We mobile marketing evangelists weren’t wrong when we said messages and media on cell phones reaches consumers absolutely anywhere, anytime.
Yes, Samsung Mobile went there with an online survey, the results of which were unveiled today, asking people about the times of day and where they are when they communicate on their mobiles. Salacious details include the following: 72 percent of respondents take cell phone calls while using the restroom; 32 percent, during church; and 10 percent, while “in the throes of passion.” Maybe those all-night adult toy shops on Hollywood Boulevard and in the West Village ought to send SMS campaigns in the wee hours, when customers would be most receptive to sales offers.
More boringly appropriately for marketing experts, the questionnaire also includes information on the professional uses of smart phones–which, thanks to the devices, expand well past business hours.
Of the survey’s respondents, 79 percent immediately respond to a work email on their phones no matter what time of day; and 89 percent say it’s important to be readily available to colleagues, supervisors, and clients at all times.
Marketers who have not optimized their websites for mobile need to do so if they hope to reach certain consumers at all. Seventy-two percent of respondents say their dependency smart phones has reduced the frequency they use computers; 40 percent feel most productive working from a smart phone outside the office rather than at a desk on their computer; and 32 percent say their smart phones are more important than their computers.
All this falls in line with a report on smart phones and prosumers, conducted by IDC on behalf of Unisys Corp, that we wrote about in June. The Samsung survey takes it further: 29 percent of respondents “say they can envision the day that office computers become obsolete, with smart phones taking their place.” And 71 percent of office workers with smart phones think companies should automatically supply the phones freely to all employees–rather than laptops.
