PODCAST: Alan Moore Speaks On Engagement Marketing & Why Mobile Changes All The Rules » mobilegroove

In brief: Continuing the extremely popular podcast series looking at the business value of engagement marketing and the perfect fit with mobile. Alan Moore, a brave industry voice, frequent speaker and founder of the Engagement Communication Consultancy SMLXL tells us why (and how) brands can remain relevant by interacting with people who want to hear what they have to say in the first place.

As promised we continue with this special series speaking with the stakeholders – brands, agencies, operators and people — to discuss the pivotal importance of permission and preferences in mobile marketing and identify the real-life examples that set the bar. As Alan Moore, founder of the Engagement Communication Consultancy SMLXL, puts it: “Markets are conversations. Unless brands can meaningfully play a role in these exchanges they will become increasingly irrelevant.”

Alan’s blog and books are chock-full of controversial views on the central importance of the individual and the obligation of brands (actually all companies everywhere) to treat people with respect by providing them a voice in their advertising and control over their personal data. In his view, push (of any kind) will be met by push-back, unless brands ask permission first.

Even more amazing is the cognitive dissonance exhibited by brands as they either ignore or choose not to acknowledge the obvious. “What I don’t like is companies seeing mobile as a platform upon which you push any form of interruptive communications. I think this is based on a lack of education and understanding that mobile is a fundamentally different type of communications ecology than what has defined our mass media world for the last 120 years or so.”

Among the highlights:

GOOD EXAMPLES: Alan has high praise for companies the include people in the equation, allowing them to “curate” their personal data and relationships with the companies they wish to interact with (and on their terms). An example of this is a venture called Qustodian, which focuses on allowing people to communicate the data they want to the companies they want to have the data. No matter if the focus in Vendor Relationship management (VRM), a twist on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that allows people to manage their relationships with vendors, or mobile marketing with a personal touch, “brands need people and people need brands,” Alan says. “It’s all about finding the ways to help people find the brands they want, find each other when they need each other the most.”

OPT-IN: How do we play matchmaker in this complex relationship? By focusing on the basics and starting with permission. “Permission-based, participatory solutions” pave the way for brands and people to have meaningful exchanges. Opt-in is a must – and approaches that deliver messages without asking first are flawed. “It [the requirement for people's permission] is fundamental to the world that we are in. And…catches, I think, lots of companies unawares because they think it’s a small tweak of the dial without really understanding that it’s a fundamental cultural mind shift that they need to take.”

WHAT WILL DRIVE MOBILE MARKETING?: The budgets are buoyant, but what is keeping brands from investing even more in mobile marketing? Alan thinks there are a number of issues linked with “the way that nearly all media is bought and sold or has been has been defined by a mass media world.” Advertising up until now has been about reach and frequency, but that’s not going to be the end-game going forward. “We’ve gone from a 60 second TV spot down to a tiny screen called a mobile and I think that there is a systemic problem there in terms of wanting to count huge numbers….Mobile is much smaller but, in fact, what you get is response rates of 29 percent and more…you can achieve if you get your communications right.” The real obstacle is media and agency mindset. “There is still essentially a great deal of resistance from existing media companies because … if the money divests itself from traditional media onto mobile, that potentially means that’s lost revenue from elsewhere.”

RELATIONSHIP GAP: Alan acknowledges that the relationship gap keeps companies in the ecosystem from working together as they should. “I think that part of the problem is with organizational structure in terms of the way that agencies are structured, the way that clients buy from their agencies, and the way that media is bought and sold. Therefore, bringing together [and delivering] very potent consumer experiences is actually challenged by the way that the whole brand/media agency ecosystem is currently conducted.”

INTIMATE CONTACT: The old way of buying and selling media is giving way as clever companies harness mobile to conduct an ongoing conversation with consumers, cementing a real relationship. “Argos, for example, which is using SMS as a reminder service to shift inventory, doesn’t need to buy and sell media in the way that we think about buying and selling media….It can create [it's] own interface as a business directly to the customer base and talk to them intimately. And I think that we will see ultimately more and more people doing this rather than actually potentially seeing sort of ad networks being aggregators for the old furniture of communication.” The way forward is all about understanding that markets are conversations. “We need opt-in, it’s permission-based. It’s really those companies that are going to change the paradigm of the quality of that conversation which are going to be the ones that succeed and not the ones that are buying and packaging huge amounts of mobile numbers and eyeballs, selling blind, push-based communication packages.”

MY TAKE:

A welcome conformation of the research I conducted just over a year ago. The purpose of Mobile Advertising Research UK, a research project endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), was to expertly document the state of the mobile advertising industry in the U.K. and to identify growth opportunities. The report — which combines consumer insights and qualitative research based on 20+ interviews with ecosystem companies (operators, enablers, agencies, and brands) — found that Alan is on the money (literally). People need brands and brands do need people if the people are in control of the conversation.

By way of background, the research found that only 32 percent of the 1,000+ U.K. consumers surveyed had a positive attitude toward receiving advertising messages on their mobile phone. However, that number rose to 64 percent, provided people were properly “incentivized,” and 70 percent if they were incentivized and “in control” of their mobile advertising experience via mechanisms such as opt-in.

Connect the dots, and conducting a permission-based conversation with people is likely far more effective than delivering a hard-sell, one-off ad to people on their mobile phone.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. [11:10]

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Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG client and supporter.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Briefing Rooms, Featured, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Research, Optism, Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.