- IAB UK Home
- /
- Mobile advertising
- /
- Mobile advertising handbook
- /
- The future of mobile
Ozometer by Play
The campaign was created to celebrate Foster's famous ‘No Worries’ attitude. In creating the campaign, Play searched for some of Britain’s most, and least, ‘No worries’ people, celebrities and places. More on Play's award winning campaign.The future of mobile
Written by Paul Lyonette, head of mobile sales UK, Microsoft Advertising
An evolving medium needs constant change and growth. Easy achievement of this is through meeting the growing needs of the 3 key parties involved in the process of firmly establishing any medium: the brands, consumers and media owners.
1. Brands need more targeting, more data and definitely more access to their consumer
2. Consumers need more content, more opportunity, more relevance and much more at a much lower cost
3. Media owners need more consumers, more consumption information and more development of technology - ad formats, platforms, useful applications etc.
What we have learnt so far is that an inherent understanding of the relationships between the medium, the consumer and the message is essential for stimulation. The nature of a mobile phone even in its most basic form is a personal one. It’s your access point to friends, family and all things important. Getting it wrong will have very negative impacts on your consumer, getting it right will mean that the future will hold blossoming, long-term relationships.
More and more the mobile will provide the consumer with their link to information, to entertainment, to business and social connections, with the demand for immediacy at the forefront of consumption patterns. “Mobile” access and connection is essential.
New technology drives consumption; the release of the iPhone created a desire and a high profile consumer-focused reason to visit the mobile internet. The resulting spikes in mobile internet usage peaked at nearly 20 million (1/3rd of all of the UK) unique users the month after release (Jan 2008), about 19.4 million on non iPhone handsets. Give the consumer reason to come and they will.
The future holds great development in devices, 3D Touch Screen Technology, customisation for Home Pages, quicker and more accessible connection speeds, 3G to 3.5G and 4G on its way via LTE Technology, larger screens (average sizes on the increase 3”) and thanks to more content, consumers are moving from quick snacking experiences to that of a browsing nature. This allows for much greater consumption of content, varied formats and will provide increased opportunities for interaction. Richer ad formats will lead the way in the development of mobile into an accepted, established channel for consumer communication. Improving ad formats will keep mobile at the forefront of consumer conversations as growth in competition from advertisers, media owners and content all mean that the challenge of standing out will be greater.
The future of mobile consumption and advertising is exciting and definitely moving forward. Adoption of mobile from global brands in all areas of marketing is providing groundbreaking insights, into how and why the mobile internet, mobile interaction and brand accessibility has a future. With close to all FTSE 100 brands having looked at mobile as a part of their marketing campaigns the present is providing a great platform for the future as a stand alone media channel for marketing managers across the board.
Realise mobile is another platform for you to communicate with your consumer, whether it be through marketing activity, display advertising, encouraging response or the simplest of brand exposure. Your consumer will be, if not already, utilising the benefits of this medium and your competitors will be too.
The competitive and potentially complicated mobile ecosystem has found its feet with brands through clear opportunity in the present and even more opportunity in the future. With scale on its way, creativity at a new high, consumer experiences getting better and better with each release and competition for the next getting greater, growth in mobile adspend looks set to rocket over the next few years.
More research is required in terms of how mobile works with traditional offline and online channels, how does it provide something different in the mix, where does it enhance performance of campaigns and add value to the consumer experience? 2/3 screen campaigns will prove to be successful, harnessing each and every opportunity to deliver messaging on the mobile, PC and Another (TV, Outdoor, etc). The continuity of the message is essential in the success of this strategy but it will prove to be a powerful mechanic to encourage advertiser recognition and interaction. Branded applications will continue to grow as a form of mobile communication in the future, as long as special attention is paid to what the consumer wants and what the application delivers is beneficial. BA are a great example of how to have success in this area with the provision of a specific application for their travellers, allowing early checkin options, up to the minute information on flight times and more.
So what will make a successful future for mobile? It’s certainly no dark art or scientific formula. As an industry, we can achieve it by understanding the consumer, devoting enough time to the planning stages, developing creatively with the technology and simply making the next ‘new thing’ available better, and more compelling, than the last.
An evolving medium needs constant change and growth. Easy achievement of this is through meeting the growing needs of the 3 key parties involved in the process of firmly establishing any medium: the brands, consumers and media owners.
Who needs what?
1. Brands need more targeting, more data and definitely more access to their consumer
2. Consumers need more content, more opportunity, more relevance and much more at a much lower cost
3. Media owners need more consumers, more consumption information and more development of technology - ad formats, platforms, useful applications etc.
What we have learnt so far is that an inherent understanding of the relationships between the medium, the consumer and the message is essential for stimulation. The nature of a mobile phone even in its most basic form is a personal one. It’s your access point to friends, family and all things important. Getting it wrong will have very negative impacts on your consumer, getting it right will mean that the future will hold blossoming, long-term relationships.
The link to content and info
More and more the mobile will provide the consumer with their link to information, to entertainment, to business and social connections, with the demand for immediacy at the forefront of consumption patterns. “Mobile” access and connection is essential.
Give and you shall receive
New technology drives consumption; the release of the iPhone created a desire and a high profile consumer-focused reason to visit the mobile internet. The resulting spikes in mobile internet usage peaked at nearly 20 million (1/3rd of all of the UK) unique users the month after release (Jan 2008), about 19.4 million on non iPhone handsets. Give the consumer reason to come and they will.
Technology developments
The future holds great development in devices, 3D Touch Screen Technology, customisation for Home Pages, quicker and more accessible connection speeds, 3G to 3.5G and 4G on its way via LTE Technology, larger screens (average sizes on the increase 3”) and thanks to more content, consumers are moving from quick snacking experiences to that of a browsing nature. This allows for much greater consumption of content, varied formats and will provide increased opportunities for interaction. Richer ad formats will lead the way in the development of mobile into an accepted, established channel for consumer communication. Improving ad formats will keep mobile at the forefront of consumer conversations as growth in competition from advertisers, media owners and content all mean that the challenge of standing out will be greater.
The future of mobile consumption and advertising is exciting and definitely moving forward. Adoption of mobile from global brands in all areas of marketing is providing groundbreaking insights, into how and why the mobile internet, mobile interaction and brand accessibility has a future. With close to all FTSE 100 brands having looked at mobile as a part of their marketing campaigns the present is providing a great platform for the future as a stand alone media channel for marketing managers across the board.
Embrace the potential
Realise mobile is another platform for you to communicate with your consumer, whether it be through marketing activity, display advertising, encouraging response or the simplest of brand exposure. Your consumer will be, if not already, utilising the benefits of this medium and your competitors will be too.
Harness simplicity to enable growth
The competitive and potentially complicated mobile ecosystem has found its feet with brands through clear opportunity in the present and even more opportunity in the future. With scale on its way, creativity at a new high, consumer experiences getting better and better with each release and competition for the next getting greater, growth in mobile adspend looks set to rocket over the next few years.
Understand consumption and develop with new technology
More research is required in terms of how mobile works with traditional offline and online channels, how does it provide something different in the mix, where does it enhance performance of campaigns and add value to the consumer experience? 2/3 screen campaigns will prove to be successful, harnessing each and every opportunity to deliver messaging on the mobile, PC and Another (TV, Outdoor, etc). The continuity of the message is essential in the success of this strategy but it will prove to be a powerful mechanic to encourage advertiser recognition and interaction. Branded applications will continue to grow as a form of mobile communication in the future, as long as special attention is paid to what the consumer wants and what the application delivers is beneficial. BA are a great example of how to have success in this area with the provision of a specific application for their travellers, allowing early checkin options, up to the minute information on flight times and more.
So what will make a successful future for mobile? It’s certainly no dark art or scientific formula. As an industry, we can achieve it by understanding the consumer, devoting enough time to the planning stages, developing creatively with the technology and simply making the next ‘new thing’ available better, and more compelling, than the last.
