RCS Business Messaging is now available amongst all UK operators: meaning highly engaging digital marketing campaigns, and interactive AI user support, are now available out-of-the-box across the country with the highest smartphone penetration on earth.\u00a0 To celebrate this milestone development \u2013 and to consider how best the commercial opportunity can be realised \u2013 leading operators, solution providers, digital media companies, and early adopters among business met in London last month to discuss progress and plan the course ahead.<\/p>\n
In setting out the proven gains to date for participating brands, Mgage\u2019s VP for Europe Nick Millward was able to draw on some highly impressive engagement rates enjoyed by existing RCS campaigns, as compared to legacy SMS methods. However, as Nick explained, it\u2019s not only about the improvements to functionality and convenience \u2013 the eye-catching multimedia features, for instance, or the slick browsing methods, which for the first time can be accessed from a single native messaging platform on the user\u2019s device.\u00a0 The success of RCS is also about user confidence: capabilities like Verified Sender, the proof-of-identity embedded in RCS to assure users of legitimacy, are vital to building consumer trust and protecting both brands and the ecosystem as a whole.\u00a0 Nick\u2019s enthusiasm was plain to see, and it\u2019s perhaps easy to see why \u2013 Mgage\u2019s own market research has revealed that the vast majority of consumers, at 79%, are now intrigued by RCS and ready to give it a go. With Mgage offering to set up an RCS campaign for just about any brand within 8 weeks, they won\u2019t have long to wait.<\/p>\n
Senior representatives from Telefonica and Vodafone too were at hand to update us on the growing momentum behind their work in RCS.\u00a0 Telefonica have now adopted RCS across their entire carrier group, with a business case focussed in large part on upping their margins in spend on digital advertising. Telefonica is confident that RCS can increase revenues by removing the user\u2019s need for separate app downloads, or the operator\u2019s need for manned customer service centres \u2013 and that once these streamlining effects meet with the new capabilities on offer, and the RCS ecosystem starts to scale in earnest, the mobile industry\u2019s relevance in the messaging space will be assured.\u00a0 Vodafone demonstrated this bright future for the audience with the success of their click-through rates on campaigns in Italy, Germany and Spain \u2013 all are consistently outperforming similar SMS campaigns, averaging a striking 40% uplift in engagement rates.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s financial sector was there in force, as were major retail brands, and digital companies like Sky, to review live use cases and consider RCS\u2019 developing place in the UK market.\u00a0 Mobilesquared\u2019s Nick Lane was joined by speakers from Google, EE\/BT, Mgage, Mavenir and the GSMA to debate quite what that place is, and how it will come about \u2013 all agreed however on the enormous commercial potential at hand, and were full of advice for the audience on the options available to them when it comes to commercial models; what ROI they can expect; and how to approach coverage issues. Google were able to reassure the audience that the UK\u2019s Android base will grow exponentially between now and the end of the financial year, and delegates seemed buoyed by the understanding that any campaign reaching a non-RCS-compliant device will fall back to SMS.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s renewed interest among prospective participants in the RCS ecosystem following launch across the UK, and for good reason.\u00a0 Events like Mgage\u2019s help to foster that enthusiasm, and leave attendees far better informed as to what they should do with it \u2013 we\u2019re certainly glad to have taken part, and look forward to many more like it across the world in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
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RCS Business Messaging is now available amongst all UK operators: meaning highly engaging digital marketing campaigns, and interactive AI user support, are now available out-of-the-box across the country with the highest smartphone penetration on earth.\u00a0 To celebrate this milestone development \u2013 and to consider how best the commercial opportunity can be realised \u2013 leading operators, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":24812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9714,60,27,6905],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_type":[15357],"class_list":["post-24806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digest","category-latest-news","category-rcs","category-rcs-digest","algolia_discover_type-article"],"yoast_head":"\n