We know some of you will be missing your daily fix of mobile marketing news, even at this time of year, so here to keep you going are some predictions for 2009 from Paran Johar, Chief Marketing Officer at JumpTap, who predicts that 2009 will be the year of mobile search and advertising
Wasn’t 2004, or 2006 or was that 2008 the year mobile advertising arrived? If there is one thing I know for sure, it’s that trying to predict what year, month, day, or hour will be the shining moment of mobile search and advertising is as useless as guessing when my stock portfolio will rebound. No one knows for sure. The key is not in predicting a specific moment in time that will be a tipping point for the medium; it’s about defining the key milestones we need to achieve to acknowledge enough significant growth that says that mobile search and advertising is already here, and a force to be reckoned with. And yes, I did say “growth”. I know what you’re thinking: “Growth in 2009, in this economy?” I must be drinking too much eggnog. But smart marketers won’t stop marketing in a down economy; they will just hold their agencies more accountable. They will seek higher responses rates from campaigns and better returns on their marketing spend. And this is where mobile shines. But before we get into 2009, let’s review 2008 and some of the key achievements that set us up for 2009.
1. The launch of mobile @plan – this was a relatively quiet announcement, but instrumental in getting more digital media planners the tools necessary to plan and buy mobile advertising.
2. MMA establishes creative standards – not having to redo creative in multiple formats is key for marketers and agencies if they are going to test a new medium. A client is more likely to test mobile if they know they don’t have to spend 50% of their non-working dollars resizing existing creative to appease different carriers and publishers.
3. Publicis, IPG, Omnicom, and WPP all launched mobile divisions or agencies under their umbrella. The fact that these holding companies are putting their money where their mouth is and investing in PhoneValley, Ansible, iPsch, and Kinetic is a clear statement that they take mobile seriously.
4. Former Vodaphone CEO Arun Sarin’s warning at MWC in Barcelona that the operators must not allow themselves to become bitpipes and let somebody else do the services work. As more and more operators realize the potential for mobile search and advertising, they are realizing that partnering with a Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft isn’t in their long term interest. Carriers are starting to understand the need to reinvent themselves as ‘media centric’ organizations and partner with partners that enable them (like JumpTap, my one plug) to help them with this evolution. Whoever has access to the rich customer data created from keywords, search history and other sources, like location and demographic data, will create a strong foot hold in the mobile advertising ecosystem.
Here are my bets for 2009.
1. As we fix the front end of the media planning process, we also need to address the back end side of metrics and measurement. We will see almost all the mobile ad networks/providers integrated into Internet third-party tracking tools such as Doubleclick and Atlas. It will be a mobile media plan must-have in order for publishers to participate.
2. Efficiency in planning and buying will be a dominant theme. Self-service mobile ad systems that are fully integrated, and the process to test, buy, and optimize more easily will become more pervasive. Combined keyword search and display networks will showcase how you can leverage each other for greater targeting and relevancy.
3. We’ll see a higher level of creative standards as we see more and more “semi- rich” media ad units being tested in the market. In 2008 Internet rich media provider Pointroll was one of the first to release its expanding ad unit on the iPhone. I’m guessing we are going to see many of the Internet players expand their product lines into the mobile Internet. These rich media units will be critical, as creative agencies begin to concept more and more integrated ideas with mobile at the centre.
4. Agency talent will continue to enter into the mobile ecosystem. As more and more ad/media/digital agency talent realizes the power of mobile to connect brands to the audiences they are trying to reach, they will share best practices and work closely with technology companies to deliver on what advertisers and brands are looking for. They will speed education to all parties involved. Agencies will also to continue to expand their mobile offerings. In an effort to diversify their revenue and create unique points of differentiation, more and more agencies will move spend into mobile and showcase their results.
5. Targeting technology will be critical as advertisers/agencies realize that relevance is the key to success in mobile advertising. Because of the uncluttered environment and personal nature of mobile, consumers will ignore generic advertising and engage only with mobile ads that are relevant to their interests. Targeting technology that integrates information from multiple sources, including carrier data, as well as search, behaviour, and contextual information will be instrumental in developing audience and monetizing audience channels. This is the winning proposition, as the user has a great mobile experience, the advertiser reaches a more targeted audience, and the publisher receives a higher CPM.
6. Wireless carriers will work together and step up to create a sustainable role in mobile advertising. They will make innovative moves to reinvent themselves as media-centric organizations and partner with likeminded vendors whose interests are aligned with their own to help them with this evolution.
7. Mobile search will take centre stage. As Internet search evolved to all-encompassing desktop search tools, so will mobile search evolve. The mobile user experience becomes more fluid and integrated between hardware, software and mobile applications, and search will evolve into a ubiquitous format, to a ‘phone-top search”. This will further blur the line between on-deck/off-deck, mobile content and applications. The beauty of this will be the development of infinitely more creative ways to not only target, but also to engage with users at the appropriate time and place. Operators worldwide are recognizing this phenomenon and are looking for partners who can integrate both the search and advertising experience to help them enhance the user experience and monetize the assets.
8. We will see the ‘Walmart Effect’ on mobile advertising, as the giant retailer seeks to bring affordable Smartphones to the masses, so will follow a cultural shift towards mass usage of the mobile Internet.
9. Direct response advertisers will learn the ease of click-to-call. Some marketers will begin to try and abuse it. The industry will begin to self regulate to avoid outside intervention.
2009 will certainly be challenging, but new companies and profits are always born in down economies. Those who focus on quality and giving consumers what they want will thrive, while those who simply focus on mediocrity and money will not. We are at the dawn of a new era, and mobile is driving this transformative cultural change that will forever change marketing as we know it. Those who join in early will thrive and prosper.
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