Moving the needle or shifting gears, what’s your mobile strategy?
At the risk of slinging mud at a nascent industry others might argue is simply going through normal growing pains, I am disappointed at the lack of creativity in mobile marketing. It seems there is a fork in the road to mobile, with one lane veering toward dizzyingly siloed custom applications for niche devices, and the other a path toward lowest common denominator, de rigueur mobile. (Full disclosure: my company has been at the helm for both (sigh), so I feel uniquely qualified to level the accusation at the industry at large.)
We’ve collectively lost sight of what is unique about mobile. Sure mobile coupons are neat, text to win is occasionally fun, and WAP ads have their place (though, when was the last time you clicked on a WAP ad? Or, a regular banner ad for that matter?), but do any of those applications do anything but move the needle incrementally? Are there any mobile marketing campaigns you know of that actually change gears?
More than any other digital medium in existence, mobile has the power to connect people in the real world. Connections happen by chance, and the best digital format to capitalize on chance is mobile, due to its integral role in virtually every part of our life. Yet, as marketers, we’re missing that, and focusing instead on what we know works. We know people click on banner ads, and we can measure it. We know people redeem coupons, and we can measure that. We are very good at taking what we do on the Web and making it doable over mobile, assuming that as people continue to become more comfortable with using their handsets for more than just talking, they will want these types of goods and services. Is that a fair assumption? I for one am not so sure.
While moving the needle with mobile is justifiable, imagine the immense value of using mobile to create an experience. Where the primary focus is not on getting click-throughs and opt-ins, but on creating arresting user experiences so valuable and interesting that people jump through hoops to participate? Have you been a part of anything that has truly transformed a brand’s image through innovative mobile? I’d love to hear about it.
Tags: branding, innovation, Mark Emery, mobile marketing, mobile strategy