Mobile is Local, Personal and Different than Online

I am currently attending CTIA ENTERPRISE & APPLICATIONS 2010 in San Francisco, so this week I share with you some of the panelist and audience comments from a thought-provoking day-long “Mobile Marketing & Promotion” session that I attended on Tuesday.  Many of the mobile marketing issues discussed are relevant to show producers, for promoting exhibitions and conferences as well as driving incremental mobile ad revenue from related media assets.

Please note this list is not ranked by any order of importance.

(1) Focus on your audience not the technology.

(2) Consumers today expect brands to have a presence in the mobile space.

(3) Call-to-action was ranked higher than branding by the audience when asked how mobile marketing is being used.

(4) QR codes don’t scale very well which has limited their benefit as a mobile advertising tool.

(5) Substantial fragmentation (carrier, channel, handset, etc.) continues to affect mobile marketing.

(6) Mobile is local.

(7) Mobile is personal.

(8) Mobile advertising is not about engagement with the ad unit as in online advertising but about enhancing a person’s daily life.

(9) Tablets will enable people to use mobile devices in new ways in the future.

(10) Know your mobile users.

(11) Engagement is much higher with mobile than online marketing.

(12) Create mobile experiences that leverage the specific platform and target market.

(13) Your audience should impact your selection of mobile channels.

(14) Many companies want to buy mobile advertising but don’t know how.

(15) Mobile apps are not a good fit for all marketers.

(16) Apps need to be promoted.

(17) Feature phone users are voice/text centric so mobile marketing to them must be different than to those with smartphones who are regularly in browser/app environments.

(18) Consumers want engaging mobile experiences that they can’t find on other platforms.

(19) It is amazing what people are willing to give up in terms of personal data for the right content.

(20) Social and mobile are intertwined.

(21) We are still very early in the era of mobile marketing, and a lot will continue to change.

Some additional points specifically for those who sell or plan to sell mobile advertising:

(22) Know your ad inventory.

(23) Match the right inventory to the advertiser.

(24) Understand your advertisers’ objectives.

(25) Advertisers are excited about tablets.

Posted on October 7, 2010