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As CEO of LSF Network, Daniel Laury’s international finance, marketing and technology backgrounds are a perfect match for continuously pioneering the way in performance oriented digital marketing.

An Internet pioneer, Laury co-founded LuckySurf.com that became the 17th most visited site in the world by December 2000. In 2005, he founded LSF Interactive, an agency that has become one of the largest global digital marketing agencies. In 2007 and 2010 LSF was recognized as one of Inc. Magazine's fastest growing private companies in America. LSF Network is now one of the largest independent agency groups with well-known digital agency brands; e-Visibility, 15miles, LSF Interactive and a large European presence.

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Features

Goin’ Mobile Across All Channels

Written on
Sep 19, 2011 
Author
Daniel Laury  |
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Goin’ Mobile Across All Channels

ADOTAS – If you’re looking in the same old places, you may be out of luck. Eighty-five percent of consumers are going mobile – you simply won’t find them on desktops alone. According to a recent research piece from MediaMind (ex-Eyeblaster) mobile ads for the telecom industry vertical now achieve 6 times the performance of browser-based standard banners!

As The Who famously sang back in 1971, we’re all “goin’ mobile.” But 40 years later the words have a whole new meaning. The question for marketers is: are you going to stick in your earplugs or turn up the volume and rock this new stage?

The only buzz bigger than social media right now is mobile marketing, for good reason. Consider these facts:

  • Sales of Internet-enabled mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and e-readers, have already surpassed those of Internet-enabled laptops, notebooks, and desktop computers.
  • There are more than 2 billion mobile devices in use worldwide today, roughly 600 million more than the number of Internet users.
  • Mobile ad spending is predicted to reach $1 billion in 2011 in the United States, according to eMarketer.
  • The latest MediaMind research suggests that the average CTR on mobile banners on their network was 0.64% compared to 0.10% for standard online banners, more than 6 times higher.
  • A recent study by Adobe found that 62% of mobile device users had purchased a variety of goods and services from their phone such as music, movies, apparel, books, groceries, and computer equipment.

Of the many emerging marketing channels – including social, local, video and viral – mobile offers the most to marketers in terms of flexibility and reach. You can’t afford to overlook this increasingly important opportunity.

But there are significant differences between mobile and other online marketing. Mobile phones are highly targeted devices that tend to have only one user. These users expect even more personal, relevant information and that they’ll be able to engage with your content instantly. The other key challenge is the broad range of different screen sizes and resolutions, which tests the display and optimal viewing of content and advertising.

So, unless you’re a rock star like Roger Daltry, incorporating mobile into an integrated marketing plan takes some strategy. With budgets stretched tight, how can you leverage mobile, offer a good experience with meaningful engagement, and beat your competitors to this market?

When designing a mobile advertising campaign, there are many ways to reach your audience. Here are five channels you can consider: mobile web, mobile apps, mobile messaging, mobile search, and mobile video. A mobile roadmap for your company might include one or more of these tactics. The most important strategy is to stay true to your brand and leverage your strengths while adapting them to this new-ish platform.

Mobile Web

The mobile web is fast emerging as a mainstream information, entertainment and transaction source for people on the move. Surfing the mobile web is similar to traditional web browsing and provides access to news, sports, weather, entertainment, shopping sites and more. These folks are typically driven by personal information needs (e.g. updating a blog, accessing travel information, getting a news update).

Ad opportunities for mobile web include banner or text ads on mobile web sites and branded mobile web sites. These ads are best at driving consumers to a mobile web site, generating leads, direct sales, and branding.

Take Action: Offer consumers a web site experience that is built and optimized for the mobile user. Your mobile site needs to be easy to navigate using just the keypad; built with lightweight pages and limited graphics; and formatted for the most popular mobile devices and platforms.

Mobile Applications

There are now more than 750,000 mobile apps available across the three leading smartphone platforms: iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. The explosion of apps offers a tempting outlet for the right brands. With games, newsreaders, and lifestyle tools leading the pack, branded applications are a powerful, personal means to engage consumers.

Take Action: Decide if your product or service lends itself to an app and what it can do differently (and better) than your competitors. Placing ads within an app via banner or splash page can also drive traffic and branding/CRM goals.

Mobile Messaging

This category includes SMS and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). SMS is available to virtually all mobile phone users and does not typically require a data plan or mobile web access, making it ideal for reaching most mobile users. While SMS is limited to text, MMS creates opportunities for rich media ads, including images, audio and video.

Take Action: Dive into messaging with text ads, banner ads, splash pages and animations. These ads are great for driving users to your mobile web site, click to call campaigns, branding/CRM, and interactive campaigns (e.g., surveys, sweepstakes, voting, polling).

Mobile Search

Annual mobile search advertising revenues are expected to skyrocket from $20 million in 2008 to $1.3 billion in 2013. Searchers typically want concise, actionable information like news headlines, sports scores, weather, movie times or nearby coffee shops.

Mobile users also want ringtones, downloadable music and video clips, all of which must be organized in a way that makes it fast and convenient to find exactly what they want. The good news is that Google uses the same algorithm to determine organic rankings in SERPs for computers as it does for phones (the mobile web).

Take Action: Continue to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to maintain a healthy presence in SERPs and enjoy the same rankings in the mobile world as in the desktop world.

Mobile Video and TV

Mobile video and TV give advertisers the potential to reach audiences in a targeted and personal manner with high impact, emotional, and informative advertising. YouTube is now serving over 200 million video views per day to mobile devices. Ad opportunities include video ads in pre-roll, mid-roll or post roll, static images, animation, clickable overlays and branded videos.

Take Action: Review your video arsenal for usable content, create your own videos or advertise on the popular videos of others to leverage this powerful medium to your advantage.

Are You Goin’ Mobile?

Now is a great time to look closely at your mobile marketing strategy. Mobile is valuable alone, but is even more powerful when incorporated into fully integrated cross-media campaign plans, including TV, print, radio, outdoor, cinema, online and direct mail.

Mobile web sites, mobile apps, mobile messaging, mobile search and mobile video offer targeting possibilities far beyond that of traditional media. Don’t reinvent yourself; simply leverage your strengths and apply them to this new platform. The rocker in you will be glad you did.





Reader Comments.

I think most of all smartphones are so popular because of its all-in-one capabilities. Before, the technology wasn’t good enough to just carry around a smartphone for many uses but now it can be a viable option for: web browsing, picture/video taking, playing games.

Posted by PatrickC | 2:57 pm on September 20, 2011.

Thank you for the great mobile stats. This will help me make the case in my company to consider a mobile test campaign.

Posted by Ad Planner | 1:55 pm on September 21, 2011.

Good point PatrickC! It’s that all-in-one functionality that makes our phones so addictive, fun, and useful. And why we marketers really need to pay attention and adopt/adapt.

Posted by GinnaH | 1:36 pm on September 22, 2011.

Great piece, Daniel. There’s no doubt that the world has gone mobile! For readers looking to promote apps as part of their overall mobile marketing strategy, I encourage them to check out some tips (and pitfalls to avoid) on designing mobile app banner ads that are not just artistic guesswork, but high-performing assets that drive app downloads: http://www.fiksu.com/blog/dos-and-donts-for-designing-great-mobile-ads

Posted by Viki Zabala | 2:26 pm on September 22, 2011.

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