Mele’s Musings

Making Mobile Work

For many years, marketers have struggled with what to do with mobile.  Because mobile phones are so pervasive, so personal, and always with us, they seem like the holy grail of marketing.  But why has it taken mobile so long to take off?

The latest research from Universal McCann and AOL helps, I think, make it clear about what we have been missing when it comes to mobile advertising.

The problem is not lack of opportunities.  The opportunity has always been there.  The problem is the way that marketers have approached mobile.  The problem is that mobile is not simply an “ad space.”

Advertisers are comfortable with “ad space.”  Ads are easy to buy and understand.  You send out a brief, see a creative concept, argue about the copy and the size of the logo, buy the media, and watch it run.  And that’s as far as it usually goes.

Link to photo

The problem is that mobile ads have some limitations: the form factor is small, the audience for mobile surfing has been limited until very recently, and the connection to something meaningful to measure has been hard to find.  But the ad space itself is not the problem.  The problem is that for too long we have thought of advertising as being simply about the ad.  What the mobile space has taught us better than any other digital medium is that ads are simply the starting point - the invitation - to something bigger.  But the great promise of digital, and of mobile, is more than simply running ads.

The iPhone is certainly all the rage, and it should be.  I love mine, and am borderline obsessed with it.  What the iPhone has taught us better than any other device, however, is that we need to start thinking beyond ads, and start thinking about the experience.

First, mobile ad campaigns are not a bad idea, it’s just that doing them well requires extra effort.  To make them work, we need to start thinking about where we send users when we create mobile ad campaigns.  We can’t just run ads - we have to send people somewhere.  Creating good landing experiences on mobile campaigns is a must, and usually is a miss.

Second, we need to start thinking about where and how users are using phones in relation to other media.  Phones are always with us - when we are watching TV, when we are reading the newspaper or magazines, etc.  Rather than being a medium that exists separately from others, mobile has the most potential to be connected to our other media experiences.  We need to start thinking about putting mobile codes in our ads and newspaper inserts, and then creating mobile experiences to drive people to when they are looking for mre information. 77% of respondents in the UM / AOL study “said they use TV and mobile at the same time to enhance the overall media-consumption experience.” What a huge opportunity for us - to use mobile as a way to deepen the engagement with users after they watch our TV ads or view some other content.  But if we are only thinking of ads, we miss that opportunity.

Third, we need to consider the activities of users when they are out of the home.  Mobile is the one media with us constantly while we shop, while we are driving, etc.  We can create powerful and useful apps consumers can use while shopping - so they can share products with others to get their opinions, save what they have been researching, or gather more information while they shop.  We can do similar things with mobile codes in stores attached to products and services.  And mobile search is a huge opportunity for marketers to be relevant and discoverable when consumers need them most - when they are in their cars or on the road.  Not only can we make it easy for them to find us or contact us, we can make the trip even more worth their while by providing more information (menus, in-stock information, etc) or promotions.

Finally, I believe that texting has been the great lost opportunity for most marketers,and the big miss over the past few years in particular.  Smartphone penetration is still relatively small - about 19% in the US according to Palm, closer to 12% according to M:Metrics - and although it will continue to grow, texting is still the killer mobile app.  According to CTIA, the 270 million US wireless subscribers in the US sent over 1 trillion texts in 2008.  And the numbers just continue to get bigger.  Because texting programs are not just ad programs, however, they usually never get off the ground beyond campaign based sweepstakes-type programs.

There is a huge opportunity with texting to create meaningful and powerful programs for customers.  The challenge is that it takes some effort to do it right.  It requires things like database management, content management and copywriting in order to create the messages to send to consumers, coordination in the organization to make sure there is something meaningful to send to consumers, etc.  But, if we can create valuable texting programs for our customers, they are a tremendous way for us to keep in constant connection with them and grow our relationships with them.

The key, again, is that we have to think beyond just ads when we think mobile.  We have to think about the total user experience.  Once we do, we can really unlock the potential of mobile.

Tweet This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post