Preaching to the Converted: Building Mobile Awareness

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content 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, Mark Donovan of M:Metrics, and more.
“Preaching to the converted” is a phrase I heard for the first time at a mobile marketing seminar two years ago in Las Vegas. The room was almost empty and when asked who I was speaking to at the time, it seemed the room was entirely full of mobile folks-vendors and carriers. The cast of characters who already believe and already spend their days focused on driving interest in the mobile channel.
At the Mobile Marketing Forum in Barcelona last week, the scenario was similar. The conference had brand and agency participation, but it was minimal. As Russell Buckley, managing director in Europe for AdMob, stated when kicking off the agency roundtable at the event, he posed a challenge to his panelists: “Where are all of your colleagues?” Yes, it was similar to the event in Las Vegas a few years prior, the conference in Barcelona had brand and agency participation but it was minimal. The story is different in the United States today-and brands and agencies are actively engaged but how do we change the paradigm?
Sure, at the last Mobile Marketing Forum in EMEA, 80% of the attendees were operators and technology enablers-but it starts there. It starts by getting all of the industry advocates on the same page so that we can collectively start to talk about building a sustainable industry. An industry that ultimately protects the consumer experience and helps to educate brands and agencies on how to, correctly, launch innovative campaigns to their consumers.
According to Daniel Rosen, head of AKQA Mobile, “to reach the fragmented market, brands need to create different treatments.” Brands will ultimately go where the consumers are, he tells us, and brands like Smirnoff are responding with campaigns like the Bar Finder and Pocket Bartender mobile applications. He counsels “if you take the time to develop for mobile, you will get the consumers.”
But it does not matter what we think. Consumers will tell us what they want and control the interaction. And it is important for us to get that consumer interaction right, the first time, so mobile interactions from brands are not viewed negatively. After my column last month, I was inundated with pleas from consumers not to blast advertising through the mobile device. Yes, absolutely, agreed. It is the heart and soul of the MMA to ensure a positive consumer experience and we mandate consumer ‘pull’ based models-but as evidenced by the fairly innocuous column, even hypothesizing on what could be next, elicits strong response. As an industry, we are being careful and we are treating every consumer interaction with care. That means protecting the consumer experience, the consumer environment-we are looking for sustainability.
A great example of a mobile campaign that works came to us at the conference from Per Holmkvist, CEO, Mobiento AB, a Swedish mobile marketing player, who shared the results of an innovative campaign conducted by Doctors Without Borders. The campaign involved placing small wooden coffins around Stockholm and asking for donations of ?5 EURO to have the coffin removed. For each donation made via mobile, a coffin would be removed from the city streets. The campaign generated ?60,000.
So what has held us back from broad scale mobile marketing adoption globally? The challenges so far have been:
–Mobile marketing is perceived as intrusive by brands, agencies and consumers alike. Attitudes are only just beginning to shift, globally, to what mobile can do to help the brand extend their message.
–Mobile is being treated as a subset of digital spend-and as such, is not being taken seriously.
–Mobile is often spoken about as a subset of digital spend, rather than its own media type. This may hamper initial adoption-and mobile should be treated as a media channel in its own right. Let’s start talking about mobile marketing as a percentage of total media spend.
–Mobile is not as good as other media (Results!) Due to limited metrics, there is a perception that mobile may not generate the returns that the brands are seeking from their campaigns. However, for those that have already used mobile, the (highly) positive results keep them coming back.
–Spam. Yes, there is a perception that mobile marketing can be construed as spam but as an industry, we have been proactive about putting the guidelines and best practices in place to ensure a spam free consumer experience BUT there is a need to mirror the guidelines in markets around the world. According to Tempos 21 CEO, Xavier Castillo, 54.4% of brands in Spain today use mobile. Applications include music downloads, tickets for shows and discounts. And statistics from July 2007 show that 75% of the Spanish population has received an advertisement (text based) to their mobile device (3 out of 4 of these were from their wireless service provider).
–Complicated. There is a perception that mobile is complicated. And yes, while mobile is more complicated than the Internet, the industry has worked together to remove barriers and create consistency. Guidelines and best practices only help.
–Fragmented. Yes, true but this is changing due to the leadership by players across the ecosystem.
Leadership and market development will come in the form of cross operator inventory; standard formats; metrics and proof points. Fundamental to broad scale adoption will be integrated planning tools & scale; common currencies/definitions and integration of mobile into the broader media mix. There is also an urgent need for education and evangelization-both on the agency and the client side-and ensuring that the people who are selling understand how to sell mobile and communicate the value proposition.
As Cyriac Roeding, EVP, CBS Corp. concluded, mobile is already the best social network, let’s maximize it. And from Richard Siber, Interim CMO and Board Member, Jumptap, “stimulate the end user to participate in an experience that causes something to be monetized.” Let’s do it!
What will ultimately help to make mobile a success and get more brands involved? According to the leaders who were speaking at the conference last week, the following will only help:
–Authenticity-Keeping it real. Users want real content, real access, real.
–Targeting-Being able to deliver programs relevant to the consumer whenever and wherever they are will be critical to mobile’s ongoing success and overall value.
–Seamless platform migration and access
–Recommendation engines – a la Amazon
The list goes on.
The consumer is ultimately changing. The consumer has become a digital consumer-always connected and wanting ease of life and ease of experience, delivered to them through media that they can interact with. The mobile can provide this. As Mark Kaplan, CMO & Founder for ShopText, concluded “use mobile for its purpose.” Will mobile be the channel to sell diapers and toilet paper, probably not. But “by integrating technology seamlessly with existing systems and making the information interesting and relevant to consumers, you will win” says Kaplan. Let’s stop thinking of technology first and start thinking strategic objectives and about the consumer experience.
The “time is now, mobile is here, the time is right for us all to make money. Use it, but don’t abuse it,” said Kerstin Trikalitis, managing director, WIN SA. And, based on the campaigns that she showed us from Germanos and Vodafone, mobile marketing is alive and well in Greece and they have been able to effectively engage the consumer.
And finally, as Sixto Arias, co-founder and managing director, MC Mobi & MMA Spain chairman said “something needs to happen urgently” to grow mobile adoption. “Sixto for President!”
You may contact Laura directly at laura.marriott@mmaglobal.com. You may contact RCR Wireless News at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.