Mobile has been used in marketing circles to measure public attitudes since its early days. The most common mobile executions were text to win contests, text voting interactions or text to screen set-ups at live events. In each case, marketers were able to gather important information about their customers. “Mobile marketing has helped companies gauge if they were creating the right kind of promotions, how popular their product is, how people use their products, what geographic locations are their most active markets and what people are thinking at events,” says Brady Murphy. “I don’t see why the same approach couldn’t be used for PR people trying to find the pulse of their audiences.”

The best use case for mobile and measuring public attitudes would be mining an existing database of customers who have opted-in to receive polling questions. Hill & Knowlton Canada’s David Jones cautions that care must be taken not to abuse the permission granted by the consumer but agrees that mobile could offer a fruitful instant snapshot of the public opinion.

The mobile web could also be used as an effective tactical touch point for polling.  Customers could easily be directed to a mobile website featuring a short series of questions of interest to the organization. The website URLs can be integrated into other communications vehicles and generate a useful sample size with appropriate distribution and targeting.

As early as 2003, CNN was using mobile as a channel to get viewer reaction to questions posed during broadcasts  and the practice has since been widely adopted by other media outlets. Nielsen Entertainment has also developed a mobile polling solution that they say “transforms even a basic mobile phone into a quantitative and qualitative data collection tool, enabling clients to reach consumers at precise moments immediately before and after being exposed to specific entertainment or advertising content. The application will also facilitate unsolicited consumer comment on programming, or content more generally.”

The Nielsen example illustrates how mobile can leverage context to gather nearly real-time information on a situation. Properly timed outbound messaging can hit subjects when they are activity engaged with the content in question. Responses can be processed almost instantaneously upon receipt giving the public relations professional a living dashboard of public attitudes. Imagine a not for profit organization that is holding a public event on an issue related to their mandate. Text message voting or a mobile website promoted at the event could allow the organization to solicit attendees opinions on the issue by having them vote on a series of related statements. That data could be processed in near real-time and speakers at the event could customize their content to address attendee concerns.  The data could also be compiled with the findings used to influence the tone and content of future communications.  The precedent for using mobile as a channel for measuring public attitudes has clearly been established.

The examples above show how text messaging and the mobile web can be used for gathering data on public attitudes and there is even more potential in mobile applications. Rising Smartphone penetration is a key tipping point as it serves as your mobile computer.  Applications offer richer experiences with better graphic and video capabilities. QWERTY keyboards allow for more detailed responses.  However, Smartphone users make up approximately 20% of the market so usage might have to see further growth before it is a truly viable polling channel.  Until that point is reached, mobile still provides a useful supplemental channel for measuring public attitudes and applying those findings to future communications programs.

Next Up:  Using mobile in crisis communications

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Mobile & The Brand

Recalling Mary Sachs’ comments that the lines between marketing and public relations are blurring, the first place where mobile can fit in with a public relations strategy is in the area of marketing communications. While traditional marketers would look to mobile as a way, ultimately, to sell product, the public relations professional can use mobile as a tactic for extending brand equity and experience.  David Jones, also of Hill & Knowlton, says, “The obvious starting point for mobile and PR is branded content, games or mobile applications that connect people to the web experience. PR is starting to play in brand extensions and direct to consumer communication is starting to become everyone’s space. Anytime you’re trying to influence public behaviour there’s an opportunity to reach them through the mobile device.”

A perfect example of this approach comes from global fitness giant Nike. Nike launched the ‘Nike Training Club‘ application for iPhone users. The application targets women and provides tools for customizing workouts, training tips and peer to peer interaction. This type of application builds positive brand associations and can create a community of advocates.Similarly, an application called ‘My Diabetes Guide‘ allows the 24 million Americans living with Diabetes to develop strategies for coping with the disease. The CEO of the firm responsible for the application says, “The amount of information on the Web about healthcare is too much to digest but mobile’s small screen is actually a plus in this case – it makes it easier to sift through the content. We are transforming into a teacher and a coach, giving advice and encouragement when people need it most.”

Both of these examples demonstrate approaches for building favourable opinions about an organization or an issue.  While these examples involve applications, mobile messaging and the mobile web provide plenty of opportunities as well. Absolute Vodka used text messaging to promote responsible alcohol consumption with its ‘Recognize the Moment‘ campaign while Barak Obama created mobile websites to promote his policies, notify supporters of upcoming events and provide the tools to engage potential voters at the grassroots level.

Using mobile to promote brand information or create a branded experience relies on the some of the same principles as more traditional PR activities: creating messaging that is relevant to your audiences, provide value to the recipient and inform with the objective of stimulating action.  Ultimately, the objective of brand communication efforts is to build community confidence in, and goodwill towards, the organization and its operations.

Next Up: Mobile for community relations

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