TheThird Screen - Marketing to Customers in World Gone Mobile

Commentary on, “The Third Screen – Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile” by Chuck Martin @chuckmartin1

Read a recent article on the author’s predictions for 2012 here: The Third Screen: Mobile in 2012

These are my own comments and have not been reviewed, directed or approved by the author. I have not been compensated in any way for this post. Feel free to purchase the book or check it out from your local library as I did.

Intro

In advertising, the medium is the message. Effective advertising and marketing campaigns will leverage the strengths of the medium while unsuccessful campaigns will repurpose mass market creative across all mediums without using leveraging the strengths of the medium to sell. This is a theme promoted by the Mobile Marketing Association (@mmaglobal) and championed by Greg Stuart (@gregstuart) in pushing forward the standardization of mobile advertising in order to develop scale for brands and effectively monetize the platform.   

The main focus of this book is for marketers to understand the difference between marketing digitally and marketing via mobile.

Mobile is personal. In the digital web space marketing and advertising is founded in consumer and user data. These campaigns are about pushing advertiser messages to the right people at the right time or as many times as they can.  Mobile is about:

1. Where the user is and what they tell the marketer what they are doing

2. Users who are asking for the advertiser and marketer to contact them

Mobile is Personal

Unlike a computer, smart phones are personal devices that are not shared with others and many times people choose their smart phone as a part of a fashion or lifestyle statement. Just look at what having the newest iPhone says about someone and why people line up outside of a store the night before to get it.

People use their devices when they want to with less variation as to time. Quickly check weather and news in the morning, respond to email and search for a place to eat or get directions to your next meeting during the day, and text a vote while watching a TV show in the evening.

Smart phone users also share where they are at and what they are doing via social media when they choose to. In computer web space, companies track where the user is while the mobile web user tells people where they are. This usage pattern turns targeting upside down.

The good news is that mobile users share the information about themselves that they want to share giving the smart marketer the ability to better target the right ad and offer at the right time. Restaurants can dramatically improve their advertising response rates when they send a coupon or offer to a potential customer who is searching for a place to eat in that exact neighborhood. A store can deliver a message to a user who is “checking in” to a location within their same mall.

The same goes for “push” messaging strategies. Since SMS (text) and MMS (multi media) messages require an initial opt-in or registration from the user, every marketing message sent is to a self identified interested consumer.

The Medium is the Message

Display and banner ads only work (or leverage the platform effectively) in mobile apps that are directly related to the audience that the marketer is trying to reach. Targeting needs to be done on the basis of the content and not the eyeballs. For example, I play fantasy football using CBS Sports.com and access information and my league via my smart phone, via the web site, I watch their daily video show on their web site and watch their pre game show on the CBSSportsNetwork on TV. Everywhere I go I see ads for Subway.  Not having any idea on how this advertising deal was sold, I see it as a sale to a psychographic and less as a deal sold on audience. I have played fantasy sports with my dad and uncle in their 70s as well as with girl cousins in their teens and friends of all ages, locations, interests and income ranges in between. A bell curve exists as to the demographics of the average fantasy sports player but I will argue that Subway is reaching a more diverse audience than what they would be able to find through today’s ad networks, DSPs, and SSPs that are gaining increased presence in the digital advertising world.

The big advertisers and their large campaigns need scale. Since the mobile world is very fragmented and even the most popular mobile web sites and apps have not reach that critical mass, the most successful networks will pull together users of pooled psychographics as opposed to demographics. Ad buys will be made across a grouping of car/financial/gaming sites and apps as opposed to (for example) males aged 36 – 48 with household incomes over 100k and had visited a car related site within the past 30 days.

Location Based Services

Location based services such as Foursquare will generate effective ROI not by delivering ads to who but delivering ads to where. They are also able to tie together usage patterns or “in motion research”. For example a location based service can identify statistics that people who checked in to a gym had a significantly higher chance of checking in to a place to eat within 2 hours, a savvy marketer would deliver a special offer to people checking into gyms within a defined distance radius. Why would people check in to their gym? Because they get special deals from their local restaurants every time that they do!

Wrap Up

This book has many stats on the number of people using mobile, its history and the growth trajectory. It also talks about the power of smart phones and defines apps and mobile web pages as well as why and when a marketer would want to use each. It also describes many different companies in the mobile space and where they are finding success. It is much more in depth and complete than this post. For the marketer who needs (not wants) to learn how to market via mobile platforms I suggest reading this book and then trying something. Mobile marketing is a new world and an open frontier where trial and error is king and risk takers are rewarded.

The Skate Punks of Digital Advertising

The Skate Punks of Digital Advertising

Whether advertisers are placing ads in banner positions, in-stream video or via mobile, the hindrance to unlocking massive ad spend has been the lack of eyeballs that the great majority of sites provide.  The obvious response has been networks who sell eyeballs and devalue the brand value of individual properties. Technology providers have focused on targeting to maximize the efficiency of the spend. Good buy Mad Men, hello trading desks, quants and excel spreadsheets.  

The Yin to this Yang are the publisher sales pros who maximize the value of their properties by selling the big idea with custom advertising solutions. These outcast pioneers are pushing the limits of a new medium and will be known as the Tony Peraltas and the Tony Hawks as digital advertising continues to evolve, become further commercialized and brought into the mainstream living room as traditional ad sales.

I grew up in the 80s skateboarding. Skateboarders were outcasts and feared. That was the appeal. As much as I enjoyed the sport, the flow and the exhilaration of nailing a great trick, I also enjoyed being chased by the police for skating where I wasn’t supposed to. The psychographic characteristic of skateboarding defined me by saying that I rejected the mainstream and that my shaved head, Thrasher tee shirt and shredded Vans sneakers told them that I wasn’t playing by their rules.

We have all grown up – in some ways. Today, the same psychographic lives in the digital media space. There are two ways to look at it and two very distinct psychographics: The Traditional where digital is an extension of the legacy brand; and the Digital Future where pioneers are sculpting the legacy of tomorrow.

The Traditional

Traditional thinking is that digital media is an extension of the legacy media brand such as a TV network or property, newspaper or magazine. In many ways, they are right. The large scale audiences that big dollar advertiser campaigns require are tied to the scale that these channels have always provided. What this has caused is for advertiser campaign creative to be simply repurposed and stuck on the web making digital ad sales merely order takers. They place what the advertiser gives them.

Advertisers are familiar with roadside billboards. That spawned initial display banner ads. Rich media and full-page takeovers on the web are tweaks to sponsored content and inserts within a magazine. Search and CPC campaigns are nothing more than direct mail. As we enter an where digital is encroaching on television with widespread use of video, advertisers are simply taking their 30 second TV spot and interrupting internet content with a broadcast TV ad. This “dumb” pre roll simply takes creative built for other media and distributes it to eyeballs on the web without taking advantage of the creativity that our medium provides.  

The argument that the digital side makes, or the traditional side makes for digital, is the advanced targeting and measurement data that the internet provides. This gives cover to all of the traditional media sales when they sell on a non traditional media.   

Digital Pioneers

What will drive digital media sales forward is the creative counter culture. They are the ones using the digital space as a canvas to shred new lines and paint abstract on a new canvas. They fight to do what no one else has done before for the purpose of leveraging the medium (the canvas) where the message is being delivered.

They are the guys in blue jeans and Vans (or brand name) sneakers and plaid shirts with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows who are looking at things with a fresh perspective. They are thinking of the new tricks that will push the medium forward.

One of the best parts of any skateboarding or snowboarding video or show is the part when they show the epic slams. Stomping a great trick is the end game but that rarely happens without slamming face first a couple of times trying to get it right. This is what the traditionalists fear. The counter culture embraces the slam since they know it is the only way to get to nailing the amazing trick. The counter culture prides themselves with their scars and bruises. The traditional media buyer and seller appreciate the perfect trick but would never take the risk of subjecting themselves to the slam.

I sell advertising technology. I sell technology that delivers ads that are beyond the banner. I sell advertisers and publishers the paints and brushes that give them the chance to paint beautiful abstracts that distinguishes their advertising experience from the reprints at Walmart. I work with ad sales to carve new lines, do new tricks and push the medium beyond audience analytics. I work to make advertising memorable and leverage the advantages that our new mediums provide. Myself and the clients that I work with are the counter culture.

Traditional media fears us. Digital media needs us.

Leverageing FLOW for a Life of Purpose

Leveraging FLOW for a Life of Purpose

Insights derived from the book: FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In an interview with Wired (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.09/czik.html?pg=1&topic=) magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

The book examines how people “get in the zone” or enter a constant flow of productive activity. To understand it is to create a structure and system that allows for flow in all aspects of life. This blog extends flow to a life philosophy and structure that creates an undisturbed momentum over many years and through every aspect of life. A life Flow. A life of purpose.

Passions change. Jobs and careers come and go. Relationships begin, end and change over time. Within a constant environment of change, Flow, when limited to one activity or aspect of life, is interrupted. This leads to the importance of creative a life flow that allows you to shift energy from one activity to another. Divide your life into many aspects and try to find Flow in each. It’s not possible to find Flow in all aspects of life at every time. The reason is that Flow is all consuming.

Divide life into Mind, Body and Soul. In Mind place career and intellectual challenges. Be in a constant state of learning. Body consists of an always challenging and escalating exercise program, sport and nutrition. Soul is religion and helping others. Each of these divisions bears many activities with their own Flow states.

Understanding Flow

Flow is achieved when one’s skills are matched to the challenges at hand, in a goal directed, rule bound action system that provides clear clues as to how well one is performing. Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant or any other problems. Self consciousness disappears and the essence of time becomes distorted. An activity produces such experiences is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake with little concern for what they will get out of it even when it is difficult or dangerous. Flow activities also include the ability to direct ones actions toward the activity without distractions and the ability to control the outcome.

This microcosmic definition of Flow requires application in a macrocosmic way. Find Flow in both bursts of energy at work and career accomplishments over time. How many meetings set? How many new accounts? Revenue growth? Define your career standing and recognize what you need to succeed here and how to prepare for the next challenge. These Flow activities are produce results over the long term.

Purpose Turns Activity Into Flow

One may not find Flow in every trip to the gym but when regularly challenging oneself, measuring progress and generating results, one can find Flow. This is the importance of goal setting. The challenge of a marathon, the quest to be the best in a sport or career and community recognition turns mundane tasks into Flow activities.

Purpose is important and the right goals are even more important. In a career dollars are only numbers on a paycheck and have little long-term motivational value. The same is true for weight when applied to a healthy lifestyle. Dollars and weight are by products of results from a greater purpose. This purpose must come from an inner desire and can’t be placed on an individual by others. Find yourself and find your purpose. This is the only way to the Autotelic Self.

The Autotelic Self

The “autotelic self” is one that easily translates potential threats into challenges, and therefore maintains its inner harmony. A person who is never bored, seldom anxious, involved in what goes on, and in flow most of the time may be said to have an autotelic self. The term literally means “ a self that has self contained goals,” and it reflects the idea that such an individual has relatively few goals that do not originate from within the self. For most people, goals are shaped directly by biological needs and social conventions, and therefore their origin is outside the self. For an autotelic person, the primary goals emerge from experience evaluated in consciousness, and therefore from the self proper.

To support Flow throughout all aspects of life, follow a simple life structure: Mission, Vision, Strategy, Tactics.

For Example:

My life’s Mission is to be the best person that I can be and to get the most out of life while I am here.

Vision is what I see myself becoming in each aspect of my life.

Strategy is the path or direction that gets me there.

Tactics are the day-to-day activities that enable me to succeed at each station along the path.  

Each life bucket has its own Vision, Strategy and Tactics all with unique, achievable, challenging goals and measurement systems.

The Autotelic Self is summarized in four points:

1) Setting goals - Have a clearly defined and achievable goal. Select a goal related to your challenges. Once goals and challenges are defined, practice actions and develop skills necessary to achieve each goal. 

2) Becoming immersed in the activity - Balance opportunities for action with existing skills and skills that can be developed. Activities that are too difficult or too easy reduce the chances of Flow since frustration sets in when progress is not seen in activities that are too difficult and complacency sets in for activities that are too easy. Involvement is greatly facilitated by the ability to concentrate.

3) Paying attention to what is happening - Concentration leads to involvement, which can only be maintained by constant inputs of attention. To stay involved in a complex system one must focus on the task at hand.

4) Learning to enjoy the immediate experience - The outcome of having an autotelic self - of learning to set goals, to develop skills, to be sensitive to feedback, to focus and be involved - is that one can enjoy life even when the environment is brutish and nasty. Being in control of the mind means that literally anything that happens can be a source of joy. To achieve this control requires discipline and determination.

Enjoying a Productive Life

Enjoyment commonly employs the following:

First the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks that we have a chance of completing.

Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.

Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback.

Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.

Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions.

Seventh, concern for the self disappears; yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.

Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours.

The combination of all of these elements causes a sense of enjoyment that is so rewarding people feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it.

Cheating Chaos

It is easier to achieve Flow while living in a vacuum with control over every aspect life. Most times that simply is not the case. Headwinds and obstacles always exist. Some challenges are easy to overcome and ignore while others simply are not. Learn to control and master the controllable and recognize the importance of letting go of situations that we can’t. Apply common sense. Know the difference between an excuse for something not getting done and a real reason. Many people have achieved extraordinary things in environments far worse than you or I will ever experience. The difference is willpower and control over the mind. The ability to block out adversity and focus is a skill that may come more easily to some than to others but it is a skill that can be exercised and strengthened. Practice it. Build it. Strengthen it within yourself.

Dreams will go unrealized. Some goals will not be achieved. Passions will fade. This is why applying the principles of Flow to many aspects of your life and taking a long-term view is critically important. Having a diversified and balanced foundation of activities almost ensures that as one part of your life is not going as planned, you can find Flow in another. Positive momentum breeds positive momentum. Always have momentum in some aspect of your life on which you can find strength and recover from setbacks in other aspects.