Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks look for columns from Tom Huseby of SeaPoint Ventures, Mark Desautels of CTIA and more.
Six months into 2008, it is time we did a gut check on the appetite and state of the mobile marketing industry. How many conferences do we go to where we hear the same cry: “education, engagement, growth?” Based on conference hype alone, the mobile marketing industry is hot, it’s here and, we are no longer waiting! Perhaps the most eloquent comment I heard came from an event in London in April – where a large consumer brand told us, “If you are not in mobile, you are missing a generation.”
Mobile is not about to happen, it is happening. There are great results being seen from brands all over the world – but there is a global cry for more transparency. So, for a year in reflection, what have we learned and where do we need to go?
The lessons
–Keep it simple
Rather than create complex applications which require the consumer to learn new technologies or new ways to access information, keep it simple. Use the tried and true, the mobile technologies with ubiquitous coverage – text, mobile web – and keep the consumer interaction and engagement short. And most importantly, deliver value!
–Relevance
We have heard this before but by relevance, let’s speak broadly and also include ensuring non-intrusive, engaging and interactive communications that provide value (a benefit or a reward) to ensure the consumer’s continued interaction and engagement.
–Exploit mobile behavior
Remember when consumers are accessing your services, they want value and they want it now (facilitate spontaneity). By using the mobile channels that are driving volume, you can reach the mobile consumer whenever and wherever they are.
–Focus on the mobile key messages and demographics
1. Mobile users are cash rich and time poor.
2. Lots of youth users
3. Integrate into cross media campaigns including print, television, out of home, etc.
4. Provide a mechanism to buy or gain more information (value exchange).
–Anonymity to authenticity
Mobile is changing the way consumers act with their brands through advertising. The anonymous interaction that a consumer had with their brand through other media channels is disappearing and is being replaced with the mobile, authentic interaction where demographics, purchase behavior, personal preferences, each help to create a more tailored and engaging conversation between brand and consumer. (See Relevance)
–Planning tools
Understand that mobile is an emerging media and we may lack some of the basic planning tools and information that are available in other media. However, don’t despair, the industry is working quickly to put the tools in place to help facilitate ease of buying, planning and effectiveness tracking. Mobile analytics and measurement are one of the top priorities for our industry and will have significant new areas of development for 2008. As a representative from GroupM told us, “unified currencies and approach are steps in the right direction for the mobile industry.”
–Guidelines and best practices
Stick to the industry guidelines that help to ensure consumer privacy and a positive, consistent consumer experience.
New opportunities
There are also lots of new opportunities that we should be aware of and react to. Emerging markets are fast becoming a hot bed for mobile marketing and advertising- Eastern Europe in particular. Third-generation deployment will help to drive handset churn and the development of more compelling applications making image based initiatives and campaigns more compelling for brands to engage in. And, we are seeing an increasing shifting diversity of active mobile users – on the basis of age and gender
In fact, mobile is leap frogging digital in many markets. Why? Mobile is easy and allows you to act on impulse as driven by an out of home ad or a television commercial. The time is now, get engaged! By sticking to these tried and true rules and you will achieve your own success in no time.
As one speaker from Mindshare said, the “tide is turning and people now understand what mobile can do for them.” So why aren’t you in mobile? Every one of us in the mobile ecosystem has a responsibility to engage our clients and our brands in learning and understanding what this new media channel can do for them.
“As long as a brand has a clearly understood objective for its marketing dollars, our counsel to them and their agency is that we are convinced mobile is the best medium to reach users cost effectively,” said Michael Bayle, Senior Director, Global Mobile Advertising at Yahoo.
“Mobile is not a small Internet or a small TV,” said Alexandra Deutsch, Managing Director, Out There Media GmbH. “Mobile is mobile and we need to be developing campaigns for mobile.”
Nicely said.
