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The Innovation of Multi Media
Messaging and Engagement-
Focused Content
By: Nate Ethen and Ian Ross

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Just the Beginning
The use of mobile technology as a marketing tool has been a trend for a few
years now, but there is still a lot more that businesses can use to reach a broader group
of people.Some things that Ian and I believe will start trending in the next year is, the
use of Multi Media Messaging (MMS), the use of games as a form to give out discount
to customers and adds that are in apps. As most people already know mobile devices
are widely used in these industries. Some places that they are already used are social
networking and mobile websites. These are great tools that companies can use to
inform their already loyal customers, but they are lacking the potential of reaching
customers who are not aware of the company’s operation. This is why we are going to
introduce a trend that has the potential to spread like a wild fire.
Some apps that are already being used in the hospitality industry are, Pandora,
facebook, twitter and other popular applications, along with SMS messages. These
forms of marketing are helping shape what is about to be the new era of mobile
marketing. Pandora has incorporated advertisements that listeners must watch every
thirty minutes in order to continue to listen to their music. Facebook, I believe is the
most widely used tool for marketing to certain groups of people. Most companies have
pages that they can use to send out deals or coupons to their followers. Twitter is used
a lot like facebook where people can follow their favorite companies to hear about
special offers. SMS messaging is used right now as a form of marketing where
companies can text their customers with deals and the specials for the day. According
to comScore, 71.1% of people using phones ages 13 and up constantly use mobile
messaging, this is up 1.5% from the past 3 months. This is a very popular form of
marketing, and it is widely used. Which is why one of the new trends that we believe
companies will begin to use is MMS messaging, where companies can send pictures
and videos to their clientele.
The following facts are to show the reader that this is still a growing trend, and if
we can find a way to get to a wider range of customers it would be an instant trend that
will bring a lot more business to the company. According to comScore on June 2012,
107million Americans owned smart phones. This is a 6% increase from January. By
the end of 2012, smartphone users are expected to be at 115.8 million people, and by
2013 it is expected to rise again to 137.5 million. By the time 2016 rolls around over
192 million people will own smartphones. That is why the use of the app store and
creating a game that customers could play could become such a hit. Along with those
people using smartphones, over 234 million Americans ages 13 and up own a cell
phone. You do not need to own a smart phone to receive a MMS message which is
why this form of marketing could potentially reach a far greater amount of people.
Applications that were downloaded was at 51.4% which is up 1.4, accessing mobile
networking sites and blogs was up .8%. There was a 2.3% increase of music listening
on their smartphones and a .8% increase of game playing. All of these increases in
usage show us that this trend is only just beginning and that there is so much more that
still needs to be uncovered.

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The Reach of this trend could ultimately be endless. With the capabilities of
MMS messaging, your pictures or videos that you are sending to your customer could
be forwarded to thousands of people. The trick is getting the customer to forward that
message.
How the Trend Works
Some people might be wondering how much of an effect marketing through
mobile technology is. According to Aberdeen Group, mobile technology has brought
positive results to many companies, increasing their customer satisfaction and how
much marketing is increasing their revenue. Customer satisfaction with mobile
marketing is at 9.2% and those who do not use mobile marketing is at 8.2%.
Marketing’s contribution to a company’s revenue is at 8% for those who use mobile
marketing and 2.5% for those who do not. As you just read, mobile marketing works,
and at the rate that it is helping provide more business, it shows no signs of slowing
down.
What is next for this growing trend? I believe that there are a few trends that will
start picking up, including, Multi Media Messaging and “Engagement-Focused
Content.”As you read above the amount of messaging that is going on between one
another is growing tremendously, a way that businesses can use this to their advantage
is by sending out multimedia messages to their specified customers. There are many
different ways that the hospitality industry can use these multimedia messages to attract
their guests. For example, a restaurant could take pictures of a featured dish and send
out a mass multimedia message to get people thinking about their operation as a dinner
choice. There is a lot more than just sending out a message, the restaurant would need
to make the dish look perfectly prepared and they need to make sure they send it out at
appropriate times. There is no point for them to send out a message early in the
morning for a dinner item. The reason being, is that people will forget about it, the
perfect time, in my opinion is when people are getting ready to leave work, when they
are thinking about what their plans for dinner might be. Another option that a restaurant
can do with multimedia messages is sending out coupons to their frequent customers.
Then when the customer comes into the restaurant to eat they have to show you the
coupon. A way that this trend can reach a far greater audience is by saying in the
message that they can feel free to send it amongst your contacts. This way the
message is continually passed along to more and more contacts bringing more people
threw their doors.
One case example of how this trend has worked is at Rush Creek Golf Club in
Maple Grove, MN. At the Golf course the GM has a list of members and their number
and he will text them with pictures of the course conditions or discounts that they might
be having for nonmembers. In doing this, Derek Stendahl, the GM of Rush Creek Golf
Course hopes that the members will then forward this news to their friends, bringing in
new golfers. When I asked Derek how this worked he said that just over this last
season they have seen a large increase in new members joining, bringing in a lot of
revenue for the golf course. He is very excited about this new form of marketing and
says that he expects to continue using it for years to come.

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Another time that this method was used was at the sandbarcafe. The
sandbarcafe is a night club in New Jersey that recently decided to give MMS marketing
a shot. They emailed 10,000 people who were already stored up in their database and
told them that if they reply with a number they can gain free access into the club. Also
telling them that it is the only way to get in free, many people didn’t hesitate to provide
them with that information. Within the first month they received 1,500 numbers and
after 3 months it was at 4,500. The way that they keep people interested is by sending
them deals about twice a week. Sandbarcafe noticed a large increase in attendance to
the club and they plan on continuing to market this way.
Melissa Chyba, who is the vice president services at iLoop Mobile says, “We are
excited about this important mobile marketing channel because iLoop mobile is
committed to providing innovative and compelling ways to reach consumers and
audiences.” Business professionals are very excited about this new way to send
pictures, audio files, videos and much more to their consumers. This technology for
businesses is fairly new, in the past MMS messages were restricted to person to person
use, but recently it has gotten much more popular so that almost 40% of U.S mobile
phone users can now receive them. Although SMS messaging has been the primary
way that companies have used messaging to get to their customers MMS messaging
will soon be passing it.
As for engagement-focused content, airports could make games that people can
download from the app store, which upon completion they can receive a coupon for
discounted travel expense. An idea for a game that would be appropriate for an airport
is a game called “flight control.” In this game you have to direct air traffic to land on the
runway. If you successfully land say, 100 planes, then you get 50 dollars off your next
flight. I believe that this is a great way for people to have fun and get a discount. As
read earlier from comScore, both application downloads and games played have
increased in the last few months and shows no signs of slowing down.
Some ways that non hospitality industries can use the MMS messaging is health
care. The way that health care can use MMS messaging is sending out videos for
patients who are at home or are unable to come into the hospital. They could be videos
showing them how to use medical equipment or else send the patient a picture of what
a medical condition that they think they might have is, much like how WebMD works but
it would be able to be used while on the run.
Another industry that can use the MMS messaging is the retail industry. This
industry is a prime example on how this trend can take off. In the retail industry the
company say American Eagle, could send out pictures of their new shipment that just
came in. Another form of marketing to the desired customer is sending out the bar code
of a product with a discount on it. You could give them 50% off the item, but they need
to come into the store to see what they get 50% on. This way the customers are forced
to walk into the doors and maybe see something else that they like.
Business Worthy

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Is the trend of mobile advertising “Business worthy?” Smartphones and IPads
are now outselling computers and laptops. Also more time is being spent browsing
mobile devices versus computers. Being online going to different websites used to be
where all the advertisers would attack you with pop-ups rambunctiously. After some
time it started to become reverse advertisement because it became more annoying for
people to constantly exit out instead of going more in depth with the advertisement.
People today are also getting more information through the use of applications opposed
to searching online. If applications on mobile devices are now more popular than
searching online, then it has already affected the business landscape. It has made our
world’s marketplace go mobile and yes it is most certainly business worthy.
Tim Wandell, who is the Executive Director of Strategic Accounts at digital
solutions agency Universal Mind, says “Welcome to the world of appvertising.”
Advertising was too many people seen as annoying, basically disrupting what you were
focused on. Whether it was watching television, watching a movie on television, or
even reading a magazine. Now with what Tim Wandell described as “appvertising”
advertisements are becoming more engaging and sometimes even entertaining.
A prime example of mobile advertisement that is engaging and is also quite
entertaining is the TRON: Legacy ad for the IPad. The ad will typically shoot across the
middle of the screen like a banner then sit at the bottom of the screen. Then you have
the option to click on it to get engaged or you have the option to X it out. If you decide
to click on it that is when the ad tries to captivate you. They draw you in with loud
noises and vibrant colors. Then it allows you options like exploring the characters,
behind-the-scene footage, and so on. Remember there is always the option of a skip
button incase the user is not interested. This puts the user in ultimate control, which is
so much different than any traditional advertising.
Trends come and go because something newer, smarter, and cooler goes on.
So what will be needed for this trend of mobile advertisement to keep its competitive
edge? One important aspect is to watch how long it takes for an advertisement to
download. It could possibly be the coolest, greatest, most entertaining advertisement
ever created but if it takes a minute or longer to download the customer is already gone.
Most customers won’t wait more than a couple seconds before they’re already over it
and want to move on.
A huge competitive edge that is now possible because of advanced technology is
being able to track every movement made by the user while they are engaged. Is the
user constantly using the zoom tool? Well then maybe the advertisement needs to
make its graphics clearer. Is there a particular page the user comes to and ultimately
decides to exit out right there and then. Then the advertisers have the opportunity to
adjust the ad from their observations then re-launch them to the public. Also being able

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to identify who your biggest target market is will be a big advantage. According to
Laura, Director of Marketing for Velti, Israel is the global leader for daily time spent on
smartphone apps. With that information the business knows where one of their biggest
target markets exists across the nation.
Another effective use of mobile advertising is the innovation of multimedia
messaging service (MMS). It allows users to exchange multimedia messages between
mobile phones and other mobile devices. These multimedia messages could consists
of photos, videos, links to websites, an even possibly music. Multimedia messaging has
been around for quite some time, originating in 2004, but there was much
disappointment from users. It was originally created so users would get charged for
every single message they sent and even receiving a message would cost the user
money. Often times these messages wouldn’t even be sent which caused hideous stir
of angry customers. Now multimedia messaging is much more sophisticated and even
more recently is being used as a very successful tool for advertising.
I work at David’s Chophouse a restaurant located in Woodbury, MN connected to
the golf course Prestwick. I conducted an interview with the general manager Terri
Heirmerman. After explaining to her what I am writing my paper on I began to ask her
some interview questions. My first question was if we use any type of mobile
advertising at David’s Chophouse? She answered “Yes, actually we do quite often. I
have Russel, who is the Executive Chef, take a picture of his feature dishes weekly and
send out a mass text.” My next question for Terri was whether she thought it helped
business or not? She answered “Yes, it most certainly does. We’re not necessarily
more busy, but we have customers buying those features which are higher priced than
most our entrees. So it really does serve its purpose.”
With smartphones and IPads being sold and used more then computers and
laptops, mobile advertising is a strong force in the marketing world. What will mobile
advertising change itself going forward? Ken Doctor, President of Newsonomics, has
some very interesting ideas of how mobile advertising could go forward. He posed
“What’s better for an insurance company threatening you with disaster like tornadoes,
earthquakes, and floods then freeze the individuals IPad temporarily then see the
damage magically disappear.”
Mobile advertising has been around for some time now but has been able to
innovate itself as technology has advanced. Mobile devices are not going away
anytime soon. I believe mobile advertising will keep on innovating and it is definitely a
trend to jump on and stay on for some time.

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