{"id":13305,"date":"2018-03-19T17:22:08","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T17:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/futurenetworks\/?post_type=digest&p=13305"},"modified":"2019-09-10T20:21:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T19:21:51","slug":"brands-showcase-live-rcs-business-messaging-campaigns-mwc18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/digest\/brands-showcase-live-rcs-business-messaging-campaigns-mwc18\/","title":{"rendered":"Brands Showcase Live RCS Business Messaging Campaigns to Consumers at MWC 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

To download the full Messaging as a Platform seminar recording from MWC18, plus the speakers’ presentations, please click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Momentum of RCS services was very much in evidence at Mobile World Congress 2018 with a number of announcements<\/a> at the show. Over 50 networks have now launched, with a number of network interconnections in the Americas and Europe and a wave of brands launching trials of RCS Business Messaging services. The GSMA has of course played an integral role in this with the delivery of the Univeral Profile which has helped to deliver a consistent, global experience. RCS is incorporated natively into a phone\u2019s default messaging service and enables users to enjoy group chat, video, gifs, file and location sharing, amongst many other services, without needing to download an app. It is an upgrade to traditional SMS and easy to understand why operators and consumers can see its appeal.<\/p>\n

RCS Business Messaging takes this further by allowing subscribers to engage directly with multiple brands from one messaging platform to make restaurant reservations, book train tickets or make purchases without having to juggle numerous apps. It has huge potential with GSMA Intelligence estimating that the RCS Business Messaging market will be worth over $74 billion by 2021. This was the focus of the seminar, titled \u2018Messaging as a Platform: The Future of Brand Communications\u2019 at MWC 2018, with an emphasis on live demonstrations from a number of different brands, operators and mobile marketing companies. David O\u2019Byrne, RCS Project Director at the GSMA opened the session by promising to focus on \u2018showing you live demos and not just talk\u2019 and launched immediately into a demo by John Duffy, CEO of 3Cinteractive. Duffy showed how the GSMA and 3C are working with FCB to use RCS messaging to resell unused match tickets and help fans book tickets for future matches and showed the ease of use of the process which was performed entirely by messaging.<\/p>\n

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Dr.\u00a0Petja\u00a0Heimbach, Vice President of Next Generation Communication Products at Deutsche Telekom and Chair of the GSMA’s IP Communications Leadership reminded delegates that the move from SMS to RCS was akin to moving from a black and white TV to 4K colour and stressed that RCS was no longer a hypothetical service and that the \u2018the train has left the station\u2019. Heimbach also highlighted the potential of RCS with upwards of 3 billion customers worldwide who could be upgraded to it. He also highlighted the progress made with interconnect hubs that are making it easy for subscribers to use RCS across networks. Am\u00e9rica M\u00f3vil, Rogers Communications and Sprint recently announced that they had interconnected their networks across the Americas, while Deutsche Telekom, Telenor Group, Telia Company and Vodafone Group have interconnected in Europe, enabling subscribers in these regions to access advanced RCS across 22 networks in 17 countries. Oscar Gallego, Global Head of Smart Comms and Security at Vodafone picked up this theme discussing the importance of interconnection in scaling RCS as well collaboration with industry partners and that \u2018the Vodafone RCS A2P messaging platform is ready for business and you can go and do live campaigns now.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Google\u2019s Head of RCS, Amir Sarhangi covered Google\u2019s role in \u2018helping to accelerate the industry\u2019s shift to RCS and in making RCS Business Messaging a reality.\u2019 He highlighted the importance of \u2018scaling and interoperability\u2019 at every layer and that 2018 was about delivery and reach. Sprint\u2019s Doug Garland, Vice President of Innovation and Partnerships covered the history of messaging and the many successes and changes along the way. He highlighted that \u2018we need to think about engaging customers in a way we haven\u2019t before\u2019. Sean Yoo, Director of Products and Services, Samsung discussed how they are providing a complete end-to-end Messaging as a Platform solution that is entirely GSMA compliant that was compatible across all devices. Yoo highlighted that \u2018native is key to adoption.\u2019<\/p>\n

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The main focus of the event covered live demos that showcased the interactive, intuitive and richer experience that RCS offers subscribers and brands. ITV\u2019s Interactive Digital Director, Peter Mossman showed how ITV<\/a> is using RCS for its TV based competitions and viewer voting which have been running for over 25 years. SMS has been critical to their operations and generates 85% of competition revenue for the company and the upgrade to RCS will ensure that viewers have a better and more interactive experience. Travel brand, Snaptravel<\/a>, whose business is built entirely on messaging showed how RCS gave them the opportunity to provide customers with a much richer experience compared to SMS including live chat with agents. Subway discussed how RCS is \u2018the natural next step\u2019 helping to promote \u2018weekly meal deals and drive traffic to our restaurants\u2019. Amit Shah, CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com<\/a> talked about how RCS has a \u2018richness with reach\u2019 and Skyscanner demonstrated how RCS is helping consumers to search for the best travel deals available. Syte also showed how their app is helping consumers to discover similar fashion items based on uploading images using messaging.<\/p>\n

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Next Steps:<\/strong><\/p>\n