Nearly 50% of Millenials Want to Receive Promos on Their Mobiles

Nearly 50% of Millennials want to receive promos on their mobiles

Successful mobile marketing in the UK rests on rewards

London, UK: New research commissioned by Velti, a leader in mobile marketing
technology and services, revealed that 79% of UK consumers believe the growth of
mobile advertising is inevitable. The survey, which polled more than 1,600 UK mobile
phone users about their usage habits, showed that the majority of Britons are
starting to accept that mobile marketing and advertising will continue to increase in
popularity, but also laid down a clear message for any marketers hoping to make use
of the medium: ‘we want something in return’.

The results of the study showed that, whilst 80% of UK adults surveyed initially said
they did not wish to receive advertising on their mobile phones, 56% of all
respondents agreed that they would support mobile marketing and advertising
campaigns if it was on an opt-in basis and in exchange for incentives or rewards,
ranging from cash, free minutes or relevant special offers from brands.

"This research clearly shows that although consumers expect mobile marketing and
advertising to grow in popularity, brands using the medium to communicate with
target groups will need to offer consumers added value to be successful," comments
Alex Moukas, co-founder and CEO of Velti. "Learning how to incentivise and reward
participants is key; consumers understand their value in the chain, so campaigns
that fail to offer anything relevant or beneficial will, at best, be treated indifferently
and at worst, create negative associations with the brand."

According to the research, cash is king with 50% of respondents admitting that hard
currency is the key to securing their buy-in. Next on the consumers’ incentive wish
list were free minutes, free texts or data, with 40% of respondents citing them as an
attractive reward for receiving advertising or marketing messages. Finally, 22% of
respondents viewed location based services, such as local restaurant reviews, as a
worthy exchange for mobile marketing communications.

Despite nearly 60% of all respondents agreeing that incentivised marketing and
advertising campaigns were attractive, 55% of mobile users over 45 were
determined nothing would encourage them to engage with mobile marketing. This
was in contrast to only 29% of under 24's opposing the use of mobile as a
commercial channel.

Chris Kaskavelis, Velti’s COO and co-founder, added: "It's understandable that
financial rewards such as cash and free minutes are attractive propositions for
consumers, but the reality is that great value is also derived from timely and
relevant communications. If you receive information that fits with the context of your
personal environment, such as location based services, or community oriented
communications, it can be just as rewarding. It’s true that this can be the case with
other marketing and advertising channels, but mobile offers much more direct,
round-the–clock access to consumers than all other options. Advertising and
marketing on mobile is going to be about ‘consumer intent’ rather than the number
of screen impressions.”

Mark Fallows, Director of Digital Content, McCann Erickson, comments: "Mobile
advertising and marketing has opened up a channel for brands looking to engage
their consumers in a more contextually relevant manner. It’s exciting as it forces
agencies and clients to be very precise in the value we offer in exchange for
consumers’ interaction. The fact that consumers are becoming increasingly open to
mobile as an advertising and marketing medium is an encouraging and timely
development. This has become evident during recent mobile campaigns for our
clients’ where results generally exceed expectations.”

Velti and Ansible, Velti’s mobile marketing agency, recently completed a campaign
with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) which engaged with pregnant women by asking them
to text their due date to a shortcode. This allowed J&J to send the mothers-to-be
only the most valuable information and offers corresponding to the exact stage of
their pregnancy. The campaign also allowed mothers-to-be to join a mobile
community contributing to a support network for pregnant women in their area. The
campaign achieved great success with an impressive 94% retention rate over six
months, with the expectant mums opting back in on a monthly basis.

-ENDS-

About Velti
Velti’s market-leading mobile marketing technology platform, coupled with its
experience in the mobile advertising industry, enables clients around the world to
deliver an extensive range of highly targeted marketing campaigns. With operations
in 18 countries, and a mobile marketing joint venture with the Interpublic group, a
top global holding group of advertising agencies, Velti has the ability to reach
through its platform an estimated 1.4 billion consumers.
Velti’s unique Mobile Marketing and Advertising Platform (version 4.0) manages the
full cycle of planning, execution and monitoring of multiple campaigns across
differing mobile formats and channels, offering customers more than 70 mobile
marketing and advertising templates, which can be managed from one user
interface. For more information, visit www.velti.com.

Editorial Contacts

Beth Meszaros
Account Manager
Weber Shandwick
T: +44 (0) 207 0518
E: bmeszaros@weberhandwick.com

Joe Walton
Senior Account Executive
Weber Shandwick
T: +44 (0) 207 067 0511
E: jwalton@webershandwick.com

Nick Miles, PR Manager
Velti
T: +44 (0) 207 633 5034
E: nmiles@velti.com