This latest report is based an about 100 mobile campaigns, from Amethon’s global customer base. All of the data comes from developed countries with similar mobile penetration and is normalisd by population. Given this, and the fact that Amethon is an Australian company, I would suggest the data is fairly relevant to Australia.

The report ‘Mobile Advertising – After the Click-Through’ focuses on user interaction for mobile campaigns AFTER clicking on a banner ad.

Some of Amethon’s findings

• Mobile Sites (including Telco & off-deck) make up 23% of all mobile campaigns
• Automotive, Movie and Alcohol categories make up 44% of all mobile campaigns
• 50% of Movie category campaigns and 38% of Alcohol campaigns have a downloadable component
• Page views per visit were almost identical for campaigns with/without downloads
• Average page views per visist is 1.53
• Bounce rates for mobile campaigns sites are very high – 67%
• Excluding bounce visits (leaving after 1 page) average page views is high – 4.15%
• Only 33% of consumers venture beyond the first page of a mobile campaign site
• Mobile Services are the most common campaign type (22%) however these have below average page views per visit (1.35)

I thought the report successfully highlighted the current failure of our industry to deliver campaign microsites that offer a compelling, engaging experience.

Bounce rates (the number of people who leave after the first page) are significantly higher than online, where you might aim for 20 – 30% as an ideal. This highlights just how badly we as an industry are using ‘micro-sites’ in my opinion. While Mobile Advertising boasts higher than average click through rates, advertisers are clearly not optimising their campaigns to hold on to customers once they have clicked through.

Another observation made by Amethon is that campaigns have little ‘made for mobile’ content – ie. they are repurposing TV ads, movie trailers and the like. In my mind this is closely linked to the high bounce rates.

Mobile is a unique medium with obvious advantages for interaction, conversation and engagement. If we squander this opportunity by throwing old, re-used content at mobile users, we should expect little more.

Mobile Advertising is not just about getting the click throughs – it’s about what happens next, and it makes me tired to see the same old strategies being trotted out time and time again. It’s actually been years now. Let’s try something different!!

So what do you have to do to bring those bounce rates down and pick up average page views per visit?

• Clearly communicate the benefit of clicking on an ad – and don’t disappoint the customer once they arrive
• Use your mobile destination to create a MOBILE specific interaction by taking advantage of the unique properties of the medium (location, context, identity, mobility, immediacy)
• Don’t repurpose content from another medium – unless it makes perfect sense to do so (Movie trailers are an example that work. TV Ads are generally not)
• Use a mobile specialist to build your mobile site / micro-site / landing page. They know how to work with the small screen and optimise for different handsets. An average (or crappy) user experience does not encourage your customers to stick around.
• Think about mobile at the beginning of your campaign plan and integrate with online & offline components, with mobile to tie it all together.
• Be creative (please???)

Mobile is not ‘the little web’. It’s something else altogether – a whole new medium. Use it that way, and you WILL see results.

Now let’s cross our fingers that Amethon’s report this time next year will show a prettier picture and prove we’ve learned our lessons and moved on from here!

For more information and to request a copy of the report, visit Amethon.

Oliver, Jenny and I have been putting the finishing touches on the course materials and I am really  looking forward to the opportunity to work with a group of enthusiastic wannabe mobile marketers!  The course will cover the latest trends in mobile technology and marketing, and teach participants how to take advantage of them.

Course Content includes:

• how to engage consumers through the mobile channel
• the logistics of implementing a mobile marketing campaign
• how to integrate mobile into your overall marketing strategies

I’ll be running the show down in Melbourne on June 18th and will have a few guest lecturers there on the day to impart their wisdom and expertise.  Jenny Williams (IdeaGarden) will fire up Sydney attendees on June 11th with a little bit of support from yours truly (I’ll be making cups of tea)

I would love to see you there.  I know if you’re reading Mobilista then you’re already interested in mobile marketing – perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to take that interest and turn it into some really exciting mobile marketing activities before 2009 is out.

At the start of the year I predicted we’d see some great local examples of mobile marketing and advertising in Australia in 2009.  Will you be behind one of those great examples??

SMSPup already has a 140,000 strong opt-in online database offering free web to mobile SMS to subscribers who agree to receive ads & online surveys in return.

The new mobile service called SMSPup Mobile offers subscribers $130 worth of call value a month for $10 if they agree to receive SMS & email based advertising offers. The service is provided by Comtel (who operate Reward Mobile in Australia) an MVNO on the Vodafone network.

Subscribers will receive up to 5 promotional messages a day to get the deal, or $29 if they don’t want the ads. See the SMSPup Mobile FAQ for more info. According to SMSPup Mobile the ads will reflect customers demographic and lifestyle preferences.

Included in the $130 is mobile, landline & international calls, sms, mms, voicemail, and mobile data at a rate of 2 cents ber kb. This is in line with Telstra & Vodafone’s rates for casual mobile internet use (so, if a subsriber was using predominantly data they would use up around $100 of their $130 to get 5MB of data). Given the SMSPup mobile target audience is unlikely to be heavy mobile browsers it’s probably a fair plan.

Another component of the service is a reward system whereby customers can earn points by interacting with or responding to the advertising messages. The reward points can then be redeemed for benefits including movie passes, travel discounts or used in auctions for devices such as handsets on the SMSPup site.

While its great to see this example of an ‘ads for mobile services” model in Australia, I think it would be better to see the plan being truly free to customers, with advertisers covering all of the costs.

Or what about focusing specifically on data browsing – I might agree to receive ads in return for completely no charge data browsing.

What do you think? Will the SMSPup model work? Has anyone signed up for it and checked out the ads you receive?

I am also interested to hear more about the value that Advertisers will receiving from targeting SMSPup Mobile subscribers. My own previous experience with SMSPup’s SMS database showed great CTRs (as recipients earned points for clicking), but ultimately poor conversions. I wonder how the reward scheme will operate under this new service and if it is likely to encourage similar behaviour?

Thanks to Andrew Grill for alerting me to the SMSPup Mobile launch last week. Check out his blog London Calling to see the SMSPup Mobile press release and further comments from Andrew, comparing the service to a similar offering from UK company Blyk.