Don't Kill the Messenger

ESPOO, Finland, January 30 -- Mobile marketing has the potential to become one of the most coveted channels for marketing communications. How can mobile marketers take advantage of the dramatic uptake in mobile device ownership without either alienating consumers or breaking the law?
It is important for marketers to recognize the need for a personalized, right-time, right-place, dialogue in their promotional mix. To help mobile marketers invent programs that are profitable for advertisers and valuable for users globally, TheFeature.com offers the following tips:

Want Not / Spam Not - Don't bother to spam. Let interested people "opt-in" (i.e. sign up) to receive your messages, and leave others alone.

Save Time / Kill Time - Offer something that will either save time or keep people from boredom. Mobile directions save time. Mobile games kill it. If you can't make yourself useful, at least be entertaining.

New Medium / Old Message - The mobile medium is new, marketing isn't. Whatever you offer, be sure there's a tangible R.O.A - return on attention - for your users.

Be Relevant / Not Redundant - Mobile marketing is about affinities, the interests of the user. Make sure you know and understand the needs, wants and desires of your target audience, and play on them.

Be Contextual / Not Clumsy - Ads must appear in the context of the service or entertainment on offer. Give something of value, don't just blast ads at people.

Be Intimate / Not Impersonal - Mobile devices are small. If you can get people to interact with your brand in that tiny space, brand recall is tremendous.

Be Consistent / Not Confusing - Make sure your application is accessible and customizable through multiple customer touchpoints: Web, WAP, SMS, or call center. People should be able to change their opt-in profile from any device.

What's brewing in the mobile marketing arena? Tune in for original reports, viewpoints, analysis and discussion covering the mobile marketing field at www.thefeature.com all week long.

About TheFeature.com
Nokia's TheFeature.com (www.thefeature.com), an award winning Web site, is the mobile Internet industry's premier thinking space where industry professionals gather to learn about and discuss issues affecting the industry and share their visions of a mobile future. Selected as Editor's Choice by www.3g.co.uk, Wireless Week, Popular Science and Smart Money, TheFeature.com has quickly gained a name for itself as a leading voice of the wireless industry.

The comments and opinions expressed on TheFeature.com are solely those of its writers and content partners and are not official statements by Nokia or any of its business partners or affiliates.

Further information:
Sean Krepp
Editor-in-Chief
Tel. +358 40 528 8193
sean@thefeature.com

Nina Venäläinen
Communications Officer
Tel. +358 40 837 9396
nina@thefeature.com