Mobile entertainment is on the verge of an explosion, as access and content providers start to realize the marketing bonanza awaiting them with a new landless mindset. Marble Key's managing partner explains.
I have recently relocated from San Diego to New York, and as part of my relocation process I've discovered a few eye-opening realities. We're living in an age of transition from land-line to a "landless" way of thinking.
The land-line school of thought is characterized by a localized connectivity that "chains down" device users to one place -- at a point of access -- and demands multiple charges per connection and content consumption. In contradiction, the landless school of thought preaches convergence, or full ubiquitivity (ubiquity+connectivity): the freedom to access information using multiple devices (e.g., desktop, laptop, cellphone, PDA, videogame consoles, et cetera) anytime, anywhere without complex and multiple fee schedules.
When I went through the process of getting my phone service and internet access installed at home, I quickly realized a simple truth. Why do we pay for phone service and internet access for home use and then again when we are on the go? It makes more sense to use an unchained device (the laptop computer) powered by a wireless modem and respond to phone rings only through a free-as-a-bird cell phone. One charge, total ubiquitivity.
Naturally, this nice picture is getting fractured a bit when each of your family members demand his or her own ubiquitivity, and where a few land-line dinosaurs exist -- like fax machines and printers - that still hold tight to their static connectivity mechanisms.
Shaking up the land-scape
The problem here is that land-line thinking creates fragmented walled-gardens of access, which is exactly what the consumer-empowerment revolution has been rallying against and why marketers must work harder these days to reach consumers on their own terms.
In terms of communication, land-line thinking is typically manifested with wireless carriers that charge for voice communication, text and data services and web services separately, with additional fees for each additional family member using the service. Though financially sound from a carrier perspective, this model is no longer meeting users' requirements when they are looking to access, interact and engage with their chosen entertainment content on multiple platforms. The lack of choice here may be holding consumers back from using the new media entertainment options that marketers are developing, which ultimately results in stunted ROI for our programs.
Squeezing consumers from both ends -- access and content -- is the staple of land-line territoriality and can only create fleeting success pockets and growth in consumer-generated media. Not that there is anything wrong with CGM, but it further silos commercially generated media.
This is all about to change, as access and content providers start to realize the marketing bonanza awaiting them with a new landless mindset. A landless business model would factor the cost of content into the cost of the access device, thus providing consumers with unlimited access to a Universal Content Country, supported by myriad content providers.
Since access devices get outdated on an average of every 3 years, marketers may also look to having consumers pay subscription fees to keep their access devices up to date on a regular basis, rather than making each device purchase obsolete from nearly the date of purchase. Thinking about consumers first will organically take care of companies' profit margins by switching from a sporadic hit system to generating stable revenue streams with a wider spectrum of potential success.
In this brave new world marketers will be able to increase their reach and impact by removing the existing premium islands populated by early adopters, instead granting direct, unobstructed, rich media access to mainstream America across channels.
In this sense, the meaning of being online will be expanded from a primarily PC-based web experience to access on a wide range of devices that will offer cross-platform compatibility with online functionality.
Of course, we're not there yet; for example, according to a recent study by Telephia and comScore, only 30 million (or 19 percent) of the 159 million U.S. PC users access the web from a mobile device. That said, the ubiquity of cell phones users surpasses PC users, with a 76 percent penetration rate in the U.S. (233 million U.S. subscribers). Total advertiser spend on mobile messaging and display ads will grow from $1.4 billion in 2006 to $2.9 billion in 2011 (Jupiter Research), providing a fertile ground for marketers to utilize this active channel to reach consumers.
Leveling off the inherent functionality contradictions will be key in the coming years.
Today marketers are faced with two distinct challenges: delivery and content. Think about land-line delivery as a physical faucet: water (content) is gushing through at pre-designated locations, and the faucet makers control both the access and quality of water. Well, consumers are starting to demand the ability to carry their own glasses and drink their smart water on the go and on their own terms. Let's make sure we are still looked upon as a reservoir where users can fill those glasses, when and where they want to.
Shlomi Ron is a managing partner at Marble Key, an exclusive social network of marketing experts. Read full bio.