Keep it simple

This column is not meant to be a rehash of all that we have heard before but rather a call to arms, a rallying of the troops. Let’s keep it simple! Let’s help encourage brand and agency participation in mobile.

I heard a great comment from Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO of Ogilvyone Worldwide, at the CMO Forum at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, who told us that marketing has moved away from the 4 Ps of Product, Price, Promotion and Place and has instead, evolved to the 4 Es including Experience, Everyplace, Exchange and Evangelism. Does this not sound exactly like what mobile can deliver? A dialogue of engagement between brand and consumer?!

So friends, what can we do?! For starters, stop speaking in jargon! Brands don’t care about SMS, EVDO, MMS or 1XRTT. They care about what their brand goals and objectives are and how mobile can solve it for them. Barraging potential clients with a litany of jargon does nothing but create a fear of the complexities of mobile. Let’s keep it simple, let’s drop the terms, drop the jargon!

Metrics! The GSMA Association, working with all operators in the UK, has launched a measurement initiative to determine what data can consistently be derived from operator networks to help metrics and reporting. A great step forward. The Mobile Marketing Association is working on consistency of ad currencies and flows so that we can deliver qualified metrics on the performance of campaigns rather than different data according to vendor or network. These are great collaborative steps to help build consistent, quality metrics and measurement for our global industry.

In an e-mail that I received from a digital marketing agency contact last week told me, “Our biggest challenge right now is figuring out what mobile marketing offerings we’re best positioned to assist our clients with. .We need to assess where our value proposition will lie in mobile.” Agencies are determining how they can expand their offer to help their clients — and where do they find the expertise. It is a conversation focused on:

a) How does mobile relate to the agency’s core competencies?
b) Does the mobile expertise exist internally or do they need to find partners who can help execute on key components of the program?
c) What are the most effective mobile channels and how do you accurately and consistently measure this success in a way that means something to the marketer?
d) How do the most effective channels for reaching the consumer differ according to the consumer and the marketer perspective?

Richard Saggers, head of mobile advertising for Vodafone Group Services and MMA EMEA chairman, tells us that for mobile to be successful for a marketer, we must ensure relevance, perceived consumer benefit, engaging interaction and most importantly, not be intrusive. Absolutely!

In the United States, aggregators have long helped marketers new to mobile get their campaigns launched quickly. I asked Nick Macilveen, director of carrier relations for Openmarket, for his list for aiding brands new to mobile. Macilveen says, “The old Internet moniker of ‘each click reduces your audience size by 50%’ may hold true in mobile. Each step that you require a user to complete represents a barrier to fully participating or converting a passer-by into a paid customer. Make those steps count by reducing hurdles and simplifying the interaction with each user.” Macilveen’s Top 12 list is as follows:

1. Start early
2. Don’t wait for your competitor to take the first step into mobile marketing
3. Begin with the end in mind
4. Integrate mobile into existing marketing programs (cross promote with traditional and/or digital media types)
5. Be creative, but keep it simple
6. Work with a mobile expert
7. Create a program with metrics built-in from day one
8. Offer value and relevance to consumer
9. Know your mobile audience (How will they will use this medium and interact with your program?)
10. Pursue one-to-one marketing, build a relationship
11. Join the Mobile Marketing Association or attend their events (visit www.mmaglobal.com)
12. Look for good examples in the market today (Most good short codes don’t spell words, rather, they are memorable numbers (i.e. Limbo Mobile’s “41414”)

Does that help to make it easier? With the end in mind, we need to encourage all those new to mobile to forget about the technologies and the terminology and start with objectives. The mobile industry is working diligently and quickly to help put the infrastructure, guidelines, controls and reporting in place quickly to help make mobile an easier proposition to get started in.

A final thought from Macilveen: “Apple owes much of its success to simplicity in their products and services. Likewise, making a mobile marketing program intuitive and near fool-proof remains critical to its success. Try out the concept or demo application on your kids and parents. If your parents require more explanation than your call to action, the program is probably too complicated. If your kids can’t figure it out, return to the drawing board.”

Let’s keep it simple.

You may contact Laura directly at [email protected]. You may contact RCR Wireless News at [email protected].