MMS from Three

I’ve been doing the 160 Characters industry survey on MMS just now.   I’m half way through — here’s question three: 

3. What are the main inhibitors for use of MMS for MARKETING/ENTERTAINMENT. (tick all that apply)
– Price
– Network capacity issues
– Lack of content
– Poor consumer interest
– Other (please specify)

Now this one got me thinking in particular about my experiences.  I haven’t ever received an MMS marketing message (apart from as a Three customer).  I’ve certainly ticked enough boxes on various opt-in forms to solicit MMS so I could see how companies were using them.   

As a Three customer, I regularly receive MMS marketing messages from them, normally in the form of a wicked little video and a call to action.  They are superbly produced with voice overs, funky music, the lot.  However, the most disappointing element is that once the video ends, you’re presented with a shitty screen containing a URL.  It looks horrible.  You have to screw about on the MMS menu to get your phone to lift the URL and go to it. 

Totally 100% pathetic.  It’s not good enough to excuse this by saying ‘ahh, Ewan, but these are limitations with the medium’.  It’s certainly not good enough when a network like Three supposedly controls the entire lifecycle — from network to handset.  Surely they could have insisted that at least LG and Motorola added in some sort of functionality to sort this out. 

When the MMS video finishes, it should stop on a throbbing little flash button saying ‘click to visit’ or something. 

Every time I reach the end of the video, I just look on dumbfounded at the ridiculous user experience.  It was gorgeous up until the end.