But while mobile marketing has been around for over five years now, the sector has been slow to evolve—primarily because the technology itself is just finally catching up and exposing new opportunities.

One technology factor that has a significant impact on the evolution of mobile marketing is screen size.

SMS = Small Screen
For example, it is the small display size of mobile phones that has driven the popularity of SMS (Short Message Service) and text messaging among marketers in recent years. Since teenagers and young adults tend to be the ones carrying the majority of cell phones and are the primary adopters of text-messaging technologies, it makes sense that mobile marketing is primarily geared toward the 15-25 year old crowd.

The TV show American Idol popularized text messaging as an advertising and revenue vehicle through the use of shortcode voting over the Cingular wireless service. Now texting-in votes is par for course for reality shows, as evidenced by Big Brother and Rock Star: INXS.

Shortcodes form the core of most mobile marketing campaigns, offering consumers the chance to interact with television, radio, online and print advertising by using their mobile handset. For example, a user might see a Nike billboard that advertises a shortcode they can type into their phone to receive more information about a particular shoe or perhaps enter a contest.

MMS = Larger Screen
And now, with MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)-capable devices gaining ground on SMS, the ability to send messages with sounds, images and video is becoming a reality. MMS technology assumes one thing in particular: you are viewing the richer message formats on a larger screen than earlier tiny cell phone screens.

Also, consumers are increasingly interested in converged devices that will eliminate the need to carry multiple units. Witness the debut of the new iTunes/Motorola ROKR, which combines a mobile phone and iPod, and the plethora of smartphones (in a wide variety of shapes and sizes) now available. These devices offer capabilities typically associated with desktop PCs than mobile phones.

The evolution of these devices is dependent on one key thing — accessing richer data requires a richer display. It’s a trend that will continue to change the face of mobile marketing.

SMS Not All Business
While you may see teenagers texting friends on mobile phones, it's unlikely you'll find a business professional using a mobile device in the same manner. Instead of ringtones, instant messaging and MP3 files, you are more likely to find e-mail, calendars, contact information, news, weather and business documents—all applications that benefit from the availability of a larger screen.

As a result, the mobile devices used by these two groups tend to be quite different. Cell phone purchases might be popular with younger audiences, but it's the affluent, well-educated business professional that is driving smartphone and cellular-wireless handheld sales ever upward.

Jupiter Research (owned by the same company as this Website) reports that smartphones will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent through 2009, accounting for 9.3 percent of handsets sold in 2009—up from 3.7 percent in 2004. In 2005, worldwide PDA shipments are predicted to grow 22 percent to 15.2 million, according to Gartner. Additionally, the primary users of PDAs and smartphones tend to be male, between the ages of 24 and 54, with annual incomes that top $75k.

These are important statistics for marketers looking beyond the youth audience.

Target Buying Power, Influence
By targeting smartphones, PDAs and cellular-wireless handhelds marketers gain distinct advantages by reaching those with buying power and influence with the ability to deliver a richer user experience. Unlike teens and college students who are more interested in text messages and ringtones, business professionals are more likely to research their next car purchase while sitting on the subway, for example.

A busy mom may use her smartphone to keep track of recipes and grocery lists. Doctors might rely on their PDAs to access key medical publications or the latest clinical trial information. An advertisement for the new Cadillac STS performance sedan would have greater influence on this demographic than on a 16 year-old who works at the local mall.

Delivering a rich user experience is key when you are accessing vital news and applications and this makes screen size a big differentiator. Rather than relying on text-messaging that is more conducive to the small cell phone screen, marketers can take advantage of rich, interactive media on mobile Internet services (for example) that use larger PDA and smartphone screens.

Content delivery platforms that deliver both text and graphics for smartphones and PDAs can be leveraged for a broad range of marketing programs, from simple banner advertisements to in-depth mobile product brochures or even a full-blown extension of the marketer's website.

In many cases they also offer extensive tracking and reporting of success metrics. Some services even offer specialized targeting. In contrast, SMS or instant messaging deliver a text message similar to an e-mail, though limited to a few dozen words. And like e-mail marketing, although it can reach large audiences relatively inexpensively, SMS does not engage consumers at a personal level and can only track responses, not views.

ROI
Major brands like BMW, Cadillac, Continental, Expedia, the History Channel, IBM, Microsoft, Panasonic and United Airlines are recognizing the power of marketing to the affluent, trend-setting audience of tech-savvy smartphone and PDA users. What they are finding is that the return on investment (ROI) is much higher than traditional online advertising.

Why? Because users viewers of material on a smartphone or PDA tend to be a captive, receptive audience who are accessing their devices while on the go—on a plane, on the subway, standing in line at the bank, etc. The devices also offer an uncluttered environment to experience content, eliminating the typical multi-tasking that takes place on laptops and desktops, which makes the audience more receptive to advertising messages. And finally, a larger screen enables a richer experience for the user, which means that the amount of time spent interacting with advertising is significantly higher than traditional advertising.

Texting and SMS, while currently a hot marketing vehicle, is limited to short, brief messages and primarily a youth demographic. In contrast, content deliver platforms for smartphone and PDA users should increasingly provide companies with an extremely effective, flexible and cost-conscious way of reaching a highly desirable demographic of affluent, tech-savvy business professionals.

For companies that want to reach the highly elusive, trendsetting business professional, it's time to begin paying attention to non-traditional methods of rich mobile marketing and leave SMS to the kids.

About the Author
As senior director of AvantGo at iAnywhere (a Sybase subsidiary), Neil Versen works with advertisers and content providers to deliver mobile marketing strategies through the mobile Internet service. Prior to joining AvantGo, Neil was executive vice president at AdSmart Corporation. Before that, he held the positions of associate publisher and vice president of sales and marketing at IDG. Versen is currently a member of the Mobile Marketing Association Global Board of Directors.