Yeah . . . This Isn’t the Year of Mobile Either.
By Stephanie Critchfield on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008Everyone involved in digital marketing is well aware that every year — since, what, 2000? — has been named “The Year of Mobile.”
Without surprise, yet another year is coming up short.
AdAge came out with an interesting article (Why ‘08 Isn’t Mobile’s Year — Again [requires subscription to read]) that tackles the reasons why we have been prematurely forecasting every new year as THE year, along with fixes that make 2009 more probable.
AdAge’s outlined mobile’s challenges as:
CHALLENGE NO. 1: REACH (OR LACK THEREOF)
CHALLENGE NO. 2: MEASUREMENT
CHALLENGE NO. 3: COMPLEXITY
CHALLENGE NO. 4: THE MISNOMER OF MOBILE AS AD MEDIUM
CHALLENGE NO 5: THERE’S BEEN NO HALLELUJAH MOMENT
I think Ad Age did a really decent job of identifying the pieces of the puzzle that must fit together before THE year can happen. The biggest point is that the technology need to reach the masses is still not widely adopted.
“Of the 219 million U.S. wireless subscribers, just over 30 million are on data plans, according to M:Metrics. That means more than 86.1% still use mobile devices primarily for talk, which isn’t optimal for mobile marketing.”
Clearly, there is progress that needs to be made before mobile takes off. As AdAge suggests, beginning to define the elements that will create success now will serve us well when the audience is ready for it.
but I would think those 30 million users are highly coveted by the marketers…
see this interesting post.
JJ,
You raise an excellent point about the 30 million people that ARE “hooked up” for mobile marketing.
And your link was a really really interesting blog post. Particularly as the writer suggests one of the best opportunities for mobile (that sounds like is in development) - a mobile application that, no matter where you are, provides information about the people around you. Now that’s some brilliant stuff - an extension of social networking, something so many already accept and embrace.
This also drills home the point AdAge makes: that marketers have to think beyond the Ad Medium concept. Mobile offers terrific opportunities, as this article suggests.
Thanks for the comment!
The Technology is here although lacking in some areas. The key is to deliver the total package of distribution ie: 1-1 VDP,PURLS, sms, and call centers then segment the prospects that would be more acceptable to opt in the various formates. Everything has its place we just need to do a better job of finding out how prospects / customers would like to receive their information. Is all connected.