Mr. Carapelho founded Team Vision, a full-service marketing and technology agency in 1997. He has over 15 years of experience in the advertising and technology industries, and his company consistently ranks in the top five amongst graphic design, advertising, and web development companies in Hawaii. Additionally, he is a partner in Genergraphics®, a generational marketing company, and is a principal in Visual Element™, a mobile marketing company.

Q: Is it too soon to add Mobile technology to my marketing plan? I hear a lot of buzz about mobile, but it just seems too new and unproven.

A: Have you ever heard the phrase “Shift Happens,” or watched the thought provoking video of the same title on YouTube? If you are one of those people who are slow to adapt to change, then I highly recommend you explore both.  The world is changing rapidly … and it will not wait for you. Mobile marketing (SMS, MMS and Mobile Web for the purposes of this article) is thriving and it should definitely be considered in your company’s 2008 marketing plan.

The Web vs. Mobile Evolution.
Many people relate the current state of mobile marketing to the time when corporate web sites first started to launch in the early 90’s.  Nothing could be further from accurate. In the early 90’s, the web was a relatively new and unproven medium. Few people had Internet access, and for those who did, it was on dial-up modems which took minutes to download a basic web page. Beyond just the poor customer experience, the global infrastructure wasn’t well established at the time, and the user base was not large enough to justify company’s allocating budgets to the web.

Mobile is Thriving. 
The biggest differences between the early stages of web and the current stage of mobile are that for mobile, the technology and infrastructure are already well established, there is a pre-existing global user base estimated at over 1.8 billion mobile subscribers, and the use of mobile applications is thriving. With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, as well as similar devices that are greatly improving the ease of text messaging and mobile web use, mobile marketing is expected to continue to experience explosive growth.

The supporting data.
If you need more convincing, here are a few eye-opening facts. Research firm SNL Kagal estimates current US cell phone penetration at 84%.  SMS text subscribers are estimated at 75.5 million in the US (Source: Frost and Sullivan). 75% of younger Boomers and 68% of older Boomers have phones that support text messaging--compared to 86% and 82% of Gens Y and X, respectively (Source: Insight Express 9/07). 58% of US teens have cell phones (Source: Jupiter Research). 35.9% of US teens bought cell phones just to use text messaging (Source: IDC/SMS Survey).  Mobile advertising is projected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2006 to $13.9 billion by 2011 (eMarketer, 1/07).  For links to an extensive list of articles on mobile facts, visit  www.teamvision.com/mobile

The Mobile Advantage
Why are experts predicting a major shift toward increased expenditures in mobile marketing?

“Mobile is always on and always with you.”