Laura Lane

One of the areas that I know I am weak in is mobile marketing. It probably has to do with personal preference – I don’t like to be that connected. I don’t own a Blackberry (or Crackberry, as I affectionately call my husband’s PDA, since the only time I have found I can get him away from it is on an 8.5 mile run). Moreover, I have been a relatively recent adopter of text messaging, which means I am VERY slow at text messaging. It takes me forever to text a message to my friends asking, “What time for dinner?” It is hysterical to me when their messages that are three times longer come flying back to me in 30 seconds – “7:30pm. We’ll meet you at your house and then drive to the restaurant. How does that sound?”

I just read about how 13 year old Morgan Pozgar won LG’s National Texting Championship after texting “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in 15 seconds. This top texter story makes me think about the future generation of texting people. The winner – she was only 13. 15 seconds for that whole word! Now that’s amazing! What is more is that she says she sends 8000 text messages a month. This brings me back to mobile marketing. I think this generation is the now and future target of mobile marketing. They are so connected, and they have grown up knowing nothing else. I think mobile marketing messages might be something that they might embrace, as long as they are done correctly.

I read a lot of blogs/newsletters/websites that I come across. It’s a great way to expand your knowledge and skill set quickly and easily. Recently I came across a fantastic case study about Nike’s mobile marketing efforts. They created a mobile-based scavenger hunt in New York City to promote the release of a limited edition shoe:

http://mmaglobal.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=33

It really speaks to knowing who your audience is, having a REASON to use mobile marketing as opposed to other methods of marketing (i.e., billboard, email, print, online), and creating buzz (another marketing trend that I love to study). (And it doesn’t hurt that I think urban scavenger hunts are a pretty fun idea, too.)

For now, I think I’ll stick to SEO and internet marketing – it’s what I’m good at and passionate about, but I’ll never stop reading about the great people out there doing mobile marketing and word-of-mouth marketing. Pushing the envelope is what keeps us all on our toes and at the top of our games. It’s what makes the marketing and advertising industry so phenomenally exciting.