I’ve been very interested in mobile branding for the past year and got the chance to speak with Rick Mathieson about the topic today. He is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about mobile branding and I certainly learned a lot. I’ve blogged about this topic a few times already. This interview serves as a great resource for you.
How do you define mobile marketing?
Mobile marketing is marketing via the most measurable, personal and direct link to consumers ever created: The mobile phone. But that description is just the beginning.
In BRANDING UNBOUND, I put forth a concept I call mBranding – using the mobile medium to create differentiation, generate sales, and build customer loyalty as never before possible. It’s not just about delivering a commercial message through mobile phones. But it can also mean creating unique, branded experiences that engage consumers in amazing new ways – or that serve them anytime, everywhere.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about mobile marketing. The first is that this idea that was popular early on, and seems to be reemerging as the iPhone and Android geo-location capabilities are getting more coverage. It’s this idea that we’ll soon be walking down the street and get pinged with an offer for 50-cents off our next latte at the nearest Starbucks. Forget about. We will never put up with that kind of intrusion.
It sounds really cool when it’s Starbucks sending us a mobile coupon. But the moment you’re walking down the street and 20 different retailers ping you with offers, it’s going to get really old, really fast.
The other misconception that just wont’ go away is that mobile’s new channel for delivering ads – this idea that borrowing banner ads from the Internet, or video commercials from TV.
One word: Borrrring. As a marketer, I don’t view such a notion as very compelling. And as a consumer, it’s a snoozefest. A lot of companies are spending millions to prove me wrong – and they should, it’s worth the experimentation. But in my view, it’s completely missing the power of this new medium.
Instead, I content that mobile is far more powerful when viewed as a response or interaction mechanism – a mechanism by which consumers can respond to commercial messages they experience in other media – in print, television, radio, outdoor, online, direct mail and more, right at the point of impression.
Now, there is never again a reason for a consumer to try to remember an 800 number or a URL. Ads featuring short codes can link me directly to the offers or information I’m after, either through a text interaction, or by linking me to a mobile web site or for download. This will get even more interesting as camera phones enable us to simply point at a QR code and click any button to access these offers or information.
It’s the ultimate consumer response mechanism.
What advantages do companies and people have with mobile phones, as opposed to other communicate channels?
In terms of marketing, the mobile phone is the first truly interactive device that everyone has, everywhere they go. Back at the dawn of the dot-com era, the Internet hype machine pitched the World Wide Web as a marketers dream come true. But it never really lived up to those two tenets that have been so central to the Internet’s promise.
The first: Anywhere. The second: Anytime.
Mobile changes that equation by enabling consumers to access their content, their communications, their transactions and their applications whenever, wherever, however they want using the device they always have at hand.
As I just mentioned, that means mobile is a way for consumers to interact with, and engage with content and communications instantaneously. And brands like MTV, Yahoo, Nike, Warner Bros. and McDonald’s are embracing it to astonishing effect. In BRANDING UNBOUND the book and blog, I show readers how.
I’ve read reports citing that over 80% of Gen-Y has mobile phones. What is the best way for companies to market to this group?
It really depends on the brand. For many brands, going into mobile may or may not make sense, even if it’s a Gen-Y demographic. Certain big-box retailers are heavily into mobile this back-to-school season. It may make sense – advertisers have to go where their audiences is. I just wonder if being in mobile is going to make some of these brands seem any cooler than having a web site did.
I think we run this danger of everyone declaring “we’ve got to have a mobile strategy.” But mobile’s not a strategy. It’s a channel. It’s like saying “we need a television strategy.”
Success today comes down to knowing who your customers are and how they use or don’t use a channel and then innovating ways to connect with them wherever it makes sense, in whatever ways it makes sense. Mobile may or may not be part of the equation.
All of that said, for certain lifestyle brands in music, movies, television, and maybe fashion, it’s safe to say, given their consumer and their consumers use of mobile, that failure to keep up with the mobile revolution may mean risking total and absolute irrelevancy.
What are your thoughts about the iPhone, Blackberry and upcoming Google Android? What is the future of marketing over these types of phones? Should every company have an iPhone app?
The iPhone has obviously been the subject of an egregious amount of hype, and it is a transformative device when it comes to the way consumers use mobile. But in my view, the iPhone only shined the spotlight on a revolution that’s going to happen whether or not the iPhone was ever invented.
All of these devices, including Android, signify the evolution of mobile, and all will bring their unique capabilities to bear.
But do we really need Android’s vaunted geo-awareness and user targeting capabilities? For way-finding, sure. For advertising based on where you happen to be standing at any point in time, no.
Does every company need to have an iPhone app?
It depends on the brand. It’s like asking does every company need a widget or MySpace page or a virtual storefront in Second Life.
As an example, marketing executives at Unilever would never ask that question – at least not that way.
Whether you’re talking about Dove – which won the first ever Cannes Grand Prix-winning television, web and mobile initiatives for the “What is Beautiful” campaign – or Axe deodorant – which is known for racy viral videos and advergames – Unilever would never think first about tactics. They’d think about consumer insights. They would know exactly how their customers engage with digital media and would build out programs to reach them in powerful, brand-appropriate ways.
If your customer base is comprised of Mac-addicted iPhone users who download a certain number of apps per month, and you’ve got a fantastic idea for an app that you think they’ll love (or that they said they’d love through focus groups), an iPhone app it should be.
Not a lot of brands can say that today.
When it comes to reputation management, what effects will mobile phones have on people? For instance, I can Google you on my iPhone before I interview you for a position or I can snap a picture of you stealing candy from a baby, upload it to YouTube and send it to 1,000 people in 6 minutes. Should we be worried?
Certainly that’s an issue. Just ask Michael Richards. Had there not been audience members with mobile phones at the ready during his stand-up comedy act, he might not have faced such bad publicity.
As for everyday folks, I don’t see it as that much of an issue – at least as long as you aren’t stealing candy from a baby. If you’re interviewing someone, you’ve long been able to Google them, so simply being able to do it through another device means very little.
But for marketers, as things like the Android Scanner get hacked, reputation management takes on new meaning.
In BRANDING UNBOUND, I interview Howard Rheingold, author of “Smart Mobs.” He poses the question, when everyone can walk into a store and aim their phone at your product’s barcode and instantly access not just comparative pricing information, but user reviews, defective product lawsuits, political contributions and more, and suddenly reputation management takes on real-time, real-world urgency.
How has Warner Bros. used mobile marketing to dramatically boost the effectiveness of their print, broadcast, online, and in-store promotions?
That’s too broad a question for answering succinctly. I think you’re referring to a blurb about how a number of brands – including Warner – have done these things.
In BRANDING UNBOUND, I look at how in the run-up to a new release from Madonna, Warner used mobile as a call to action on Internet banners – enabling fans to send a message to a short code in able to receive a secret phone number to hear tracks before they ever aired or were available for download. Over a one-month period, fans sent 30,000 of the messages, and 62.1% dialed in toe hear the songs – generating fan enthusiasm that contributed to over 650,000 sales.
I look at how Duncan Donuts used short codes in print and broadcast advertising, and how the campaign boosted sales at participating locations by 20% – with 9% directly attributable to mobile.
I look at how Pepsi used in-store and bottle-cap advertising with mobile calls to action to actually be able to boost purchases and even be able to send specific offers to specific users based on observed purchase behavior.
I look at how History Channel used mobile to send 1000,000 text messages promoting an upcoming show to people who’d asked to receive such messages. Eighty-eight percent read the message, 18% watched the show, and 12% even forwarded the message to a friend.
It goes on and on. And it’s what BRANDING UNBOUND the book – and the blog are all about.
What are 3 of your top 10 secrets of mobile marketing?
Not in any particular order:
No pushing allowed: This goes back to my comments about extending Internet ad banners or TV ads to mobile phones. Mobile phones are very personal devices. It’s important for consumers to be the ones to initiate interactions (pull), not just receive commercial messages in the form of text messages or banner ads or video pre-rolls (push). From the consumer’s standpoint, it’s pretty simple: “Don’t call us. We’ll call you.”
Integration is the name of the game: Mobile works best as part of an integrated multimedia campaign that combines any combination of print, outdoor, and/or broadcast advertising. Brands shouldn’t just do mobile marketing just for the sake of mobile marketing. They should work with their agencies to understand the opportunities and determine if it makes sense as part of the overall marketing mix.
Location is (sometimes) where it’s at: I talked earlier about how location-aware mobile marketing isn’t very interesting. But place-based marketing via the mobile channel is another thing all together. In-stadium offerings at concerts and sporting events enable attendees to take part in polling and promotions while they participate in the game or show. And Nike’s electronic billboard in Times Square enabled passersby to design their own running shoes – including colors and designs – using their mobile phones, all displayed in real time on the billboard for everyone to see. Nike then sent each participate a text message connected to a website, where pictures of the customized shoes can be viewed and purchased. That’s what location- or place-based marketing should be.
If readers are interested, they can read an excerpt on my 10 rules that ran in ADWEEK, BRANDWEEK and MEDIAWEEK starting here: http://www.brandingunbound.com/oa-2.htm. For a fuller explanation, you’ll have to pick up the book.
What does Tom Peters have to say about the mobile marketing phenomenon?
Don’t take it from me. Read this excerpt at 800-CEO-Read.com.
I’ve interviewed Tom many times over the years – he’s always energetic and entertaining, and he’s been a huge influence on my thinking, particularly in the area of innovation. In this particular interview, one of my favorite comments rings true for all of us.
When I asked how he thought the emergence of mobile technologies can best be put to use, he responded with his usual, cantankerous gusto:
“The most important thing I can say is, ‘I don’t know.’ And anybody who says they do know is an idiot, and you may quote me on that.”
I think that’s probably the perfect thought to end on.
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Rick Mathieson is an award-winning writer, author, speaker and frequent media commentator on the converging worlds of marketing, media and technology. His insights on postmodern marketing have been featured in ADWEEK, Advertising Age, E-Business and on CBS Radio and NPR.
His book BRANDING UNBOUND was a #1 new “business fundamentals” release at Barnes & Noble.com; has ranked in Amazon.com’s top-selling books on advertising; and was rated “one of the best marketing books of the year” by Midwest Book Review. And it has been selected for inclusion at the business school libraries of UC Berkeley, Stanford, Georgetown and Harvard.
