Mobile – 2012: ‘The major battleground is data’

Is mobile data joined-up and useable? Panellists at MediaTel Group’s Mobile – 2012, The Year of Reckoning? event last week were not convinced that mobile data is being used to its full potential.

Chris Gobby, head of data and insights at Everything Everywhere, said operators have access to so much data they can follow what consumers are doing, at what time of day and know what they are interested in – but the problem is using this data to deliver value to the consumer.

“We should be able to give people exactly what they want, that is the benefit of having so much data,” Gobby said. “But we need to educate consumers about data, we don’t want to scare them… I think they’ll understand if they get something in return.”

Michael Bayler, strategist and author, Bayler & Associates, believes that consumers are “happy for their data to be out there – just think of Facebook – but they want value in return”. He said mobile operators have a great opportunity to generate propositions around real-time data but claims there is a health warning attached.

“Operators should agree commercial partnerships with brands and other mobile players to create real-time value propositions for consumers… they have the power to turn real-time insights into messaging opportunities,” he suggested.

Scott Beaumont, director, EMEA partnerships, Google, agreed that operators “are in a great place to drive end user propositions” but wonders to what extent carriers can or are using the data they have access to.

Meanwhile, Simon Andrews, founder of addictive!, explained that data is a “great tool to solve problems… and value is created when someone solves a problem for a consumer”. Although, Andrews thinks we’re not seeing this happen because “data is sitting in the wrong place”.

His advice is for mobile operators and players such as Google and Apple to share data. “There is value locked away in data but because players are not sharing, the opportunity is being missed. Closed gardens are not in the consumers’ best interests. If companies captured data and used it smartly, they could provide real value to consumers – and combined data would work best but [the companies] haven’t recognised the possibilities yet”.

Chris Alliott, senior telecoms analyst at RBS, also talked of partnerships. For him, operators and other players need to make the consumer experience easy through partnerships. “Consumers do not want to be hemmed in, they want freedom,” he said.

In response, Beaumont claimed that Google’s mission is to make the world’s information easily accessible – “it is not about winning or losing, it is about making that mission possible,” he said. Gobby added that Everything Everywhere will work with anyone to enhance the consumer experience. “We could partner with Android and Google to do exciting things,” he suggested.

Gobby admitted that operators have had data for years and still are not doing enough with it, though he made it clear that he hopes to change this.