T-Mobile USA Inc. this week will continue its innovative marketing campaign with five simultaneous music concerts across the country, all in an effort to help sell its camera phones, messaging features and other advanced services.
And it seems the campaign and others like it in the wireless industry have paid off; a new consumer survey shows 50 percent of the nation’s wireless users plan to scoop up a camera phone as their next wireless device.
“The research shows an addressable market for mobile interactive services in the U.S. and provides a clear picture of the magnitude of this opportunity,” said Seamus McAteer, a senior analyst with the Zelos Group, the research firm behind the survey. “Successful carrier strategies will tap consumers’ desires to add context to communications, to make a social statement, or to seek diversionary entertainment.”
T-Mobile’s upcoming concerts are part of the wireless industry’s attempt to drum up interest for advanced wireless services. Indeed, T-Mobile’s latest marketing effort comes on the heels of its previous contest aimed at promoting its camera phones, an event carrier executives describe as generating a “ton of traffic.”
Earlier this year T-Mobile held its See, Send, Share contest, asking camera-phone users to send in their best pictures. The winner scored a free trip with his friends with his entry of a picture of a police officer writing him a ticket while he was on the way to pay off a previous ticket.
Nick Saidiner, T-Mobile’s director of product marketing, said the See, Send, Share contest was partly an effort to move the industry beyond just the novelty of a camera phone.
“What we’ve always tried to push was that it’s not just about taking a picture, it’s about taking and sending a picture,” he said. “There’s a communication aspect, not just the novelty of it.”
T-Mobile’s upcoming All Access concert follows the carrier’s attempt to promote the actual use of camera phones, rather than just sales of the devices. This Thursday, Sept. 4, T-Mobile will host concerts in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas and Los Angeles. Ashanti, Jason Mraz, Fuel, Live and 311 will perform at the various venues. T-Mobile users will be able to win tickets to the events through text-messaging campaigns and will be encouraged to take photos during the concerts and post them on T-Mobile’s Web site. T-Mobile’s Saidiner said the promotion helps to outline the possibilities of advanced wireless services.
“We’re trying to use all these great different examples of how people are using [camera phones],” he said.
And it seems the campaigns are having an effect. T-Mobile counted 3 million picture messages crossing its network in the second quarter. However, Saidiner declined to provide further statistics, including its camera-phone sales numbers, explaining that the carrier doesn’t want to get in a one-up game with its competitors.
T-Mobile is also conducting a new campaign around its color screen Sidekick device, which is based on a design from startup Danger Inc. The carrier created an animated Johnny Chase character and is promoting the device through a variety of TV commercials.
According to the Zelos Group survey, camera phones and text messaging rank high on users’ preference lists. However, not all wireless data features clock in at the same interest level. According to the survey of 1,300 users, only 4 percent of respondents claimed to have paid for a game download.
