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