Recent articles floating around the web seem to indicate that overseas, mobile marketing is huge. So huge, in fact, that the spending dollars on mobile marketing have grown 32% since last year. The industry has morphed into force to be reckoned with. A recent Adidas mobile campaign that invited users to track runners of the London Marathon attracted nearly a million people. Major European and Asian brands already have mobile marketing streams in house to look after the ever-growing medium. Yet on this end of the pond our national spending on mobile advertising and marketing is actually down. What gives? Are we resisting something that the Britts love as much as they love Kylie Minogue for a reason? Or is mobile marketing something that simply won’t work on these shores?
It’s tough to say but I have a hunch that America is not quite there just yet. Twitter’s recent acquisition of Cloudhopper, however, may just be a sign of mobile marketing goodness yet to come. Twitter recently purchased Cloudhopper which is a text messaging infrastructure. Twitter plans on using Cloudhopper’s vast text resources to reach Tweet-fanatics across the globe. Coupled with Twitter’s recent foray into advertising and their buy out of Atebits (the company that makes Tweetie for iPhones) the little bird could be mobile marketing’s greatest hope. Twitter is primarily accessed by cellphone users so if anybody can mobile market, it’ll be these guys.
Elsewhere, there other signs that the best may be yet to come for mobile marketing. Warner Brothers recently signed an exclusive deal which will allow T-Mobile customers to receive hit movies on their HTC Android phones. Speaking of movies, Universal is marketing its goofy SNL spin-off MacGruber with an aggressive mobile campaign too. With funny apps like the MacGruber bomb defusing device, Universal has set its sights on luring film goers who are also big smart phone enthusiasts. Also, Taco Bell has announced a series of apps for smartphone users that will direct hungry folks to the nearest Taco Bell while giving them a glance at new menu items.
But you guys have all the answers. So you tell me. Is mobile marketing an idea that’s ready to explode in the US? Or is it just another PR dust up over a genre that’s bound to be obsolete? Discuss!
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