For those that do not know, MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. "Mobile advertising" usually conjures up images of banner ads or maybe
native advertising, but a few firms think the future is in the humble
text message.
Brands including Ikea, Kellogg, Bloomingdales, Starbucks and TV networks
ABC, Fox and CBS have launched marketing outreach programs designed for
SMS and MMS. The latter is seen by some as an opportunity for
multimedia ads, including video.
Deep Malik, Iris's co-founder and COO, says brands
can reach any phone, from an iPhone to a flip-phone.
Why texting? Malik says consumers are more apt to open text messages
than emails. He also says that, "a picture
is worth a thousand words."
James Citron, the CMO of Payvia and former CEO of Mogreet. "People don't think about it but there are two apps that are on every phone — phone calling and texting." Even though people may have other apps, messaging or non-messaging, MMS is growing faster since it is required on all smartphones.
According to the CTIA, consumers sent some 74 billion MMS messages in 2012.
Of course to receive a branded MMS message, a consumer first has to opt
in. While there's no industry percentage for opt-in rates, Citron says some brands have gotten millions of consumers to opt in to their text messaging programs, often with the hope of getting a discount or coupon.
These days, especially this generation, is more likely to open a text message and read it than an email. Brands are now thinking of switching to MMS instead of email due to this. Common sense dictates that a text will get more attention than another email. With this, the company can send pictures and videos to capture the persons attention.
However, marketers have to determine for themselves whether MMS makes sense for their product.
Great post, Alexandra! As I began reading I said to myself, "Well this has to obviously be an opt-in service," and well as you highlighted, of course it is! After finishing reading your post, I couldn't help but think to respond to your final line with the thought, what products wouldn't be appropriate to market via MMS? I truly can't think of any product that would be inappropriate to market via MMS. Text messages are absolutely an extremely powerful form of communication. Furthermore, to speak to the idea that, "a picture is worth a thousand words," MMS messages would be just that much more powerful. The only drawback I can formulate for receivers of these messages is that if they start receiving a bunch of MMS messages, they could potentially exhaust their data allowance and therefore be turned off by the advertisements holistically.
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