Mobile: No Need to Wait
Will King, Unanimis, wonders whether it’s time to focus on the mobilisation of digital media as a whole, rather than wait for the ‘Year of Mobile’ to arrive…
It seems like we have been holding our breath for the best part of 10 years now. Quietly waiting for the ‘Year of Mobile’ to arrive and deliver on its annual promise: The belief that a sudden surge in investment will bring the mobile market to instant maturity. An unusual expectation perhaps? Indeed, the ritual passing of this broken promise allows advertisers a ready made excuse to ignore the sector once more. Maybe next year?
Clearly this idea completely misses the point. Whilst advertisers have been slow to adopt we should remember that the users we are targeting have already made their transition. Mobile, today, is a thriving digital channel for consumers and their phone is just another platform on which they consume digital content from the brands they love. The truth is that mobile is now a key part of their digital lifestyle yet advertisers are slow to mirror their journey from web to phone (and in many cases back again). For mobile to mature within the digital media market it needs only to be recognised as an important part of the wider digital picture.
As with other emerging digital channels, growth must be driven by convergence. The VoD market has grown on the transition of TV budgets towards broadcasters as they moved online, while the new wave of online music platforms have attracted spend from radio advertisers as they established themselves in the digital marketplace. In the case of mobile this trend must continue. Orange’s Exposure 2010 research identified key behavioural preferences for mobile users across Europe, with the most common expectation for users being “to replicate their web experience on their phones”. Clearly audiences want a seamless digital experience whatever screen they are using. Advertisers take heed…
Where early smartphone platforms have begun this unstoppable momentum towards convergence, the pace of mobile technology development has increasingly blurred the lines between PC, Tablet and Phone. It is at this point of convergence that media owners can make mobile platforms a necessary component of their consolidated media offering. Publishers are increasingly managing their audiences on web and mobile with most major web destinations offering app or mobile web options to their users. Newspaper and magazine distribution is evolving through tablets, social media’s mobile presence grows every day. Truly integrated and balanced advertising must replicate this user experience. Media owners must be experts on their audiences and apply their learnings cross platform as part of a strong digital portfolio. As the tech infrastructure of mobile matures towards full compatibility with the web, publisher led integration is the obvious place for advertisers to start.
Undoubtedly the truly personal relationships that mobile brings can offer standalone benefits to advertisers. Location based services and NFC offer the promise of a new kind of digital ROI for advertisers without having to enter the cloudy world of cookie based attribution models (a topic for an opinion piece all of its own!). These technologies bring the opportunity for digital campaigns to reach out into ‘real world’ commerce and demonstrate value to advertisers on a scale that e-commerce could never match. Whilst hugely successful, it is worth noting that according to Google’s VP of Commerce Stephanie Tilenius, e-commerce is still just 8% of overall retail. Imagine opening up the remaining 92% to digital marketing budgets with real ROI metrics. In the future mobile has the chance to bind new and old media together like no other platform.
As we approach this brave new world it is worth holding onto the basics. For right now, growth and success for the sector is dependant on its integration into the wider digital ecosystem. Advertisers’ budgets should reflect user behaviour and their interaction with content across platforms. Media owners that deliver content across multiple channels must deliver advertising products that do the same. Strong user research and campaign measurement will make it easy for brands to buy. As for the future? We’ve been waiting on that for a long time. Perhaps not the ‘Year of Mobile’ but instead the wider mobilisation of digital media as a whole and with it new and exciting opportunities to grow.