Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS): Enriching Simple SMS

Popularly known as MMS, multimedia messaging service was introduced way back in 2002 with Sony Ericsson T68i, widely believed to be the first MMS-capable cell phone.

It has come a long way since then — from being a new entrant in the mobile messaging industry to a widely accepted and utilized medium of communication and marketing for individuals and enterprises respectively.

While SMS messages drive a high open and response rate from recipients, MMS takes this to a new level with images, videos, and GIFs. MMS messages deliver a 15 percent higher click-through rate than SMS, and MMS content is four-times more likely to be shared on social media platforms. Customers are more likely to respond to an offer or coupon if received via MMS.

SMS is best suited for a short, concise message. However, MMS offers more options and variety, with a striking image or a catchy video to really grab customer interest toward a brand and the associated multimedia message.

• 67% of users feel images are important for buying decisions
• 63% of users value images over product details
• 78% of customers prefer images of products.

MMS 365: Deliver Rich Content to the Right Audience

MMS 365 helps enterprises deliver rich message content in the form of MMS to their customers. The product provides stable and high-performance MM7 infrastructure, which supports transmission of MMS messages from the value-added service provider (VASP), routed through the intermediate mobile operators, and ultimately delivered at the customer’s mobile handset.

Use cases that can be adopted with MMS 365 include:

• Launch of new products or services: Provide beautiful images and videos of new products.
• Sales promotions: Send attractive sale events invitations to a target audience.
• Tickets: Provide a safe way to store tickets to events such as movies, plays, shows, amusement parks, and more, rather than carrying them physically.
• Discount coupons: Send a GIF message to customers with details of the upcoming sale season and embed a coupon along with the message.

A typical MMS 365 message flow looks like the one shown below:

• MMS 365 leverages the standard MM7 APIs
• These APIs work as a link between the customer (VASP) and the end subscriber
• MMS 365 provides the mobile termination delivery as well as acknowledgements for submitted messages.

Salient features of MMS 365 that enterprises can leverage include:

• Ability to handle message volume up to 5 million messages per day
• Message attachment size up to 5 MB
• Among the highest in message throughput, 450 msg/sec.
• Support a variety of media file types, such as video, audio etc.
• Established in the U.S. market and expanding to Asia-Pacific region.

This well-established service offering from Digital Interconnect has been able to support campaigns of enterprises during peak traffic seasons such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Year on a consistent basis. The estimated traffic volume has always been exceeded manyfold without the occurrence of message failure from customers.

The idea is to help enterprises give better service and timely information and offers to customers, thereby increasing the message quality and volume, which in turn converts into monetary benefits for the enterprises. The more customers engage and experience excellent-quality MMS messages, the more they are inclined to make purchases or use the services being offered through these messages.