Mobile Advertising
Mobile phones are everywhere and the marketing world is just beginning to leverage these ubiquitous devices as marketing media. Griffin Concepts has stayed on the cutting edge regarding this new and sensor-rich medium. We have the technology and the expertise to help our clients utilize this emerging marketing medium.
There are currently about 3.2 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and that number is expected to grow by at least a billion in the next few years. Today, mobile phones are more prevalent than cars (about 800 million registered vehicles in the world) and credit cards (only 1.4 billion of those).
While it took 100 years for land-line phones to spread to more than 80% of the countries in the world, their wireless descendants did it in 16. And fewer teens are wearing watches now because they use their phones to tell time instead. So it's safe to say that the mobile phone may be the most prolific consumer product ever invented.
The question is, how do we take advantage of this emerging mobile medium?
In a recent study, respondents made it clear that active marketing via their cell phones was off-limits. The key word here is "active." For businesses to effectively market themselves through a medium as personal as a cell phone, they must first offer a relevant incentive and allow prospects to opt-in, just as they do with email.
Griffin Concept's Mobile Marketing Services
Our marketing services are comprehensive, but what sets Griffin Concepts apart is how we combine effective strategies with innovative tactics and technology. Of course, you don't have to take our word for it. Read our client testimonials.
What's a "Short Code?"
Popularized in the U.S. by shows like American Idol, mobile texting to a "short code" is a common way of providing your audience a short and easy number to remember and a level of interactivity across platforms that was previously impossible (like TV).
Using a normal telephone, touchtone numbers (following the E.164 standard) form a code but there is no way for these combination of numbers to contain an "end of line" (EOL). In other words, conventional land-line phones have no mechanism to say "this is the end of the number. Now connect me." Thus, land lines cannot use "short codes" or a 5-digit number assigned to your Short code Campaign. Of course, land lines are not able to send SMS messages (like text message) either.
On modern digital mobile phones, numbers are sent all at once, so the network knows the end of the dialed number, and thus one can use short numbers without clashing with longer numbers. Additionally, more and more service providers are offering ever affordable unlimited texting plans.
As of May 31, 2006, the standard lengths for interoperable short codes are five and six digits. Carriers use short codes with fewer digits for carrier specific programs - e.g., "Text 611 to see how many minutes you have remaining on your plan." Common short codes in the U.S. are administered by NeuStar, under a deal with Common Short Code Administration - CTIA.
Short codes can be leased at the rate of $1000 a month for a selected code or $500 for a randomly selected code. These codes are also dedicated numbers which are not shared with other companies. They have to have approval by all carriers and a lot of paper work is involved taking up to 8 weeks or longer for all the applications to go through. A cheaper easier alternative to dedicated short codes for a mobile text to lead campaign is "shared" short codes.
"Shared" Short Codes
Shared short codes use a single number which many companies share. i.e. 55555 that is accompanied by a unique keyword i.e. GC. So the campaign call to action could be, "Text 'GC' to 55555 and be entered to win a Caribbean island."
Many companies have different pricing options for using these numbers.