz

I've been to quite a few pub quizzes myself, and would definitely recommend it as a fun night out. But I've always thought tecchie-ing it up a bit would make for a much better experience. Give your answers through your mobile phone (either through a mobile phone application, or through SMS) and see the results on a nice big screen in the pub.

• Feedback Questionnaires

Receiving feedback from your customers is invaluable. If they are happy, you know you're doing things right, and they will keep coming back and tell their friends. If not, expect problems.

Many owners / managers tend to greet guests at their tables and ask them personally for feedback. The problem there is that, because of the element of personal contact, the feedback is not always 100% genuine. Consumers are less likely to report something they didn't like to a person, but very happy to do so on a piece of paper or machine.

The mobile phone is an excellent medium you can ask them to use, in order to send in their feedback because it is available at the point in time when it is most appropriate to do so.

• Chat / Dating

All these types of places (cafes, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc) are places people go to socialize, and also meet new people.

Chat and dating services are very popular today, so it is even more interesting to test such services 'on site'. Not from your home pc, but when you are actually out and about, and available to meet new people.

The mobile phone is already the most frequently used medium for our communication with other people so why not give it the capability to also meet new people, via the appropriate such service?

Examples range from big displays on premises that people can send messages to (i.e. the virtual chat room becoming a real chat room), to bluetooth messages (this is already happening -- it can be massively improved however), to all sorts of other ideas with SMS messages. It is a very wide area that I believe has a lot of room for development.

• 3rd party promotions (m-coupons)

Finally, all of these places are places that regularly run marketing campaigns. They already hand out promotional leaflets for other products/businesses, play audio ads, etc. Adding mobile marketing is the natural next step for me.

Give people discounts and offers (in the form of m-coupons) they can use elsewhere, and you can be sure they won't turn them down.

Send them information about upcoming events and rest assured they'll store it in their phone calendar if they're interested.


If you have more ideas to add / think I'm not making any sense, please let me know in the comments below.

Following the recent article about mobile internet on coaches in Ireland, I have just stumbled across another article about bluetooth marketing on buses.

Every place with a large concentration of people is an excellent place to run a proximity marketing campaign. Usually when we think of places, we think of static locations, but of course, they are not limited to such.

All mass transport media, such as trains, metro, buses, coaches, boats, airplanes, etc. are such places, because they contain lots of people, and this makes them excellent candidates to run such campaigns. On top of offering large concentration of consumers, they also offer an extra, very important element.

Idle time. People on mass transport media are mostly sitting idle (except the regular commuters, who find a way to exploit this time). This means it is an excellent opportunity to engage with your target audience.

Here's the article from livemint:

Mumbai: Taking cue from cities like Singapore and New York, India’s first public bus service, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST), is likely to soon install Bluetooth-enabled services in its 4,027 buses.

“The Bluetooth-enabled services would be of much help to our nearly 50 lakh commuters. The proposal is likely to come within a month and once it is passed the services will be introduced,” said BEST chairman Dilip Patel.

Once installed, the system would provide route and other information on services to the commuters having cellphones.

The system will first be introduced for long route buses like the air-conditioned Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and then on the smaller routes, Patel said.

With these services, commuters will come to know which routes the bus will cover, the next stop and in how much time will it reach the final destination, Patel explained.

Similar services are available in public buses in cities like Bangkok, London, New York, London and Hong Kong.

Great stuff. There's lots of applications and ideas for proximity marketing campaigns in mass transport media, so I'm sure we'll soon see lots of other examples come up.

I have just come across this pretty interesting piece of news, about the novell approaches the Darwen town council (in Lancashire, UK) is taking for the coming elections.

I have always thought the Internet will eventually reshape the form of elections - perhaps, if I dare be so bold, maybe even form the basis for a new type of democracy - so it is very interesting to see attemts to utilise this and other technologies in a positive way in all kinds of elections.

Darwen town council has chosen a mix of different approaches, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking media, in order to complement other existing channels. From the full article:

Graham Burgess, chief executive of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said the council wanted to use new methods such as Twitter, Youtube and Facebook “to engage with wider audiences”.

He added: “These new channels present an excellent opportunity to reach new audiences and signpost them towards the main Council website where information about the full range of council services and activities can be found . It is, however, important to note that these channels are being explored in the context of complimenting existing channels, not replacing them.”

Voters in five wards, Earcroft, Marsh House, Sudell, Sunnyhurst and Whitehall, go to the polls tomorrow to elect 13 town councillors.

In addition to such channels, however, there will also be a mobile marketing element, in the form of a bluetooth marketing campaign.

To remind people to vote, mobile phone users walking past four hotspots in the borough will be targeted by a special bluetooth video.

The council will be sending the video - depicting a range of unusual and imaginative ways to make an X symbol – to anyone with a Bluetooth enabled phone walking past he town halls in Blackburn and Darwen, The Mall or near Blackburn Market.

This is an excellent example of mobile marketing being used to complement other channels and approaches, and I can't stress enough how important this is. Mobile marketing campaigns on their own will have some effect - but it is when they are used in combination with other channels that they will give you maximum results.