Integrated Solutions. Measurable Results.

360i Point of View on

Mobile Marketing & the Challenges that Lie Ahead

August 2010

Overview

If this Summer of Mobile series has been largely bullish on mobile marketing, that’s because thevast majority of marketers can be doing more to reach consumers who are increasingly turning tomobile as the first screen, not the third. We’ve attempted to address the challenges that marketersface, and those are enumerated here. By understanding the challenges, marketers can plan forthem and, in the best case scenarios, use them to their advantage.This is the seventh and final report in this series on mobile marketing. Read the previous editionson360i’s Digital Connections blog, where you can also subscribe to receive more updates on mobileand digital media. You’ll find much more coming on mobile marketing and media.

Key Marketer Challenges

Insights are often less accessible

. Some research firms have beefed up their mobileofferings over the past year, but such information often isn’t as robust as what’savailable for websites and internet users.2)

It’s another source of data to monitor

. Marketers need to analyze how mobile usersare accessing their mobile sites and how those behavior patterns match up with whatusers are doing online. This can be even more complicated if there are separate mobilesites and applications.3)

Fragmentation

will be one of the more persistent mobile marketing challenges

.Which devices and operating systems are used by your target customer base? How doesyour target audience divide their time across various mobile channels? How can you findthem across a jumbled array of publishers and ad networks? How do you develop enoughcreative units that work across all of the devices included in a media plan?Fragmentation becomes a hurdle at so many stages of the process.

Image via iphonefootprint.com

Integrated Solutions. Measurable Results.

360i Point of View on

Mobile Marketing & the Challenges that Lie Ahead

August 2010

Scale will continue to be a challenge in the short-term

. Consider mobile searchprojections from RBC Capital Marketers that ran in Silicon Alley Insider. Over the comingyears, mobile search will grow at a faster pace than global web searches, but even in2012, mobile volume will be about a quarter of web search. The issue of scale pops upeverywhere, and it’s closely correlated with the fragmentation issue. Do you targetconsumers on the iPhone where mobile media consumption is robust, or do you gobroader across different devices and operating systems to achieve the maximum reach?Scale issues will ease as more publishers, networks and devices ramp up their users,usage and inventory.5)

Many marketing opportunities are entirely new for mobile

. From SMS ads tolocation-based check-in deals and mobile barcodes, these new opportunities require newcreative and new thinking for how to best use them. The biggest challenge is thelearning curve to understand how these very new marketing opportunities can tie in withmarketers’ overarching strategies.6)

Costs tend to be too high or too low

. Advertising rates tend to be higher than whatmarketers are used to paying for similar inventory online, sometimes exponentially so.These costs can often be justified (refer to mobile’s brand impact in theMobile MarketingOverviewfor some rationale), but it makes mobile more difficult to sell. Alternatively,marketers will often run mobile campaigns with miniscule trial budgets so the impactunderwhelms, and there isn’t a chance to optimize the campaign. Disheartened,marketers can wind up dismissing mobile as ineffective before fully understanding how tobest use it.

Integrated Solutions. Measurable Results.

360i Point of View on

Mobile Marketing & the Challenges that Lie Ahead

August 2010

Integration is imperative

. Given how seamlessly consumers use their mobile devicesto navigate between digital and traditional experiences, marketers need to tell a cohesivestory. Email and radio can build SMS lists, in-store messaging and Sunday circulars canpromote mobile shopping apps, and barcodes on packaging can drive video views of atrailer. This requires coordination across marketers’ organizations and agencies thatwasn’t always done with online marketing, and wasn’t always necessary in the same wayit is for mobile.8)

The ownership of mobile in a marketer’s organization is often unclear

. Is theowner a digital marketing lead, even if mobile has major traditional marketingimplications? Is mobile used strategically or more tactically? Which agencies can handlewhich elements of mobile marketing? Top-down buy-in can elevate mobile’s visibilitywithin an organization, but it also needs to be clear who will execute on the vision.9)

The pace of innovation and change continue to accelerate

. Quick, name the latest “iPhone killer” Android phone being released this week. Name the top paid and free appsin the iTunes store. Name the hot mobile ad network that just got funding. Whatever theanswers are, they’ll be different next week. Some of what’s new and improved willmatter, and much of it won’t. Even established companies may be under the radar formarketers with limited experience in mobile. Companies like 4INFO, Greystripe, InMobi,Millennial Media, NearbyNow, Nexage, SCVNGR, Square, ShopSavvy and Whrrl all soundlike some alphabetic jumble until marketers understand how they fit in with mobileadvertising, shopping and social media.10)

Mobile shopping can try the patience of marketers and consumers

. Couponscanners can be difficult to implement at the point of sale. Staff in stores must be trainedhow to accept mobile barcodes or SMS-based coupon codes. The variety of barcodesadds to the confusion. With completing transactions, the challenges include securityconcerns, on-site usability issues and widely varying capabilities by merchants.

Image viaShopSavvy