Mobile News

Content and personalisation

The message pushed to each member of the target list will be written according to a number of elements:

* target list characteristics–which determine how the text will be authored, e.g. loose for younger audiences, but more conservative for other target groups

* the mechanism used to determine the maximum length of the message–e.g. personalised content variable length + static text length < 160, UCS2 characters

* handset features–which may in some cases be leveraged, e.g. mobile handset stores running a push campaign for buyers of EMS-capable devices.
Generally, the small size of handset displays will force the author of the marketing campaign to place the important part of the message at the beginning of the content to avoid users having to scroll. This is shown in Figure 2.16 for two different handset types. The use of personalisation is also shown when composing the push message and depends on what information is available in the subscriber database for a given push.

Push limit

As part of the core profile attributes in the data wheel, there is a limit to the number of advertising messages that an individual will tolerate within a certain period of time–e.g. four per month, 20 per week, never on the weekend. These limits need to be amended each time a message is successfully pushed to an individual. The success of the push will be indicated by the delivery notification sent by the service centre to the SMS gateway. Failure to track the accurate number of messages that a subscriber tolerates could lead to dissatisfied consumers.

Portals

The Internet portal is an important instrument in mobile interaction management. It gives online access to a number of services that complement the various campaigns conducted over the mobile medium. One of the key services offered over portals is the ability for individuals to review the campaigns for which opt-in has been granted and the maximum frequency. An opt-out function will allow the same individual to stop the transmission of future advertising messages on a given topic.