Marketing ‘To Go’ – The Mobile Opportunity
What’s the one personal item most people can’t live without? I bet if you ask the average person on the street, the majority would answer ‘My mobile phone’. It’s a connection point to friends and family that is almost always with you. You use it for voice, email, quick text messages, and in some cases (more often outside of the U.S.) it is your only computing device.
Think about the iPhone and the recurring line you hear on most Apple commercials: “There’s an app for that“. It’s true – the iPhone has quickly become many consumers only ‘connected’ device and because of that, Apple has single handedly made the mobile space relevant to marketers and advertisers. If companies aren’t paying attention to the opportunity mobile provides, they are missing a major piece of their marketing mix. Rachel Pasqua – Director, Mobile Advertising @ iCrossing supports this in her interviewwith eMarketer this week:
“Most major brands, if they take a good, hard look at their site analytics, will see a significant amount of traffic coming from mobile devices—mobile devices that won’t be able to handle their desktop site to the best advantage. I think failing to take those users into account will have serious repercussions.”
Given the fact that mobile advertising is growing at a staggering pace (Magna forecasts the U.S. market for mobile advertising will grow by 36%, rising from $169 million in 2008 to $229 million during 2009) the mobile medium has to be in your marketing mix – not as necessarily as a primary component – rather, as a complementary or ‘companion’ to your more traditional media vehicles (retail, online, television, print, and out of home). Brands and Marketers that recognize the importance of mobile will create new avenues to intersecting their customers and influence their perception of the brand, regardless of their location.