The Long Shadow of the Crazy Frog

Sorry if I’ve just ruined your day by reminding you of the odious amphibian.

(All together now ring ding ding ding ding.) Crazy Frog was symbolic of everything that was wrong with the premium rate mobile industry 5 or 6 years ago.

On a whim, unwary consumers would text in a code to get the ring tone or wallpaper (I know, seems unbelievable). They would then find themselves subscribed to a ‘club’ which would cost them up to £27 a month. They then spent the next few months trying to find out how to stop the deluge of premium rate texts raining onto their mobile bill.

Some recent research released by IAB and DMA revealed that the bad experiences of many consumers are having a negative impact on people’s willingness to opt in to receiving mobile marketing messages from brands. Amazingly 71% of people said that they would be wary of the costs associated with opting into an SMS alert service. This is a spectacular own goal by the mobile industry. By allowing unscrupulous premium rate SMS services in the early days, it seems that the mobile marketing industry is viewed with suspicion and not to be trusted.

On a more positive note, the research also showed that consumers are quite open to brands using the mobile channel to communicate with them more effectively.

The full research can be read on the IAB website but here are a few of the more interesting findings.

Mobile Marketing Research Findings

  • A fifth of consumers already opt in to receive mobile marketing messages from brands or Network providers.
  • 75% stated they would be happy to opt-in to such services, given the right incentive, such as attractive offers, money off vouchers or priority service from a brand.
  • 62% said that they would open a message within 5 minutes even if it was not sent from a relative or friend.
  • The research also found that opt-in consumers were 122% more likely to view SMS and MMS as a timely form of advertising communication.

Mark Brill, chair of the DMA Mobile Marketing Council, said:

“It’s hugely encouraging to see how responsive consumers can be to mobile marketing messages. However, the report also highlights the importance of both directly opting-in customers, along with the need to give them the right marketing incentives.”

If you’d like to discuss how your organisation might benefit from mobile marketing, please call us on 0117 9249207. We’d love to help you put the right strategy in place.