For nearly a decade I’ve been hearing: “This is the year for mobile advertising.” Based on recent polling research, I suspect the mobile industry has a fundamental problem that slowing its adoption: Even advertisers hate the idea of ads on their phones.
Advertisers Hating Ads?
The Vizu poll of 2,000+ visitors to Adweek.com shows that 76% of advertising types said “over my dead body” would they be willing to receive advertising on their cell phones. Only 15% said “yes”, but even that was a qualified “yes,” requiring permission. And these were ad people being surveyed, not general consumers.
As former CEO of the IAB, I have learned a thing or two about what it takes to create a new medium and garner advertising industry support.
Mobile Targets Like Nothing Else
I believe in the vitality of mobile advertising because it has a compelling, unique selling proposition: The power of locality — a new way for advertisers to target and bring relevance to their advertising messages. Mobile has many other strengths, including: interactivity; the fact that it’s personal (and will hopefully be personalized); its omnipresence (which, while unique, could also be accomplished with media mix); and its ability to do sight, sound and motion.
As a marketer, I would use those elements to get a competitive advantage for my brand. And it’s best to do that now, before my competition figures it out.
Mobile: A Big and Growing Audience
Today, cell phones and other devices already have a major audience. In the same research, 77% of Adweek.com’s readers have a cell phone, 63% have a Blackberry or similar device and 72% have an iPod or similar device. Fifty percent of Adweek.com’s readers said they access the Internet on their cell phone at least once a week and 35% of those said they do it every day. Additionally, 49% take business calls “anytime” and another 14% said they take calls from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thirty-one percent said they check their Blackberries until 11 p.m. and 22% said they check them all night. Finally, 63% said they text every day. It makes you wonder if the ubiquity and familiarity of mobile might be working against itself.
Fed Up With Advertising
The problem with Mobile is not lack of reach, low usage or not having a USP. Instead, this is a medium that the most important consumers in the world–the advertisers–prefer to keep free of ads.
In my last Adweek.com piece, I discussed out-of-control ad blocking on the Internet, and how consumer use of DVRs in TV land demonstrates how fed up people are with advertising. Mobile may be suffering from contempt (as a medium) prior to adoption.
I suspect that marketers, at some level, are afraid their spray & pray approach used in other media might be applied to this much more personal medium.
Avoiding Mistakes; Getting Mobile Right
I am often asked to speak on how we in mobile can avoid making the same mistakes the Internet made, to which I answer the following:
First, mobile must prove not just its advertising effectiveness, but also its cost effectiveness versus other options. Mobile hasn’t yet effectively done this. We need to look beyond the value of a click, which the Internet was way too slow to address.
Second, agencies need to make a profit in the mobile medium. We need good operational processes, technology that integrates with their other systems, common measurement, consistent nomenclature and—most importantly—standards across the board. Mobile is just getting started in these areas.
Third, mobile needs to figure out ubiquitous and compelling ad units that invite creative exploration. In 2003, the IAB killed the 468 x 60 banner not because the banner didn’t work, but because creatives didn’t like it.
Fourth and most challenging is the mobile industry needs to address the challenge of fragmentation caused by different carrier systems, different handsets, and different software. If TV acted like mobile, with every cable network and TV set being different, TV advertising would not be the $50 billion industry it is today.
The most important learning we can bring to the mobile industry is to avoid offending or irritating the consumer. The growth of Internet advertising was hobbled when people thought that pop-ups and other consumer-offensive activity were okay. Resist ads like punch the monkey or flashing screens so irritating that some people believed the medium could trigger epileptic fits. Thinking “but it’s effective,” is not a defense for irritating the consumer.
So my big lesson learned for Mobile?
Resist at all costs the urge to use/abuse the medium for short-term gain. The long-term cost is not worth it. Attack any entity that disrespects the consumer or outright annoys them. We all pay for the sins of one bad advertiser. Aggressively protect consumer trust, whether it is around issues of privacy or other issues of transparency.
Here’s a twist on the famous David Ogilvy quote that the customer is your wife: For new media like mobile, the customer is your advertiser. Act accordingly.
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