What Separates Effective Mobile Marketing From Noise; Why Mobile Is The First Screen » mobilegroove

The best insights I’ve seen or heard about consumer behavior on tablets were shared during a seminar in New York conducted by the Direct Marketing Association in collaboration with the online news destination Mobile Marketer.

The messenger was Craig Etheridge, vice president of mobile advertising sales for USA Today at Gannett Digital.

What is Etheridge seeing? Mobile users average six-minute session times, but they return often. Meantime, iPad users “come [to the iPad USA Today app] less often, but they spend much more time with us per session.”

Moreover, the demographics of iPad users are changing – rapidly. “You’re seeing people spend a lot more time with it and it is getting dispersed throughout the family.”

Etheridge also gave us the numbers that are meaningful to all in the mobile marketing ecosystem. Specifically, there are about 6 million users of USA Today mobile apps. In total he counts 1 million iPad app downloads that include enhanced travel and tech sections. How does this compare to other channels? Overall, the company has  18 million unique visitors to usatoday.com each month and 3.3 million daily readers of the print edition.

Interestingly, USA Today has an 80 percent unduplicated audience if we examine paper vs. mobile and iPad. And these audiences aren’t only on different platforms; they have different habits. For example, iPhone traffic spikes in the evening. This stands in contrast to the way people read the print edition. In fact,  65 percent of this audience reads USA Today in the morning.

What’s the experience for brands that run rich-media campaigns on USA Today? The hotel chain Hilton reaped benefits from the capabilities tablets deliver.

Hilton ran a campaign letting consumers spin a virtual globe to highlight individual territories and learn more about them, thus delivering specific information about an area and its culture. The campaign drove a 79 percent lift in brand awareness internationally.

Etheridge let us in on how this was organized and — more importantly – measured. “Hilton said to us: ‘We want to learn more about increasing brand favorability and awareness among an international audience.’ So we worked with a rich-media provider, our sister company PointRoll….[This way] we can measure everything—when a consumer clicks on that ad. And anytime someone pointed to a different property, I can see how long they engaged with it.”

HOW I SEE IT: One of the inhibitors of mobile marketing and advertising is a lack of visibility into consumer behavior online versus what they do on their mobile phones — and now how they use their tablets. Kudos to USA Today for sharing their first-hand observations. Giving marketers a view into what mobile owners  are doing on these devices (and how they are consuming content) is good of the industry.

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One of the people in mobile I most respect is Richard Ting, Vice President, Executive Creative Director for Mobile and Social Platforms, R/GA. Ting is ahead of some creatives who view mobile with skepticism and use it as a branding tool only.

Ting was as good as ever at the event in New York.

“Consumer behavior has shifted,” he told attendees. “But consumers don’t really care about mobile advertising. They want compelling storytelling, inspiration and utility from brands. The planning and buying of mobile advertising has to be in support of this.”

We may recall from mobile pundit Tomi Ahonen that mobile is the 7th mass media. But mobile is also our main interface to marketing. As Ting sees it: “By 2013, mobile will become the first screen and the centerpiece of all marketing communications.”

Who are the brands that are making their mark with mobile? Ting listed several (including some R/GA clients) that he considered to be at the top of their game. Among these: Kraft, Nike, Target, Amazon and Starbucks.

Ting also offered an intriguing view of the role of mobile (and other media) in 2013. In his opinion all digital will be multi-channel (transmedia). This new all-digital environment will bring together mobile surfing, social networking, mobile commerce, mobile in-store/out-store retail, location-based services and near field communications.

A lot for marketers to get their heads around.

In the meantime, Ting provided  some insights and advice on how to craft a mobile marketing strategy, buy mobile media and track response. Yes, we have to put consumers first. But we must also design and launch “owned” brand platforms, and create engagement that can lead to “earned” media. Finally, Ting advises us to plan on “paid” media to drive awareness — we have to track the response.

His mobile marketing do’s? Common sense, really. Make something that consumers want/like; design and launch platforms that are owned by brands.

His list of don’ts? Simple. Don’t plan media or buy media before you know what your creative story or platform is. Brands are not in the business of keeping the media companies alive.

HOW I SEE IT: Mobile needs more Tings. He’s not one for hype and his frank views on what marketers must do were refreshing and straight to the point. Ting is all about business results. He’s also a trailblazer worth following on Twitter @flytip. (And it’s even more worthwhile to connect with him in person the next time he speaks at a mobile event.)

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During the New York session I participated in a panel on mobile and CRM. I chose to focus on the recent (and extremely successful) campaign run by fast-food chain Arby’s. I also pointed out the unfortunate absence of mobile calls to action during the Super Bowl telecast. Talk about missed opportunities. (Peggy adds: Arby’s covers all the bases. This cross-media campaign — which the Mobile Mavens critiqued here — achieved its objectives and allowed Arby’s to begin building an impressive and location-linked opt-in database.)

I wasn’t alone in my view that SMS is a reach strategy that often leads to an opted-in relationship with a customer or prospect.

“It is all about mobile CRM,” noted Gary Schwartz, founder and CEO of Impact Mobile, echoing my sentiment. “You need to tie the consumer’s mobile number to the basket (sale).”

HOW I SEE IT: When it comes to mobile marketing we have moved from experimentation to execution. But the objectives have also shifted. It used to be about promotion, but now loyalty is rising to take center stage. As marketers we’re doing a good job proving the worth of a mobile loyalty club. It’s only natural that we are now confronted with questions about just how to tie these new mobile loyalty clubs into legacy CRM systems. Integration is indeed the best strategy. Smart mobile marketers know brands don’t want separate databases. Successful marketers are the ones bringing existing data together with newly-obtained mobile information.

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A career author and sought-after speaker, Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired’s list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Jeff co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named “the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S.” by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA — The Wireless Association. Follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffhasen).

This entry was posted on Friday, February 25th, 2011 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Mobile Marketing. 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.