Part 1: The Past
I can still remember the first iPhone commercial that ever aired. It stuck with me in a way that few commercials ever have, or ever will. For those of you that don’t remember it, I happened to stumble across it here:
At the time, Apple knew something that very few other companies, and even fewer consumers knew. The world was about to change. “Mobile” was about the take on a new meaning.
For marketers, cell phones have long represented a growing opportunity. As more and more consumers had access to a phone outside of the house, telemarketing efforts increased. With the advent of SMS came text message marketing. As soon as people started to connect their email accounts to their phones so they could stay on top of email from anywhere, marketers realized that any promotional emails they sent out might be viewed on a mobile device.
To be perfectly honest, the idea of mobile marketing is nothing new. Many companies have found tremendous successes in taking advantage of cell phone usage as a part of their overall marketing efforts.
But that was yesterday. In the years since the first Blackberry was introduced, phones have continued to take on more and more of the look and functionality of computers. Today, our phones can do anything. And because our phones can do anything, marketers are out there trying to take advantage of every angle.
In parts 2 and 3 of this series I will discuss some of the ways that companies can, are, and should be taking advantage of the huge opportunity that “mobile” presents.