Mobile marketing company, Multimedia Solutions, has unveiled its mobile campaigning platform, integrating SMS, MMS and Mobi, allowing companies to run mobile campaigns from a single interface.
Riaan Groenewald, Multimedia Solutions operations director, says the platform can be used by companies in external and internal marketing campaigns to communicate with employees, partners and customers.
"What's important about the platform is that it can be customised for clients to use whatever mobile technology best suits their needs and provides detailed reporting of the campaign. The company has complete control over the creation of the campaign, its implementation and the analysis of the success of a campaign," he says.
Groenewald says the platform assists companies in defining how regularly they communicate with their base. "This is imperative, given the sheer volume of SMS marketing and mobile content being pushed to users by Wireless Application Service Providers (Wasps)."
According to him, companies need to realise that there has been a flood of communication with the market. They need to be sensitive in how they communicate with their base and the frequency of communication. This has resulted in Mobile Solutions building campaign rules into its platform.
Campaign rules
He says the campaign rules define the days on which communication occurs, at what time messages can be sent and how often the company communicates with a client.
"Companies need to understand that given the immediacy of the cellphone, the frequency with which they communicate with people needs to be different in relation to other forms of communication," Groenewald says. "For example, a TV advert may run three times a week for several weeks until it penetrates the market. However, an MMS reaches over 90% of the base within 48 hours. Companies therefore need to ensure they do not communicate too often with their base."
He says users who unsubscribe to one of the messages, cannot be messaged again. "This is built into the platform and cannot be changed, ensuring the user's choice is always respected."
Technology explained
On the MMS side, cellphone numbers are first verified with the cellular networks to determine which numbers are registered for MMS. Campaign material can be created by the company or by Multimedia Solutions, which provides a 48-hour turnaround time, Groenewald says.
As the campaign roles out, the company receive real-time reporting, including the time of delivery of the MMS, who opened them, which numbers failed to receive the MMS and which recipients rejected the message.
Companies can also use the platform to update their mobi Web sites, ensuring they are relevant and are kept up-to-date.
As with MMS campaigns, SMS campaigns can be run and full reporting is provided as well.
Companies logon to the platform through a Web interface and the platform has multiple levels of access, enabling various users within the company to initiate campaigns. However, only the administrator is able to change the campaign rules, ensuring the users are not bombarded with multiple messages, Groenewald concludes.
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