Sensis vs. Google: Mobile Marketing Smackdown - Round 1. SMS services
Posted by alex
Alright, something that has been gagging to be written up. In Australia, there is only one serious contender to Google, and it’s not Yahoo! or the MSN partner (NineMSN). Google’s biggest challenge will come from Sensis. I’m not saying Yahoo! and NineMSN are a spent force - far from it. But as yet, they haven’t invested (or acquired) a range of assets and services that Google and Sensis appear to be heading for a showdown over.
Let’s look at our contestants!
Google. What have they got? The biggest search engine business in Oz with a whopping 72%+ of Search Engine market share according to October 2007 stats from Hitwise. Google have their on spin on it, but I see their business as having three parts: information reference services (inc. search engine, directory and mapping related services), software services (inc. Gmail, Google Docs etc) and development tools (inc. Google APIs, Google Analytics etc). Most of this they are taking into the mobile space.
Sensis. Who are they? Backed by Australia’s largest telecommunications provider, Telstra, Sensis own a suite of online and offline directory services including: Yellow Pages, White Pages, Whereis and CitySearch and a mixed bag of online businesses including Trading Post, GoStay and others. Their search business under their Sensis banner doesn’t rate a mention next to the majors. Again, most of this they are taking into the mobile space.
The question is, who will prevail between the incumbent telco / directory driven giant and the search engine behemoth that knows no bounds? So here goes. Gloves off! This will be the first round. We want a cleanly built customer focused fight. May the best ROI win.
Round 1 of the “Sensis vs. Google: Mobile Marketing Smackdown” - SMS services.
*ding ding*
Sensis. The Sensis SMS Service offering started in late 2005 with the launch of 191SMS. This simple service is driven at the backend by Sensis’ powerful directory listings responding to an SMS. The customer sends an SMS to a dedicated number: 191767 (191SMS). For example: send a text message “b officeworks sydney” to 191767 to receive business listings for Officeworks in Sydney. The service provides directory information on business and personal listings and other non-directory services (relatively) cheaply and easily.
Pros:
- Accessible from all current mobile phones. Doesn’t require 3G or a web enabled phone (ie. a data plan).
- “One box” data entry. Input is a string of terms in a single SMS.
- Relatively cheap to the consumer.
- Free* for businesses to register with Yellow Pages online.
- Powerful localised directory listings.
- ‘Pull’ service. Non-invasive.
- Inbound responses stored in Inbox on the customers mobile phone.
Cons:
- Consumer education. As there is a “system” for using the service, this must be learned to use the service.
- Not widely marketed. I would guess at a pretty low uptake to the service (see below).
- Lack of additional/related advertising inclusion/revenue.
- Difficult to integrate into third party push marketing.
Google. What Google SMS service? Sure Google have been in the mobile space for ages, but SMS outside their home market? According to the Shanghai Daily, Google have just launched their SMS services across China.
The Google China SMS service covers stock market information, weather reports, public transport information and other functions including a translation service. Whilst the service has it’s skeptics in China, a market touting 500 million handsets, currently only 60 million+ Chinese have mobile Internet capability. Note: China only has an estimated 12% mobile Internet penetration. Therefore, an SMS based service allows greater penetration against powerful incumbent search engine competition such as Baidu. Sound familiar?
According to the Budde Report (amongst others) Australia has a mobile market of 20 million with almost 99% penetration. Looking at the ever-reliable AIMIA MCIDG Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index despite this dramatic uptake, only 30% of users have a 3G phone and less than 15% use the Internet on their phone. Australia and China have something in common: SMS is still the dominant channel for widespread mobile marketing.
The question is: how long until Google launch their SMS service globally?
In the meantime, Sensis have gone and done something really strange. This - I believe - will become a common theme. Sensis have reinvented their SMS service as a downloadable application. Firstly, downloadable mobile applications have their own issues, but this is a leap in the wrong direction. You’ve just gone from 100% of the market to 14%. And within that 14% you are now competing with an advanced range of mobile Internet services - including a risk of cannibalising other Sensis mobile services.
The Verdict.
Sensis win this round because they have a live and functional SMS service in play in Australia. However, they have just changed their business plan for 131SMS and I’m not sure how that’s going to work for them. We’ll cover mobile directory services in Round 2.
Google in the meantime have a full range of mobile marketing services in the US. Google SMS is one of a number of services they are yet to launch in Australia, but if they’ve launched them in China - in similar market conditions (strong incumbent competition, non-Internet phones in the majority) - we might see Google SMS in Australia sooner rather than later. They have an existing arsenal here that’s pretty impressive.
Stay tuned. This could be a blood fest.
A lesson in Mobile Marketing for real estate from Tasmania
Posted by alex
Here is a Mobile Marketing lesson of poetic simplicity
I was in Tasmania recently visiting family and playing friendly games of poker with the locals of Launceston. One morning I went for a walk in the countryside - as you do - listening to a couple of ad:tech podcasts on mobile marketing etc. and low and behold: mobile marketing from heaven.
[click image to enlarge]
Now we’re not talking rocket science, and it HAS been done before. But I live in Sydney, and no one here is savvy enough to keep this up or sell it as simply as this:
“SMS [3 digit property number] to 04**-***-***.”
But that’s not all. If they haven’t given you a direct enough invitation to text message them your interest and provide them with your personal mobile number, they provide not one but TWO full names and additional mobile numbers to call - just in case. That’s 3 mobile numbers (one for SMS), a land line and a website. No faff, no waffle, just multiple mobile, voice and web invitations to pull customers in.
So what? What can you do with this?
If you are selling a big ticket item, or lots of big ticket items: cars, boats, houses… and the rest, what is it worth to have the mobile number, product of interest, and time-stamp of when they were standing in front of it? Invaluable - that’s what! Don’t rely on your salesperson to be sitting there in front of them.
Depending on your demographic and target market, you could:
Push for more information: i.e. ask them a question in response to their text: “Thanks for your interest in X. For a callback in the next 30 minutes, send a blank reply. For a business hours callback reply ‘BH’. For an after hours callback reply ‘AH’. To unsubscribe reply ‘STOP’”.
Send them personalised request: “Thanks for your interest. The X is in immac. condition, one of 200 imported and has only 200k on the dial. Call Jason on 04**-***-*** and we’ll bring her to you for a test drive”.
Integrate! Invite them to visit a website: “Thanks for your interest. For more information visit: www.mymobilesite.com/X, visit us at www.mysite.com and search X or call Jason on 04**-***-*** for more information”.
Can you afford NOT to be using mobile marketing in your marketing mix?