Next-Gen Mobile Marketing Ecosystem Date:   Friday , August 31, 2012 Bangalore headquartered Happiest Minds Technologies is a next gen IT solutions and services company, enabling organizations to capture the business benefits of emerging technologies of cloud computing, social media, mobility solutions, business intelligence, analytics and unified communications. Rupa Shankar discusses how telecom operators can use the Multi-Channel App Framework to unlock significant new revenue streams. Currently, mobile marketing makes up just a small portion of the online advertising market. Yet its potential is high— thanks to its ability to narrowly target consumers with interactive marketing offers at any time. That potential appears especially high when it is considered in the context of the development of social – local – mobile applications (popularly known as SO-LO-MO). Large telecommunications operators are already preparing to take advantage of this opportunity. Also, Advertising networks, Internet players, specialists in mobile ad technology, and systems integrators, are looking to build a strong position in this fiercely contested mobile marketing value chain. What differentiates the incumbents is that they have access to invaluable, targeted customer data. They can now partner with merchants and brands in innovative ways to unlock significant new revenue streams from subscriber data: 1. Offer marketers and merchants powerful insights on how to segment and target customers 2. Build large databases of qualified subscribers who have opted in to receive offers and rewards from these marketers. 3. Offer mobile payment services, allowing customers to buy advertised products through their mobile account without having to provide sensitive personal financial information. The Multi-Channel App Framework enables monetizing of subscriber Data In order to truly create a rewarding, differentiated customer experience, it is critical to fully understand the customer – her motivations, likes and dislikes, friends, influences and preferences. This sort of a holistic understanding of the customer is what brand marketers crave for. It is no revelation that telecom operators are already sitting on a gold mine of subscriber data: socio-demographics, consumption habits, geo-localization, type of mobile device, etc. Using a Multi-Channel App Framework which consists of secure social, mobile and web apps, operators can integrate a customer’s mobile account profile with her social profile data (on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, reviews such as likes, tastes, interests, hobbies, peer networks, psychographics). This aggregated customer profile is invaluable to brand marketers as it provides a keener understanding of the customer’s tastes, preferences and social influence. By leveraging this, operators can build a strong position in the overall high-margin digital value-add services space: such as providing customer insights, dashboards, social engagement through enriched content, loyalty, offers and daily deals platform to marketers. MITIGATING RISKS RELATED TO PRIVACY OF CUSTOMER DATA The use of customers' personal data requires their approval, not just for legal reasons but also to avoid offending customers who might view mobile offers, deals and content as irrelevant or intrusive. The Multi-Channel App Framework will mitigate the risk related to privacy by giving customers the control over the kind and amount of social data that is shared. WINNING IN THE NEXT GENERATION MOBILEMARKETING ECOSYSTEM When customers are presented with more meaningful offers and deals that take into account their social interests and preferences as well as their mobile usage history and location, they feel more empowered to take action resulting in greater redemption rates, more engagement and reduced churn. A "win-win-win" situation!