I run a UK based Print Agency and have been looking for alternative ways to generate income for the company. This is due to the current economic recession in the UK. Companies are tightening their purse strings and one of the first things they cut back on is marketing. This a bad strategy, I believe that in such economic downturns companies should promote themselves more than ever, in order to stay ahead of the competition. Companies are having less print & are looking for alternative ways to make their goods & services. Businesses now use digital
media, such as the Internet, particularly social networking, such as Twitter, & Facebook.
However, there is another medium, that is set to explode & change the way we do business for ever. This is mobile phones & other hand held devices.
This mobile technology is the new technological revolution & is set to be the biggest change in the way in which we do business since the Internet
(& before that, the invention of the Desktop PC).
It is believed that within 4 years more people will be browsing the Internet on mobile devices than on their desktop PC's.
Worldwide there are currently 5.282 Billion people who subscribe to mobile phones. It is clear after studying mobile trends for a while that this
development was something that businesses ignore at their peril. Need convincing? If so, here are more very significant facts:-
1. Twitter is now used by 13 percent of U.S. adults online, up from 8 percent in November, as more older Americans embrace the service.
Among Twitter users who own cell phones, 54 percent have used the mobile devices to access the social-media service, according to a report today by the Pew Research.
2. There are 277 million mobile Web users in China, up 43 million in six months. This amounts to 65.9 percent of total web users in China 420 million, the majority of these also access the Web via PC or laptop, but 11.7 percent of Web users exclusively use mobile to access the Web
(this works out about 49 million – or more than the number of people that live in Spain).
3. 90% of the Chinese population aged between 14 & 15 have mobile phones. Out a total population of 1.4 billion that is a potentialy huge audience .
4. The growth in mobile phone usage is growing faster than the usage of Desktop PC's ever did.
5. At the end of 2009 almost 530 million users browsed the mobile Web on their handset. This is forecast to rise to over 1 billion by 2015. IDC (December 2009) estimates there were more than 450 million mobile Internet users worldwide in 2009; this will pass the 1 billion mark by 2013.
6. It is inevitable that mobile access to the Web will overtake PC access at some point (assuming the present expansion of 3G networks and availability of Internet-ready phones continues) is that mobile phone penetration outnumbers fixed Internet users 5:2. In the developed world, only 21 percent of people have Internet access, lowest in Africa at 9.6 percent. The price of
fixed broadband in developing countries remains prohibitively expensive. (all figures from the ITU estimates, October 2010)).
I could go on, but it is obvious that mobile marketing is something that businesses must consider. Can your business afford to get left behind on this bandwagon?
Hence I have been looking into a novel way to use this technology. I eventually came up with a service called Talking Product Videos. This service takes still images & clip art of animals, caricatures, & products, & makes them talk on videos for Email, Internet pages, DVD, & more importantly, on mobile phones.
These videos are great for charities. Imagine the power for instance of a Sheltered Dogs Home using a video of a dog asking to be homed, to peoples mobile phones. They are also great for promoting Environmental issues. For example, I have a used talking Seal to promote petition to stop drilling of the Arctic, & a talking Orang Utan to promote a petition against Deforestation. Using Wireless Bluetooth technology they have also been used to send business adverts to potential clients, in shopping malls. This technology sends the mobile video adverts to anyone's mobile phones within a 100 metre radius inside the mall. In addition my videos were sent to journalists mobile phones, to attract them to a big Christian exhibition at Sandown Park in Surrey, UK .
Lastly, I have been asked to provide video ring tones for the Chinese mobile market, by 2 world leading mobile content providers, Vringo, & ZGroup Mobile. Given the fact that 90% of Chinese people aged between 14 & 50 have mobile phones, this is a huge potential.
The one advantage that mobile marketing has over print is that it has global potential. I am able to sell my Talking Product Videos in every country, not just the UK. The world is my oyster.
So please investigate mobile marketing & unlock it's potential.
A PDF detailing more facts on mobile trends, can be read, & downloaed from my web site at
this link.Talking Product Videos can be found on my web site at
this link.They are split into the following categories:-
RingtonesBusiness AdvertismentsEthicalCaricaturesGreetingsLast but not least, here's a little teaser. A mobile video sent out as part of a Promotion, featuring an invite to the recent Royal Wedding.
