3G masterclass: The Revolution Masterclass on 3G mobile campaigns

Users can still use terrestrial TV, but there's a big chance that

they're eating their dinner in front of a programme on one of a hundred
satellite channels. They might be able to watch video clips on their PC
now, but soon they'll be able to download movies and engage with an
infinite number of high-quality pieces of content in an infinite number
of places.

So, how do you get to these people? Some say through their phones.
Mobile experts think 3G will become the marketing glue between the
various media platforms, and will enable brands to reach consumers,
whatever they are doing.

"Brands face a media audience that is fragmenting," says Graeme Oxby,
marketing director at 3. "The question has become 'how do you get your
message across to the 18 to 34 age group', which is technically
aware?"

There has been a fanfare around 3G for years. Two years ago, 3 appeared,
promising big things and, now that the major networks have followed
suit, mass-market services are starting to emerge. With them, the
potential for brands is becoming clearer.

New era

Oxby believes we are entering a new mobile era.

"We are in a very different world now, with the ability to download full
video ads," he explains. "SMS marketing has been fine, but it's
obviously limited by the number of characters you have. You need to run
integrated campaigns and, while people have been quite responsive to
text messaging, it's a whole step up as a means of getting your message
across in a strongly branded way."

Consider the position of the marketplace. "Mobile is where narrowband
internet access was when broadband was emerging," says Barry Houlihan,
managing director of Mobile Interactive Group (MIG). "Very few
households had 3G handsets at first, but adoption has increased
steadily. Now, the tariffs and pricing structures are becoming simpler,
and are moving towards a monthly 'all-you-can-eat' model, rather than
one that consumers struggle to understand. This is where 3G video
services are now. As the pricing and product become clearer, people will
pay for it."

He reckons there are three-and-a-half million 3G-enabled handsets in the
UK, of which more than three million are on the 3 network and about
200,000 on Vodafone live!. Orange has just unveiled a service, Virgin
has soft-launched one, and T-Mobile is trialling its own for launch this
year.

Meanwhile, content providers are waking up to the opportunities. ITV is
preparing to launch a mobile content portal and join Channel 4, which
launched one earlier this year. The ITV service is likely to debut
before the year-end and include interactive content based on existing TV
shows, including Coronation Street, The X Factor and I'm a Celebrity, as
well as completely new content in vertical areas such as music.

Beyond TV

Channel 4 is also heading down this route and promises its strategy will
include content that has been commissioned exclusively for mobile. This
will include interactive sideline soap plots and behind-the-scenes
features.

With this content comes new advertising opportunities.

The path of possibility has yet to be carved and, at present, there are
only a few examples of marketing over 3G networks. Whether it will take
off in the form of bumper-style ads around video content, sponsorship or
on-demand content, 3G will be a way to take a brand's offering beyond
TV. Industry experts tout it as something that will be more available
than the red button, and more personal than the web.

Peter Birch, head of interactive sales at ITV, says: "We have recently
done some interesting work using mobile and SMS for the Ford Focus
launch, and we used the red button. It opened our eyes to the potential
of what ITV can do if it offers advertisers a fully integrated package
that provides everything from online to interactive TV and mobile.

"ITV is marketing all of these 'beyond-the-spot' initiatives - things
that add value to 30-second commercial TV spots and make them work
harder - to give our advertisers more successful campaigns. Anything we
can offer our advertisers beyond the spot makes perfect sense to us," he
adds.

ITV is seeking partners that will fit with its plans to offer a fully
integrated ad package, explains Birch. "If our agencies and advertisers
decide to go down the mobile route using us, we can offer them a
presence on ITV's WAP portal. We can offer bespoke five-digit shortcodes
to deliver consumers information and any production-fulfilment and
reporting in one easy bundle," he explains.

By including ad spaces around 3G content, ITV says advertisers gain the
additional value that integrated packages could be easier to plan and
track. "If we can tie it in as a fixed-rate card, something that is very
easy to plan and budget for, it seems to make sense," Birch adds.

While GPRS and WAP services have been available for some time, the
download time for a video film could be 60 to 75 seconds. Video has been
used on older handsets by the likes of Nokia, which used video to
promote the launch of its 6230 mobile.

3G is different in that it can offer broader content through interactive
services, longer video streams and better usability. This gives brands
the luxury of a deeper interactive message.

3's Oxby points out: "We've found that a lot of ads are filmed for a
video length of 60 seconds and you now have a mechanism that has been
designed to allow people to easily download 60-second films. So, you can
make your all-singing, all-dancing TV ad available for mobile."

Brands may question whether consumers will be willing to pay to watch a
TV commercial on their phone, but this is just the start of what 3G can
offer. "It is much more than just being able to download an ad," Oxby
explains. "The whole 'downloading of video experience' is about
producing something that is good to look at and enjoyable to watch. Some
ads are highly informative and provide the right information to
consumers."

Oxby says 3 rolled out its first 3G ads in April, in conjunction with
mobile marketing agency Flytxt and media-buying agency MEC Digital, for
Brit film It's all Gone Pete Tong. The network developed a site from
which users could download a 30-second trailer and get information on
the movie.

Powerful message

Within seven days, the trailer had been downloaded more than 100,000
times. "It's a particularly powerful way for that brand to get a message
across to a young target audience," he says. "It's more than simply
downloading something; it provides an extension to something that is
already out there."

For example, consumers could watch a 30-second TV ad and request a
three-minute information guide to be sent to their phone. Brands could
use a video to advertise a product and enable clickthrough to specific
areas for further details and offers.

It is currently possible to deliver up to five minutes of video content,
and Oxby claims that 3 has delivered about 10 million full-length music
videos so far. "It's powerful customer-driven downloadable content," he
points out. And this is the crunch: where SMS marketing has been used in
the past as a push-marketing method - and received bad press for
spamming customers with unsolicited information, as well as the opt-in
variety - 3G provides a mobile version of interactive TV. If customers
like what they see, they can ask for more, which boils down to providing
good customer service.

Birch emphasises this: "We are running interactive TV services here at
the moment and we want to be able to offer a level of interactivity to
all our viewers, not just those with digital satellite."

He says it's a record year for interactive advertising - 40 per cent
more than last year - and "it does fantastically well at driving
response".

He continues: "Viewers who press red and request additional information
are offered good immersion in a brand. I want anyone with a mobile to be
able to have a similar interactive experience and be able to get special
vouchers or whatever a special offer involves."

Birch believes consumers will be less inclined to interact through their
handset than TV's red button because mobile is a more personal
thing.

It is important that advertisers do not bombard people with piles of
information that they haven't requested. "If people want more
information or to interact with a brand in a number of different ways,
we should be able to offer that," he says. "There is a far higher uplift
in people's propensity to interact via the red button than mobile. But,
everyone in the country has a mobile, so you have a bigger user
base."

A number of brands are ideally placed to benefit from an association
with cutting-edge technology. Birch starts with FMCG brands and says ITV
plans to develop a mobile service that will enable brands to sell
products cost-effectively.

"You could argue, why would the likes of P&G and Unilever want to spend
50p per response when a lot of their products cost less than 50p?," says
Birch. "But we could offer them a cheap return path where mobile can act
as a way to offer money-off vouchers or free samples. It's a great way
for us to look after a large number of FMCGs when you consider that most
people in the UK have a mobile. Once they get used to the technology,
the value could be huge."

Customers will have to pay for these services, but if advertisers absorb
these costs the response rates will be even higher. "People text more
than they email. People are used to it and understand that it's a cheap
way to communicate. I don't think viewers would have a problem with it,"
adds Birch.

FMCG is just one sector looking to benefit. A car brand, for example,
could develop an interactive video portal that enables users to view a
car ad and receive a mobile, interactive 3G video experience. They could
see an interactive demo of the car and view a menu system with links to
find out more. Users could then be connected straight to a sales agent
to book a test drive.

Then there's the untested opportunity to extend a brand through
mobile-only content. Barry explains: "It could be a completely different
audio and visual experience to anything that has ever been possible
though SMS and WAP in traditional mobile marketing mechanics."

Cutting edge

It's a great playing field for those brands that were perceived as early
adopters of technology and pioneered the internet space, he adds. That
means sport, music and entertainment brands for starters. Formats such
as reality TV shows are natural springboards for brands to continue
their association with cutting-edge technology, particularly mobile.

"Live horseracing is a great opportunity for brands that want to be
associated with gambling," says Houlihan. "You have brands like
PartyPoker.com, Ladbrokes and Eurobet that could support their services
through mobile-gaming applications. The Grand National is a really
successful 3G service with really good demand," he adds. "Also, I've
come from a meeting with 3 and one of their most popular services is
dating. Consider which brands are associated with that market. You have
everything from beauty products to flowers and holidays."

An electronics company worked with 3 to allow customers to personalise
their handsets with free wallpaper. Essentially, they have a brand in
their pocket, says Oxby. "There are all sorts of things you can give
customers for free, such as ringtones. This becomes a persistent
brand-delivery experience, rather than the fleeting experience of a few
seconds on TV or the web."

The remaining restrictions are based around technology uptake and the
cost of using a 3G network. "Mobile operators are very focused on making
customers pay for data and at some point they will be challenged with
the big issue of 'bill shock'. My mobile phone bill is more expensive
than it was two years ago and I'm on a 3G network, so there's that
obstacle to overcome," points out Houlihan.

Another issue is Wi-Fi, which is becoming more available. If Wi-Fi
allowed customers to download videos for free, why would they pay to
request services on their mobile? Houlihan argues that it's a
complementary technology: "It's one that will not supersede or replace
the mobile internet experience. I think people will use both."

But, with specialist mobile agencies such as Que Pasa becoming available
to service brands, Houlihan says one thing is clear: "Brands need to
wake up to an entirely new media because never before has there been an
opportunity like it."

"The only thing we are wrestling with is awareness of the scale of the
opportunities," adds Oxby.

MASTERCLASS PANEL

Graeme Oxby is 3's marketing director, with responsibility for product
strategy, marketing, pricing and services. Oxby joined 3 in November
2001 and has worked in mobile for six 12 years. Earlier, he was VP of
global mobile business at Cable & Wireless Mobile.

Peter Birch is ITV's head of interactive sales, managing more than 20
interactive campaigns a month besides sponsored interactive applications
such as The X Factor. Birch started at LWT in 1994 in airtime sales and
helped to set up ITV Online in 1999.

Barry Houlihan is managing director of Mobile Interactive Group, which
he founded in May 2004, and manages strategic direction. At O2 for five
years, he initiated some mobile interactive partnerships for landmark
interactive events such as Big Brother.

SUNNY DELIGHT TARGETS YOUTHS WITH MOBILE MUSIC MAKER

With the aim of engaging its target audience of nine- to 15-year-olds
and their parents, Sunny Delight hired agency Lateral to build a
microsite on Sunny-d.co.uk, which would act as a hub for an events
programme and press advertising.

The main content was Flash-based music-maker Sunny DJ, which enabled
users to create a Caribbean-style ringtone via a simple drag-and-drop
interface.

Ringtones could then be downloaded to a PC or mobile, or submitted to
the Top Tunes competition. An e-card facility enabled users to invite a
friend to the site.

Users aged under 13 required parental consent to interact on the
site.

Simon Crabb, creative director of Lateral, explains: "The audience we
were trying to talk to is more mobile-savvy than web-savvy, so we had to
tie the two together. We also had to carry on the Caribbean theme that
was going on in outside events, including the Notting Hill Carnival, as
a way to revitalise the brand.

"The brand recognised a music theme works well on mobile and is
something that really appeals to this audience, so mobile was a central
part of its marketing strategy," he explains.

An MMS-based application was used for the campaign, which had to follow
strict guidelines due to the age group being targeted. Lateral spent a
lot of time checking legal guidelines to get the right message across in
a suitable way.

"We aren't using explicit marketing messages. We tried to do something
more subtle, which engaged the audience directly with the brand. It
isn't trying to say 'buy the product because it's good'. It is more
about reinforcing the brand message with a carnival theme," says
Crabb.

He thinks the crucial thing when using mobile in marketing is to
appreciate the channel and use it in a way that isn't just broadcasting
messages to people.

"It is much more effective when you involve people, so it is useful to
understand that it is very different to most other mediums.

"There is a whole general area that we need to look at regarding how
technology is evolving and look at how different demographic groups
respond to this technology," he adds.

TOP TIPS ON 3G CAMPAIGNS

1. The screen size of handsets can differ, which must be factored into
the campaign design, so all users will be able to interact with
content.

2. It is vital to build customer trust and make it easy for consumers to
opt out of receiving 3G mobile marketing content.

3. Synergy between all brand communications, including web and TV, is
essential.

What the brand promises through mobile marketing must be reflected
through all the other mediums.

4. 3G campaigns will become more prevalent, but, currently, 3G-enabled
handsets are in the minority. It's early days, so it is unlikely that
users will be able to download big files or be able to pass them to
friends. For now, make sure you've built in a low bandwidth option.

5. Ensure the campaign is compatible with all mobile phone speeds.

6. How will users be able to access content and applications if there is
no signal? Will part of it be downloadable for offline use?

7. As mobile viruses become a bigger issue, it is vital to take
precautions. A virus caused by a text will create the opposite of the
objective, turning the user off the brand.

8. Encourage users to pass the message on by allowing them to forward it
to friends for free.

9. If the campaign features paid-for content, ensure you have provisions
in place such as reverse-billing and consider the cost aspects.

10. There will always be a consumer who shows an interest and requires
more information. Make it clear how users can obtain this or communicate
with the content owner.

Thanks to William Makower, CEO of Panlogic

CHECKLIST

Questions that should be considered when thinking about using a 3G
campaign

- What are your objectives? Ensure your mobile campaign is aligned with
and supports them.

- What type of phone will your audience use? Make sure you don't limit
your campaign.

- Do the colours and content reflect your brand?

- Does your 3G campaign integrate with other channels? Your message
should be consistent across mobile, web and other initiatives.

- Can recipients opt in and out easily?

- Will the content be used as a marketing tool? If so, have you ensured
users can pass it on to other handsets to spread your message?

- Is your campaign interactive and engaging? Just like online
promotions, 3G campaigns need to be dynamic and fun if you want to get
the user's attention.

- If your 3G campaign is aimed at generating revenue, have you ensured
that you will be able to meet demand?