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Archived in Well, Christmas is upon us, and many people will be hoping Santa leaves them a snazzy new smartphone in their stocking this year. And it won’t be just thoughts of an iPhone keeping people awake on Christmas Eve, because Google’s G1 and Blackberry’s Storm will also be vying for space under the tree.
Sleek touchscreens, 3G+ internet and a plethora of apps have seduced people into putting a smartphone at the top of their Christmas wish list, replacing watches and shoes as this year’s must have accessory.
The demand for smartphones is great news for marketers. It means they can grow out of simple text and banner ads, and take advantage of swifter web speeds and slicker interfaces to deliver richer marketing messages, and let their creativity free from the bottle.
New devices, same rules
Marketers have been salivating over the potential reach of mobile for the last decade: most people own one, they rarely leave people’s pockets and offer a direct channel virtually 24 hours a day.
However, marketers need to tread carefully. Mobiles are more personal than a home PC, posing a risk if users see you as an intruder, whilst offering rich rewards if you’re able to add value to the mobile experience.
Whilst desperate to mine their goldmine of users (and prop up falling SMS and call revenue), if operators damage the mobile experience they risk losing subscribers to their rivals.
So, mobile marketing has to ensure it obeys the rules of being relevant and offering value if it wants to be accepted.
Next year you can expect mobile marketing to get more sophisticated as brands learn how to harness the potential of the handsets being packed onto Santa’s sleigh. The ripples of which have already been felt this year by what has been dubbed the ‘iPhone effect’.
The iPhone Effect on mobile marketing
There are plenty of stats on the potential of mobile you can reel off to persuade brands where to bet next year’s budget; however, the one which has really put fire into mobile’s engine is that nearly half of the responses to a mobile display ad were made on an iPhone.
From even a cynical view, this figure indicates that when handsets with touchscreens and faster internet access proliferate people will be more inclined to respond to marketing.
But before advertisers start flooding messages onto iPhones, G phones and Blackberrys, they need to work out how to deliver them in a way that adds to the mobile experience and is accepted by users.
There’s still a lot of experimentation to be done.
Application Wars
Earlier this year, Apple opened up the iPhone platform in a bid to steal Google’s thunder as the developer’s platform of choice.
Along with fishing games, finger print scanners and internet radio players, brands have been releasing applications which they hope will enable them to engage with the iPhone user base.
US clothes retailer Target, for example, has released a ‘Gift Globe’ in time for Christmas. Give your iPhone a shake and the screen mimics the effect of a snow globe, with the flakes revealing gift ideas and links to your local store.
Next year you can expect to see a flood of mobile apps competing for attention as brands follow the new rules of marketing in which you offer relevancy and value in exchange for engagement.
Although judging from this review, Target has more experimenting to do before it releases the next one:
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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.
December 14th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
The prevalence of smart phones and unlimited data plans may mean a new world of possibility for marketers. But what’s REALLY useful for those using mobile devices? Studies have shown that people aren’t all that excited about branded apps like the one listed above, because the bigger benefit is not for the consumer, but the marketer.
October 8th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
[...] year I commented on why iPhone apps were at the top of many brands’ Christmas wish list. Ever since Stanley Works released their [...]