MMS portal another marketing tool

Says Doug Mattheus, marketing director at Nashua Mobile: "With penetration of MMS-ready phones into the South African market increasing by the day, MMS is coming into its own as a communications medium. Most new phones support the technology, which means that companies can now reach customers with more interactive cellular content that rivals email messaging for richness."

The MMS functionality is offered through the Nashua Mobile Multi-Protocol Gateway (MPG), a commercial messaging hub that supports the transmission and reception of Cell C, MTN and Vodacom SMS messages, as well as faxes and emails.

The MPG, which is already in use, allows companies to easily communicate with customers across a range of media through a single, user-friendly interface.

Companies can manage their own MMS campaigns through the portal, or they can commission Nashua Mobile to design and execute their MMS campaigns. Reporting functionality allows companies to track the delivery rates of the MMS messages.

The MMS portal supports a range of media and file formats, allowing for the delivery of long text messages (up to 4500 characters), images, sound, video and fully timed, multiple slides. The system allows customers to easily unsubscribe from receiving communications, ensuring that companies can meet marketing best practice as well as the requirements of the ECT Act.

The MPG's technology can detect whether an MMS is activated on a client's phone and send him or her an SMS explaining how to enable MMS if his or her phone is MMS-ready. Nashua Mobile adheres to the strictest principles of permission-based marketing to protect consumers from spam and ensure that its corporate clients' brands are not compromised.

Concludes Mattheus, "MMS is suited for a range of branded communications, especially viral campaigns, and when used wisely produces outstanding response rates. It is more feature-rich than SMS, yet affordable and easy to use. We expect to see companies adopting it for more and more marketing and communication applications in the months to come."