The persistent irony about mobile is that it's so widely used by consumers and yet still searching for its tipping point, at least as far as its utility to marketers is concerned. In my latest report for eMarketer, "Mobile Users and Usage: It's Personal," I point to a number of factors driving mobile in the right direction. First, mobile usage is now pervasive. Second, mobile subscribers and the devices they use are quickly growing in sophistication, helping to usher in an age of ubiquitous communication, social networking, entertainment, and web access. And third, changing habits and usage patterns will open new doors for marketers able to respect the highly personal relationship users have with their device and balance the need for a value exchange with mobile's inherent flexibility.
It's difficult to underestimate the impact of smartphones in making mobile a more viable marketing channel. The best smartphones are effectively minicomputers that allow their owners to enjoy the same content they consume from their desktop PCs. As such, they are a vital bridge between the desktop and mobile web. comScore surveys indicate that smartphone owners are nearly five times more likely to have unlimited data plans than mobile users with feature phones. This means smartphone users are inclined to take greater advantage of web access and advanced messaging features.
All available data suggest that smartphone owners are doing more with their devices -- more messaging, more gaming, more listening to music and watching videos, more accessing the internet, and even more engagement with advertising. At least one study by GfK NOP for Brightkite contends that iPhone users are far likelier to remember ads than non-iPhone users.
Today's smartphone users, particularly those with iPhones, offer a glimpse of what tomorrow will be like, with information consumption evolving from small, objective-driven snippets to longer browsing sessions that more closely resemble how users surf from their desktop PCs. That said, it is clear that a broad shift in traditional communication modes is under way across the mobile user population as a whole, with voice functions taking a back seat to texting, email, and web-based social networking.
In Q1 2009, Nielsen found that the average U.S. mobile subscriber sent or received nearly three times as many text messages per month as they made calls. And comScore has found that mobile users already display similar usage habits when accessing Facebook from their mobile devices as when they access it from their PC. And while it is the case that feature phone owners browse the internet and perform a variety of mobile activities at far lower rates than those with more advanced devices, they are equally capable of receiving text and multimedia messages (and perhaps better at remembering them, as the Brightkite/GfK NOP study suggests).
A set of common mobile activities and interests should not be confused with uniformity among mobile users. The mobile user population is divided along many lines -- by age, gender, ethnicity, income, device type, and activities, to name just a few. Shaping an accurate portrait of the users you hope to reach is a vital first step in determining whom you can reach and how.
With all of those active mobile users doing far more than just talking, why isn't mobile more widely used as a marketing channel, especially when it's so flexible? Part of it has to do with complexity: ther are many device platforms, a broad range of inventory options, fragmentation among service providers, and a lack of proven use cases (a self-perpetuating chicken-and-egg problem).
But marketers and agency executives I've spoken with recently remain bullish about mobile, in large measure because of its effectiveness. A common sentiment that emerged in my conversations was that mobile can make existing media budgets -- both digital and traditional -- work harder. AdMob vice president and managing director Jason Spero put it succinctly: "When you buy mobile, it just works. It works on every metric that people hold advertising accountable."
Still, there is clearly a need for broader thinking about where, how, and when to incorporate mobile. Rachel Pasqua, iCrossing's director of mobile strategy, said that brands "should be addressing the mobile opportunity for every media touchpoint from the very beginning of the discovery phase." And several executives spoke pointedly of a need for brands to move beyond thinking of mobile in terms of a campaign-based tactical execution and start seeing mobile as a medium for ongoing customer engagement, much as they've done on the desktop web.
Experimentation and one-off campaigns are a good start, but it's time for mobile to make the transition from rounding error to line item and move to the forefront in the planning process -- before the consumers we are trying to reach get too far ahead of us.
Noah Elkin is a senior analyst at eMarketer, where he covers trends in mobile marketing, content, and commerce.
On Twitter? Follow Elkin at @noahelkin. Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.
