Mobile Europe wrote last week about Acision’s intention to change its business model to start marketing its access to operator SMS infrastructure directly to brands.
Acision’s view is that SMS is still the most ubiquitous form of messaging, and offers the most scale, certainty of delivery and interaction to brands and advertisers. Despite industry buzz around WhatsApp and Pinger and other “closed community” messaging apps, SMS still has the reach and ubqiquity that brands and advertisers need, in Acision’s view.
Brands running SMS campaigns at the moment need to deal with a middleman,
usually an aggregator or similar who has bought large volumes of SMS from the operator’s wholesale team. Acision, which has supplied many of the SMSCs that handle SMS delivery, wants to cut out that middleman, or effectively be the middleman itself.
It says to operators that it will pay them for access to their network, to the control, QoS and signalling information in the network. Then it wants to use that knowledge to sell on services to brands and agencies looking to run large scale messaging campaigns. The operator gets a share of those deals as well, Acision said. And it’s not just about SMS today, it’s also about next generation messaging tomorrow. Acision is looking to extend its business into cloud-based IP messaging, allowing delivery of messaging services similar to today’s App style services natively to the mass user base.
At the time that CEO Jorgen Nilsson told us of the opportunity, we asked how he would handle client management. Would Acision be selling directly to brands, forming a media sales unit?
Well, at MWC Acision presented jointly with mobile marketing company Soli on the enterprise messaging opportunity, and today Acision has formally announced that it has signed up with Soli, using the company as its mobile marketing channel for the delivery of “trusted” messaging services.
“This new partnership with Soli will unite the traditional telecoms community of carriers with global brands, enabling them to take advantage of the clear potential in mobile,” said Jorgen Nilsson in Acision’s press statement today. “Text messaging remains the most ubiquitous and highest revenue-generating service today and this partnership will stimulate the evolution of messaging as a whole, by guaranteeing the quick delivery and roll-out of messaging campaigns to consumers, and creating competitive advantage for all parties involved.”
Acision said that the partnership would give enterprises will have greater control and transparency over audience reach and the success of campaigns through standardisation of the delivery process and structure, increased global coverage and more sophisticated intelligence and reporting.
“Brands understand that their next billion consumers are living on their mobile phones and that they need a protected channel to engage their audience in conversation,” added Mark Kaplan, founder and CEO of Soli. “The Acision partnership will enable Soli to have that direct line to consumers, as well as enable local businesses to establish meaningful loyalty programs for the first time. Because of this partnership, mobile marketing can now deliver on its promise.”
Examples of the new service delivery models include integrated mobile couponing, SMS rewards, and promotions. Local businesses, for example, can leverage sponsor offers or create their own loyalty programs, while consumers can opt into channels and connect with the brands they love without concerns about their data being shared with unknown third parties. The platform provides an explicit opt-in/opt-out approach to campaigns from point of origination to termination, while maintaining the integrity of the consumer data.
Steven van Zanen, SVP Strategy and Marketing at Acision, said, “In the same way that Acision pioneered mobile messaging, working with Soli, we are once again at the forefront in driving the next phase of messaging to ensure its ongoing longevity and to help all players in the mobile marketing ecosystem to effectively capitalise on its enormous potential.”