The Mobile Marketing Hall of Fame, Part 1
Wanted: Successful campaigns in mobile marketing. Campaigns, that were groundbreaking. That implemented new technologies and found new ways to reach consumers. Campaigns, that are milestones in mobile marketing.
As mobile marketing is a fairly new discipline, fairly few really think or write about the exceptional campaigns that shook the advertising industry to its ground, opening up new possibilities for other creatives and marketers. In our Mobile Marketing Hall of Fame, we want to shed some light on exactly those campaigns who are worth more than a side note.
It all started with one little short message. In 1992, Neil Papworth sent the first SMS-message from his personal computer to a mobile phone. The first message that was actually sent from one phone to another appeared in 1993 (Source).
Soon, it became clear that a message of 160 characters not only revolutionized mobile communication, it also presented new possibilities for both providers and marketers. Mobile was not only used to communicate with others, but also to consume media, as more and more providers, television stations and newspapers offered ways to get the most recent news sent to your mobile. By 1998, it became clear that the phone was a multi-purpose digital device, similar to the personal computer (Source).
The commercialization of mobile phone technology began in 1997, when Vesa-Matti Paananen from the Yomi Group developed the world’s first commercial ring tone composer and download. Legend has it the he woke up one morning with a hangover, annoyed by his same old Nokia tune, so he started experimenting (Source).
Already an employee of Nokia, Paananen knew the company’s smart messaging technology by heart. His assumption: If people could send text messages to each other, the same software could be used to deliver other types of information, such as the codes of songs. His program, “Harmonium”, set the foundation of the ring tone industry, which became a multi-billion dollar endeavour – although not for Paananen, as he offered his program as freeware (Source).
With the help of “Harmonium”, Telecom operator Radiolinja offered the first commercial ring tone service in 1998. Still, Paananen could be considered as one of the fathers of the mobile content industry, therefore deserving a place in our Hall of Fame. Welcome!