Mobile Pinching
October 25, 2010
The growth of mobile as a platform presents a problem for brands trying to engage with consumers. Mobiles are tough for brands to operate on. Peter Sells has suggested that so far mobile marketing has been found wanting. But mobiles are an inherently difficult space for a brand to occupy because of a ‘pinching’ effect that takes place on the platform.
Telecoms companies have never needed money from advertising so unlike newspapers there’s no dedicated space for advertising to be placed. As a direct consequence of this, mobile users have become used to a platform free from advertising. Few of us could deny that we’d be shocked if the next time we opened up our address book we found that there was banner add below our most frequently dialed number.
So the advertising space is basically pinched by telecoms companies not surrendering the space and users not wanting interference. Mobile space is at the very sharp end of all the well-documented changes that digital technologies have brought in (opt-in / consumer choice / peer-to-peer advice / the collapse of captive audiences).
So what can mobile do? Well I think Peter Sells gets it spot on when he says that you have to always consider the end user. It’s probably also worth bearing in mind Faris Yakob’s idea of the ‘constant now’ (something I’ve mentioned previously in a post on real world gaming). People are going to want brands to be both timely and useful (I’m fully aware this is no eureka moment). It’s quite hard for a brand to do these things though within their own remit and values. Aston Martin can’t just start providing DB9 on request via a mobile app. However, interacting with real world content like the ‘Monumite’ through mobile is one great option…
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Mobile devices allow ‘worshippers’ to check-in on Facbeook Places and Foursquare merging the digital and the real. There’s also specific content available to download to your phone at the site. But it’s still not a mobile specific campaign. Perhaps such a thing just won’t work and any mobile advertising model that develops will be based around real-world interaction? Surely there’ll be some really exciting changes in the next 5 years or so as smartphone growth continues at pace. Even search advertising on mobiles is coming under threat with the ever expanding app market.
