An Advertising Age headline crowed victory: More Football Fans Hit ESPN's Mobile Site Than Its PC Pages. And indeed, there were times during this season when ESPN was getting more mobile visits than web visits to football areas. It's a great story, and it's great to highlight a shift in consumption habits that we should all be mindful of.
But I fear the dreaded GMOOT Syndrome (Get Me One Of Those). Dollars invariably follow eyeballs in this business, and that could trigger a rush of demand for mobile inventory before advertisers have a chance to vet individual opportunities.
Rushing into a mobile advertising commitment is one of the more painful things you can do in the emerging media business. That's because expectations are often high for mobile, and it's tough to deliver on those expectations in today's mobile climate. Here are some things you need to think about before committing to mobile ads.
Do a mindset reality check
Mobile content is consumed differently than typical online content. You tend to see a lot more mission-critical requests for nuggets of information via mobile -- think movie times or sports scores.
While people certainly can consume longer-form content over mobile devices, mobile isn't likely their medium of choice for in-depth articles and research. To use the movie example, it's less likely that someone will research which movie they'd like to see on their mobile device and more likely that they'll request something like a show time at their local theater. It's more difficult to reach people meaningfully with an ad message when they're mission-critical.
Understand market fragmentation
Different mobile devices will display mobile content differently. The browser on an iPhone tries to deliver a more PC-like web experience than browsers on other phones. So does the browser on my BlackBerry (but it often fails). Older and/or cheaper phones may have WAP or text-only browsers that won't display things like ad graphics. The long and short of it is that if you thought developing for multiple PC-based browsers was tough, developing something that will be meaningful to all or most mobile devices will make your head spin.
Don't assume you can repurpose web ads
Mobile advertising isn't as simple as sending your web banners over to your sales rep. Many online ads that were designed for 15" (minimum) screens on PCs are illegible on the small screen of a mobile phone. And what about text-only browsers? Developing text ads can be as challenging as writing copy for search ads.
Whatever you do, don't assume that you can run the typical 728x90 banners that you use in web campaigns.
Think about what you want your prospect to do
I've seen mobile advertisers try to get people to click over to lead forms with more than a dozen fields of information to fill out. That's because they're not putting themselves in their prospect's shoes. Can you imagine what a pain it would be to enter your name, email address, mailing address and responses to survey questions using a mobile handset? To many mobile users, this is simply too much to expect. If you are collecting information, consider collecting an email address for later (PC-based) follow-up -- just be cognizant that your prospect might not be keen on the idea of attempting complex data entry when confronted with a mobile ad.
I think we would be well-served to remember the things above and take a cautious approach to mobile, even if mobile is reaching more eyeballs every day.
Tom Hespos is the president of Underscore Marketing and blogs at Hespos.com. Read full bio.
