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2010 - The Year of mobile - REALLY???

06 June 2010

Why 2010 should be the year of the mobile... but won't

Don’t Believe the Hype - There has already been too many broken mobile love affairs with these ubiquitous hand held devices. Faith in mobile is low and like most marketing  channels its  weathered a battering in the fateful GFC. Mobile was a difficult choice positioned at the back of the queue when it came to dishing out mobile dollars as a high risk option in a low risk market.

- We’ve done mobile – The sad truth is that agencies and clients often satisfy their ‘mobile duty’ by placing a tick in the mobile box using a push SMS campaign or banners on a publishers mobile homepage or even build an app. Mobile is NOT a product, it is a solution. There is a smorgasbord of different options and a retailer can integrate by using an SMS database to run a competition and offer a 10% off voucher, followed up by an m-survey to all respondents, a simply executed mobile strategy.

- A little knowledge is welcome, a lot of knowledge is rare -  There are undoubtedly some very smart, passionate and experienced early adopters in the mobile space across publisher, media, strategy and development. I would however hazard a guess that the total number of people working full time in mobile in Australia would fail to make a decent 5-a-side football tournament (but guarantee it would make for a great night out!). The Neo-Luddite media agencies have failed to invest in this area and those that did appoint, failed with execution and integration to capitalise on the opportunity. For media agencies mobile forms too small a component of the bottom line, after all the Australian Mobile Industry in 2009 was, some say generously,  valued at around $10m. However the number of handsets has doubled in the last 2 years, making it time to open the notepad, sit up and pay attention.

- Mobile is not Rambo - Mobile cannot alone take on all media, so there will never be a year where just one device or channel will reign supreme. Mobile is more James Bond, able to adapt to many different situations, littered with cool gadgets (read apps) and ultimately nowhere if he isn’t working closely with helpful associates like Q, M and the unforgettable Miss Moneypenny.  Understand mobiles role in and within the communications mix and plan the execution accordingly . The smart money is on simplicity when it comes to building mobile sites and make sure they’re optimised for search - 73% of mobile web is keyword search up from 30% a year ago.

Why this should be the year of the mobile

2010 SHOULD be the year of the mobile for so many amazing reasons, I will take as read the fact that it has all the lovely attributes of being a digital channel  (accountable, transparent, scalable, optimisable, etc) but with a few others thrown in

- It’s all about the numbers - There are more mobile phones in Australia than people. Mobile handsets outnumber desktop PC’s by a ratio of 4:1. Smartphone, as a category, is almost obsolete as 49% of mobile phones have web capability to access web content. A quarter of all Australians are accessing mobile content on a daily basis. In a recent survey by M.Net 66% of Australians have 3/3.5g handsets, while 16% didn’t know! What is clear is the numbers stack up and the potential to engage with this huge audience who are already consuming considerable amounts of mobile content and different content to that on the desktop, in fact they’re doing it right now!

- The mobile is the remote control to life - Ask anyone who has ever lost their mobile (which is hard to believe when they are rarely out of arms reach) and it is as though their life has ended – not just have they lost their entire address book, but also their facebook updates, music, timely twitter feeds and a whole stock of special moments captured when a ‘normal’ camera wasn’t on hand. No longer is the mobile just a phone, it’s a the must-have devices  that solves all of life’s challenges – some you didn’t know you had – Papertoss App anyone?

- Game changers  - love them or loathe them, Apple are the kings of innovative game changers. The i-pod ruled the block and made the term walkman uncool. The i-phone irrefutably made accessing the web on a mobile device fun and easy. Not only that it entertained the kids in doctors waiting rooms with ‘angry birds’ and made finding a place to eat with ‘urbanspoon’ fun and interactive. With I-phone penetration in Australia doubling its market share in the last 12 months to almost a third of all phones, it really is the category killer and undisputed (yet) champion.

- The I-pad - As I stood watching chairs being set up in the rain to be the first to buy an i-pad in Sydney from the Apple store on George Street, it was like an epiphany  that tablet will be our next chapter. Apple sold a million units of the i-pad in half the time it took to sell the same number of i-phones. A new report by Boston Consulting Group says “23% of Australians plan to purchase an eReader or tablet computer this year, with that number growing to 49% within the next three years. “ This coupled with the ATO allowing i-pads to be considered as a laptop for tax purposes in some cases means category growth, as a bridge between desktop and mobile, is likely to be huge. Steve jobs stated in the launch of the i-pad that Apple was not in the computer business, but the MOBILE business listing all the devices abilities to communicate ‘in the sky’. The I-Pad comes into its own as a way to access the mobile web and keeping connected , okay it needs a web cam and mic, but let first gen hype settled down or wait for the next gen i-phone to ‘go large’. Incidentally, there were no 3g models left by lunch day one at George Street!
 
So what does all this mean?
Mobile Marketing in Australia has been forecast to grow in the next 12 months at figures from a conservative 56% to a jaw dropping 186% , either way all the charts are going upward and to the right! The equation is simple, there is a huge gulf between time spent consuming mobile content and share of wallet. This offers significant opportunities for advertisers, publishers, technology and creative to get in at ground floor and garner learning’s while market entry costs are low and the audience is maturing.

Importantly advertisers need to learn that just because a site renders on an i-phone with considerable dexterity (oh and no flash) does NOT make it a good user experience.  Corporate marketing need to stop thinking about what they want to say to their audience and start thinking about how their audience consumes content on a mobile device and your expectations from this channel. Design the mobile execution with strong consideration to ease of navigation, download speed and interaction/engagement tracking.

Mobile web is like WWW in late 90’s, everyone wanted a website, but wasn’t sure why? Learning from the error of posting the current marketing brochure as a website, think about the touchpoints and ubiquity of the mobile device. I call on you to be bold and join the Church of Happy Clapping Mobile Evangelists, all it takes is a little faith 

Rob Marston is the founder of Zeusmarketing, a digital agency specialising in Search Engine Marketing, Mobile and Digital strategy. Born out of a legacy in digital and a passion for all things new and innovative, Zeusmarketing seeks to help businesses of all sizes understand and harness the fullest potential of a digital spend. Rob joined SMG Search, part of Starcom MediaVest Group, in April 2008 as Director of Search, a newly created role, to build a search capability across PPC and SEO. The team of 7 grew business over 256% in year one and 156% in year two managing several millions dollars spend across key clients including Sony, Holden, BankWest, Subaru, Samsung, GIO, Tiger Airways, IGA and Mars. Rob has a BA (Honours) in economics and politics, a Graduate Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Direct Marketing (UK). His work with CareerOne won an award at the inaugural IAB Search awards in 2008.

Written by: Rob Marston

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