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The mumbling regarding cellphone applications is starting, and it's beginning to sound like the 1980s remark of "How did we ever got along without that fax machine?"
Mobile is here. Cellphone use has reached critical mass. The adaption of Smart Phones is getting attention. A do-it-all like the iPhone is filled with "wow." By comparison, phones limited to internet access and texting are used far more than Smart phones, though, so let's not move away from simple cellphones too fast. Mobile couponing via text is where we'll spend time today.
The masses are on the low end of the learning curve in figuring out how to get the most from cellphones. Some people feel comfortable as multi-taskers; they phone, text, Tweet, and browse, and are in the minority. The rest seldom go beyond making a phone call. Knowing this, you can't ignore a gadget that everyone carries. If you are in business, you better figure out how the masses may use a cellphone before they do - that's how money is made.
Audio Graphics/Borrell & Associates are in the final phase of taking a survey of online radio listeners. Cellphone text messaging, coupon delivery and redemption are its topics. The survey is at 90% completion and shows how this group of people, who are tech savvy enough to listen to internet radio, rate cellphones and coupons. I am enlightened by what they've said. With all the publicity that text-based coupons receive, the results are not what was expected.
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"Do you own a cellphone with text-messaging capability?" is the first question in this survey. It shows a high percentage of online radio's audience is aware that their phones can receive text messaging. |
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"Have you ever heard or received offers to receive coupons via text messaging to your cellphone?" came next. That only 26.4% have received (or have even heard of the ability to receive) coupons on their cellphones is out of line with the amount of discussion this category of mobile advertising gets. |
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"Have you ever redeemed a coupon that you received via your cellphone?" is the most telling stat. With the radio industry's claim of reaching 93% of Americans each week, a slim 4.7% saying that they have received or redeemed a coupon received via cellphone text shows that radio is not close to adapting this as a revenue stream. |
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Here's my tip to the radio industry, relative to cellpones: Today is the time to explore a cellphone's ability to deliver coupons.
If radio execs act on this data, the industry can take advantage of cellphone use. In conjunction with on-air campaigns, radio is in a unique position to send text-based coupons to its data base of listeners. These on-air campaigns can act as a call-to-action for retrieval of coupons, a means of accounting a campaign's response. Coupons can attach radio to new media, but it requires the radio industry to move outside its comfort zone and figure out how couponing works.
Cellphone coupons are in the beginning stages of use by the masses. Now is the perfect time for radio stations to begin generating revenue with this new form of advertising. File these words: If the radio industry doesn't make a move to place its mark on text-based, cellphone-delivered coupons, another industry will.
Check history if you need a nudge. Keep in mind how short of a time it took us to go from wonderment over that "new" thing called a fax machine to "How did we ever live without it?" We're in that transition period for cellphone applications now.
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