Getting into mobile and measuring your campaign.
4. What does it take for us to get into mobile? Can we just use existing creative and landing pages?
There are a lot of options in the mobile space and many agencies don't even know where to begin. Luckily, you can start with existing creative assets, and work with your mobile ad-enabling partners to modify and adjust them based on how you'll be using them. Repurposing existing assets can be a great way to dip a toe in the mobile waters. Ideally, however, you should think about the mobile world as its own medium. Again, if we compare this to the early days of the web, people would throw their brochure copy and assets up onto their website, and call it finished. While that was fine initially, it became clear that this was only the beginning. The only way we came to that conclusion though, was through testing. The beauty of this medium is the inherent interactivity and ability to get feedback on your approach on an ongoing basis. The question you ought to ask is, "does my message feel like a one-to-one message? Am I better served reaching out to an individual to interact with them?" If the answer is yes, go mobile, and go into it with a more holistic mindset.
5. Is Mobile Advertising better for branding or direct response marketing?
The answer is yes to both. I know, I know…you're thinking "great, here sits an evangelist telling me 'of course you can use this medium for anything!'" But really, mobile does have its place in both types of campaign initiatives. Think about it this way: The type of media a brand chooses has an effect on the perception of that brand. If your brand needs to be perceived as a leading innovator, why wouldn't you choose innovative media formats, such as mobile? I might argue that the media choice has almost as much effect on consumer perception as the creative itself does.
From a direct response standpoint, mobile can provide a great link between other forms of advertising to test its effectiveness; again I note the inherent interactivity of the medium and device itself. Let's take SMS for instance. We're seeing short codes become a part of TV, print and OOH campaigns all the time now, which are basically tracking the interactivity of each media element. In the mobile environment, there exists the opportunity to have a "click to call" functionality in WAP and on mobile apps, which puts mobile into a very powerful position in a direct response campaign. Net, net-- it depends on your specific initiatives as to how you can and do track success with mobile, but don't rule either method (DR or Branding) out because of former preconceived notions.
6. How will we measure our mobile campaign?
Ah, yes, the measurability question. I am a bit sensitive to this question, as I went through the polar pain of touting the measurability of the internet: the blessing of having direct sales access and the curse of being held to higher standards than other media because of the trackability. Don't allow yourself and your agency to fall into the trap that interaction rates equals ad effectiveness. In some ways, the measurability of mobile is and will be unprecedented, but remember-- much like the internet, there exists the real possibility of aligning yourself with a metric that ultimately doesn't really matter (see the decline of the clickthrough rate). At this point you will see companies touting +2 percent click through rates from WAP banners, but ask yourself, is that really a measure of how my advertising is affecting my brand, my sales or rather is it the nature of a new, burgeoning medium and the curiosity of the average consumer? Perhaps the first question to ask yourself is what exactly do I want to accomplish here? And out of that define your measure of success.
The best way to think about mobile is to not be afraid of it or overwhelmed by it. The mobile opportunity is unlike anything we've ever seen before in terms of really getting to the consumer on a very unique, personal device, but it has enough in common with its more traditional counterparts that we can begin to explore and unlock its inherent potential. Have the conversation with your agency and begin the dialogue today-- your customers are exploring, experimenting and trying to understand how they use their mobile devices in a richer way. Grow with them so that when the tipping point happens, (and it will happen sooner than you think) you are staged for success.
Chris Arens is the director of marketing for Ad Infuse. Read full bio.