Has “The Year of Mobile” Finally Arrived?
This panel seemed to think so. The Future of Mobile: Adding Mobile to the Mix shared some great insights on how brands can effectively integrate mobile into marketing efforts.
Moderator:
Mickey Alam Khan Editor-in-Chief, Mobile Marketer Magazine
Panelists:
Sophia Stuart Executive Director, Mobile Hearst Magazines Digital Media
Tony Nethercutt VP of Sales, AdMob
Marcus Startzel – Senior VP of Sales,, Millennial Media
Mike Becker Executive VP of Business Development, iLoop
Matthew Valleskey Head of Marketing Communications for Mobile Services, NeuStar
David Katz, VP, Mobile Advertising and Publishing, Yahoo! Inc.
Quality vs. Quanitity
Marketers are used to mass marketing where reach is king. The focus of traditional advertising was heavy on the top of the funnel - “How many people am I reaching?”. Both the internet and mobile allow marketers to target in more meaningful ways and focus on reaching highly relevant audiences with the right message at the right time. This can result in better overall ROI by attaining higher conversion rates from a smaller audience vs. traditional mass marketing.
“There is a common misconception that more is better” said Mike Becker, Executive VP of Business Development at iLoop. He pointed to a campaign run by Hipcricket, who ran a case study for daisy maids. They sponsored a contest where consumers were entered to win a prize – 700 people opted in to the contest and of those they converted 540 to customers. It isn’t quantity it is quality. Getting a better response rate from a smaller audience can be far more valuable.
How Can Mobile be Measured?
Like many emerging mediums, mobile suffers from a myriad of questions about measures. “The hard core ROI trackers were the first to get into mobile in a serious way. And they did great – they brought the same experience they brought on the PC” said David Katz, VP Mobile Advertising and Publishing at Yahoo! Inc. They measured results, they rotated creative and have set the stage for strong metrics in the mobile space.
There is a misconception that mobile isn’t measurable. It is. Avoid missteps by working with an agency that can set up metrics and reporting.
Integration is Key
Mobile is a great stand-alone platform, but integrating it with other marketing tools is key. We learned from online that ROI is often improved when digital efforts are integrated with traditional media – the same is true for mobile.
Tony Nethercutt VP of Sales at AdMob shared an example of a campaign by Adidas. The goal was to get people to opt-in to an SMS campaign. The promoted the opt-in short-codes in-store, on billboards and in TV. However, they got 20% of the opt-ins by using mobile to encourage opt-ins despite mobile representing an extremely small percentage of their budget.
Mike Becker reminded the audience of the power of mobile opt-ins in this type of campaign “because they opted in they can now interact through direct response later.” Essentially, you are building out your mobile email list.
Integration Gone Wrong
Take the Super Bowl – people are sitting at home with their phones nearby but marketers didn’t take advantage of creating integrated campaigns to take advantage of this. Flashing a short code for 5 seconds at the end of a commercial doesn’t give someone enough time to act. Mobile must be strategically integrated to achieve results.
Additional Resources
The panel provided some additional resources to continue to enhance your mobile learning:
Mobile Marketing Association
Mobile Marketer
Nielsen
Comscore
