Promo - March 2008 - (Page 32)

Stuff We Can’t Many innovative mobile-based promotional campaigns friends—and show them on their cell phones how close the assassins are to their real-time locations—you’ll have to get yourself to London. Welcome to the world of advanced mobile marketing, otherwise known as Stuff We Can’t Do Here Yet. Many of the most innovative mobile-based promotional campaigns have been developed far from the U.S. The reasons for this offshore creativity are well known. Blame telecom fragmentation (four major wireless carriers in Europe on one tech standard, for example, vs. a dozen over here and three competing platforms). The more than 200 handset types that U.S. carriers offer customers, each with different capabilities, stunt the potential for wide rollouts. And you can even blame the fact that the mobile experience here is constantly compared with broadband Internet— usually to its disadvantage. In many parts of the world, a mobile device is the gateway to the Web. These obstacles may disappear in time, as American Mobot’s promotion for ‘Deal or No Deal’ prompts cell-phone users to take a photo of an outdoor or bus ad for the TV show and send it to a short code. In return they get a video teaser and a message that directs them to a Web site offering a downloadable mobile version of the game. You can watch David Beckham score goals in Los Angeles, but if you want him on your mobile phone reminding you to “say goodbye,” you’ll have to go to Hong Kong International Airport. You can drink tea to relax and soothe your mind, but to get a daily mobile alert and a brain-building puzzle over your handset, you’ll need to head to China with a camera phone. And while you can watch “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” on the Fox Network here in the United States, in order to sic Terminators on your telcos come to believe that the ad revenue that’s made Google an earnings star might start filling their coffers, too. With that day in mind, here’s a small portfolio of grandmaster mobile gambits that might soon turn up in your inbox. PICTURE THIS Mobot specializes in applying visual search and recognition technology to mobile marketing campaigns, and has worked with U.S.-based brands such as Starbucks and the A&E Television Networks. For example, users could photograph any ad in the late 2006 print issues of Elle magazine and then send those photos in an e-mail to a Mobot address. The company used image-recognition software to detect the products in the photos and added those items to the user’s Web wish list. The problem is that attaching photos and sending e-mail over a cell phone can be troublesome and prone to error. Mobot’s proprietary technology allows users to transmit photos to a short code via multimedia messaging service (MMS). Unfortunately, sending MMS content from one U.S. wireless provider to another is still a clunky patchwork of intercarrier agreements. As a result, Mobot has deployed its most advanced technology in overseas markets that can more easily deliver large numbers of consumers who’re reachable by MMS. The Lexington, MA-based company is currently running a promotion for the launch of the Australian version of the “Deal or No Deal” TV show 32 March 2008 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://www.promomagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - March 2008

Promo - March 2008 Editor's Note Girls' Club New Eco Regs? They're Not Going Anywhere Spreads Easily RFID Ramp-Up From Backyard to Broadcast Commentary VROOOM! Stuff We Can't Do Here Yet Q&A: Measuring Up Free Ink The Agency Center Resource Center Promotions 2.0 Index of Advertisers

Promo - March 2008

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