What will make mobile marketing GO!?

Do you know when Pay Per Click really started to take off? It wasn’t when Google came up with it. It wasn’t when a few brands started to use it. Pay Per Click really took off when it hit the desks of the media planners as something they could include in their media planning schedules.

It’s quite possible that media planners could hold one of the most significant keys to the success of mobile advertising. And yet I don’t know of many people that are spending time educating this group of fast paced sales people and planners to the types of mobile media that are available and the kind of results that kind be expected.

Media planners sell their wares to advertising agencies – and ad agencies sell their wares to brands. In order for mobile advertising to really take off, we have to get mobile into the minds of the media planners.

In a recent meeting here in London I had a short discussion with a media buyer and was avidly discussing the merits of using mobile as a relationship tool and a response mechanic. I had further asserted that mobile was a poor choice for acquisition - especially if it involved sending unsolicited text messages to people. The feedback that I got was both definitive and actually quite terse.

"Mobile is never going to go anywhere until we can spend money on it as a customer acquisition tool. Relationship management is fine - but the money is in acquiring new customers. Show me how mobile can be used to acquire new customers and I'll show you how mobile marketing can go."

Media Planners

Now – a media planner wants a few things: He/She wants to be able to offer a definite ROI (Return on Investment) to the client for advertising spend, they wants to know that they can make some money as part of the transaction, and because they are fundamentally lazy (just kidding!), they want it to be easy to buy. That last requirement means that mobile has to be integrated into their purchasing system.

This snapshot from Marketing Pilot shows that there is no entry for mobile. Although some would argue that you could include mobile with the online category.

Will mobile banner ads be considered part of the online marketing spend? After all, banner ads are indeed from special websites – WAP sites – and isn’t that still technically part of the online business just accessed from a mobile terminal?

That’s true – but only if you limit mobile advertising to WAP sites. What about streaming content? What about mobile TV? What about SMS/MMS and WAP Push marketing?

I’m a fan of having mobile as its own category and being separate from online. If the soothsayers are right – that mobile will take over from television as the predominant choice for media spend – then mobile should have its own category.

Third Screen

Third Screen Media in the US is making the first inroads into this area with their own separate tool – MADX/Agency. It’s a start – but it’s not as easy as if it were integrated into a mainstream media planner’s platform. But again, this is strictly limited to WAP banner ads via mobile devices. We’ll have to see how well Third Screen can keep up with the evoloving mobile technology and expand their platform to include things like mobile TV and streaming content.

Pull based marketing

One of the key elements in all of this is the fact that there are no permission issues around mobile marketing when you are talking about streaming video, mobile TV and/or WAP banner ads. Each of these different types of marketing exists in an environment where the consumer has requested content and the content is being ad supported. It is a model that is tried and true and well understood by both consumer and advertiser.

If mobile browsing continues to grow and if mobile TV and streaming video continue to have increased adoption - there exists a real opportunity for mobile marketing to take off and experience the type of growth that has recently been seen in the Pay Per Click search marketing arena - for new customer acquistion. And one of the knock on effects of this is that there will be more interest in using mobile as a response channel and a relationship channel going forward.

Media Planners are Key

From what I can see it is very likely that the media buyers really are one of the keys to making mobile marketing take off. So - if you know of any media buyers out there it's time to start taking them out for lunch, coffee or down to the pub. Figure out what they need and start giving it to them. Getting the media buyers on board is one sure fire way to make mobile marketing GO!