Calls and short message service (SMS) had earlier been the main highlights of mobile phone use ever exploited by many. Recently, there are more added services that have been introduced into the market such as MMS, internet browsing, music downloads, radio, etc. How about TV on mobile phones? Yes, it’s the fad nowadays. Yet, mobile TV is still at the top of the pyramid and majority of the mobile users still only talk about either SMS or mobile browsing.

Mobile advertising has also come up into place. As defined by Wikipedia, mobile advertising is a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones or other mobile devices. It is therefore a subset of mobile marketing. My former classmate in MBA did a thesis on mobile advertising and went on to start her own mobile ads to test the market. It didn’t go quite well at that time and the response rate was a little low. However, I still believe that the effectivity of mobile advertising also depends on the product or services you are trying to advertise or sell. But there is a new surprising trend. Estimates for the value of the mobile advertising market vary from $2billion - $13.8 billion by 2011. What is certain is that this industry is growing, and is growing faster than you think.

Mobile marketing has its special place in the market, too. It can refer to one of two categories of marketing — (1) meant to describe marketing on or with a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, and (2) meant to describe marketing in a moving fashion, for example, technology road shows or moving billboards. Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular ever since the rise of SMS in the early 2000s when businesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send off wanted or unwanted advertisements or contents. If you are one of those already settled or aspiring businesses who want to try on mobile marketing, here are some pointers to take note before you heed on — You Must: provide real value, integrate, keep it simple, begin harvesting opt-ins–yesterday, make it social, remember the 5 steps of branding, capitalize on on-time targeting, use rich media, provide instant gratification, remember the principle of random rewards. Hope these help!