A few weeks ago I attended the Mobile Marketing Association Forum in London. It’s held in various cities across the world, but the London chapter heads up the EMEA market. The two day conference featured professionals not just from various industries – banking, insurance, FMCG, travel – but also from the various areas of the mobile ecosystem – brands, agencies, developers, solution providers and publishers.
Over the days and through the sessions, there were a few themes that stood out, themes that digital marketers should pay close attention to, themes that will influence and determine the success of their campaigns in the coming years.
Mobile is creating new activity – Mobile is creating and fostering activities that did not exist before. Right from citizen journalism to geo-social activity; the interaction of users within and outside their social networks is not the same anymore. The omnipresent nature of mobile has resulted in a dramatic shift in consumer behavior. Yes Social Media gave the users the power and platform to express themselves, but it is mobile which ensure the power remained in their hands when they were on the streets; for most of the tweets, photos and videos came from a mobile (or maybe a tablet) and not a laptop or a desktop.
Contributor to the Economy - Many of the marketers at the conference had ‘mobile’ in their title. A lot of these jobs didn’t exist until recently. With the world still recovering from a recession – and fears of a double dip – the digital marketing industry is one of the very few which has shown signs of growth – double digital growth – (IAB, 2011) and mobile is set to serve as an industry growth catalyst. With fill rates declining (meaning consumption is more than ads served) and this budget to time spent ratio considerably lower than other mediums; the only way is upwards.
Extension of Reach – We often think of reach as the size of an accessible audience. With growing penetration numbers and continents leapfrogging generations of technology, not only does mobile have an unparalleled reach; but it lets you increase your brand’s exposure to an existing audience. Debenhams released a set of mobile applications in the UK and has found that usage peaks at 10pm. No other platform can reach out to the user at that time with such high engagement levels. Jonathan Stephen from jetBlue believes mobile has given his airline the opportunity to connect and influence passengers offboard in ways that have not been possible before. The experience of flying now begins much before the user arrives at the airport.
Don’t do Mobile in a silo – In a guest post on the Econsultancy blog, I have discussed the importance of using mobile to extend the experience of the user. The best examples that include mobile were about using the medium as part of a larger campaign. Yes ‘Integration’ and ‘360 degree approach’ may sound like overused buzzwords but their importance must not be downplayed. The style of integration is just as important as the act of integration. Think cross platform as opposed to multi-platform –the latter is making the content available across multiple channels resulting an either/or situation when it comes to content consumption. The former actually works towards building a solution making multiple platforms work together and concurrently. Weather.com’s mobile apps provide a different set of content when the microphone on the phone detects the TV channel; content that complements and not duplicates what is on TV. Eliminate redundancy.
Only the relevant succeed – Okay that’s probably a strong statement and may imply that the ‘irrelevant’ fail, which is not true. However just like the internet, mobile marketing can perform extremely well if the message is made relevant. The weather.com mobile application works with brands to create ads that are ‘climatically’ relevant; the Dunkin Donuts Coolatta ad is shown on a hot day, or Zyrtec ads are shown for areas with high pollen activity. The same ad can be customized for different weather conditions – on a hot day an ad for an automobile will encourage going for a long drive, on a rainy day the messaging changes to exhibit the car’s traction control and other safety features. Relevance.
Compared to the other advertising mediums, Babs Rangiah of Unilever says, the internet is still in kindergarten, and mobile in its infancy. However mobile has the advantage of learning from internet advertising and not repeating the mistakes the internet industry made in its early days. And this is something Greg Stuart – current CEO of MMA and former IAB board member – is adamant on achieving.
5 Key considerations for effective Mobile Marketing
A few weeks ago I attended the Mobile Marketing Association Forum in London. It’s held in various cities across the world, but the London chapter heads up the EMEA market. The two day conference featured professionals not just from various industries – banking, insurance, FMCG, travel – but also from the various areas of the mobile ecosystem – brands, agencies, developers, solution providers and publishers.
Over the days and through the sessions, there were a few themes that stood out, themes that digital marketers should pay close attention to, themes that will influence and determine the success of their campaigns in the coming years.
Mobile is creating new activity – Mobile is creating and fostering activities that did not exist before. Right from citizen journalism to geo-social activity; the interaction of users within and outside their social networks is not the same anymore. The omnipresent nature of mobile has resulted in a dramatic shift in consumer behavior. Yes Social Media gave the users the power and platform to express themselves, but it is mobile which ensure the power remained in their hands when they were on the streets; for most of the tweets, photos and videos came from a mobile (or maybe a tablet) and not a laptop or a desktop.
Contributor to the Economy - Many of the marketers at the conference had ‘mobile’ in their title. A lot of these jobs didn’t exist until recently. With the world still recovering from a recession – and fears of a double dip – the digital marketing industry is one of the very few which has shown signs of growth – double digital growth – (IAB, 2011) and mobile is set to serve as an industry growth catalyst. With fill rates declining (meaning consumption is more than ads served) and this budget to time spent ratio considerably lower than other mediums; the only way is upwards.
Extension of Reach – We often think of reach as the size of an accessible audience. With growing penetration numbers and continents leapfrogging generations of technology, not only does mobile have an unparalleled reach; but it lets you increase your brand’s exposure to an existing audience. Debenhams released a set of mobile applications in the UK and has found that usage peaks at 10pm. No other platform can reach out to the user at that time with such high engagement levels. Jonathan Stephen from jetBlue believes mobile has given his airline the opportunity to connect and influence passengers offboard in ways that have not been possible before. The experience of flying now begins much before the user arrives at the airport.
Don’t do Mobile in a silo – In a guest post on the Econsultancy blog, I have discussed the importance of using mobile to extend the experience of the user. The best examples that include mobile were about using the medium as part of a larger campaign. Yes ‘Integration’ and ‘360 degree approach’ may sound like overused buzzwords but their importance must not be downplayed. The style of integration is just as important as the act of integration. Think cross platform as opposed to multi-platform –the latter is making the content available across multiple channels resulting an either/or situation when it comes to content consumption. The former actually works towards building a solution making multiple platforms work together and concurrently. Weather.com’s mobile apps provide a different set of content when the microphone on the phone detects the TV channel; content that complements and not duplicates what is on TV. Eliminate redundancy.
Only the relevant succeed – Okay that’s probably a strong statement and may imply that the ‘irrelevant’ fail, which is not true. However just like the internet, mobile marketing can perform extremely well if the message is made relevant. The weather.com mobile application works with brands to create ads that are ‘climatically’ relevant; the Dunkin Donuts Coolatta ad is shown on a hot day, or Zyrtec ads are shown for areas with high pollen activity. The same ad can be customized for different weather conditions – on a hot day an ad for an automobile will encourage going for a long drive, on a rainy day the messaging changes to exhibit the car’s traction control and other safety features. Relevance.
Compared to the other advertising mediums, Babs Rangiah of Unilever says, the internet is still in kindergarten, and mobile in its infancy. However mobile has the advantage of learning from internet advertising and not repeating the mistakes the internet industry made in its early days. And this is something Greg Stuart – current CEO of MMA and former IAB board member – is adamant on achieving.
-Bhavishya Kanjhan / @bhavishya