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Emily Rex is a principal and director of Account Management at Departure, a San Diego-based advertising agency that specializes in high impact solutions for challenger brands. Departure delivers results that are immediate and broad in scope – achieved through a combination of strategically-focused creative, integrated broadcast, Web media planning and comprehensive tracking.

An industry veteran with more than 15 years of experience, Rex has served as account supervisor and director of Account Management for McCann-Erickson and MeadsDurket – both located in San Diego. Rex has experience managing brands such as Carlson Foods’ Pick Up Stix Restaurants, Hitachi Corp., Union Bank of California, San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, Bumble Bee Foods, Lockheed Martin, Glacier Water, Aldila Golf, General Dynamics, United Way, and many others.

“The only way to compete effectively against rivals with far greater media budgets is to form a progressive strategy - built on a strong, defining brand concept and efficient media spending geared toward impact rather than frequency. Simply put, if you can’t win by the rules, change the rules.”

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McModify Mobile Search To Reach the Masses

Written on
April 15th 2008
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by Emily Rex  |
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phonegame.jpgADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — Mobile search advertising is a medium that the industry’s been buzzing about for a few years and while it’s not truly mainstream yet, we are crossing an exciting new media frontier … and it’s important for marketers to both understand the new terrain and navigate it with care.

Search advertising is different on a mobile phone. Mobile search is used for instantly actionable search queries as opposed to the in-depth research and comparison behavior seen on the Internet. People use mobile search to find things they need immediately – directions, company information, movie locations and times, etc. In most cases, the major difference between Internet and mobile search is that consumers don’t look across the entire Web. And most corporate Web sites are not prepared to receive this traffic, due to their use of technologies that are not currently resident on mobile phones, such as Flash, Java and advanced HTML scripts.

What will make mobile marketing mainstream? Mass-market adoption will occur with the decreasing cost and increasing market penetration of Smartphones along with corporate and media Web sites’ ability to accept and translate a mobile search inquiry and re-direct it to a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) site.

If you’re interested in testing the waters and starting a mobile campaign, here are four important tips that can help you on your way:

• Understand your target audience: Mobile carriers and providers are very different. Carriers are a direct reflection of their audiences. Some are broad and reach multiple audiences and others are very targeted. After you identify your target audience, make sure to find a carrier that reaches your end user.

• Find the right technology: If you don’t have a mobile Web site, there are options like click-to-call, that don’t require a mobile site.

• Research keywords: As with Internet search, keyword research is important and must be done.

• Embrace analytics: In order to monitor performance of your mobile campaign, use tracking URLs. With tracking URLs, a unique mobile pixel is used rather than the standard pixel. There isn’t a common, cross-platform technology standard across all carriers; therefore, common ad currency definitions do not exist across all vendors. Specific tracking information can be sought at the carrier level, but it won’t translate outside of the wall across all opportunities.

Although most of us are still learning about mobile, there’s one thing we can be sure of: the mobile handset is the one thing you’d almost never leave home without. Which means your audience is always within reach.



Reader Comments.

Your article hits upon the most crucial thing in mobile search marketing, understanding what works. Mobile analytical tools such as our Bango Analytics products are already playing a crucial role in helping businesses evaluate what is working. They insert tracking urls and see which countries, networks and handsets their users are coming from. It’s so gratifying to see this article understand the importance of the carrier network and the different demographic that each offers. We encourage our customers to fine tune their marketing to target the networks that convert the best.

Posted by Sarah Keefe | 1:23 pm on April 15, 2008.

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