For all the hype about mobile marketing, the story so far has been all talk-literally. Most people still only use their cellphones for conversation, and ad applications have largely been limited to text messaging. But some suggest we’re on the verge of-yes, you guessed it-Mobile 2.0, in which on-the-go search capabilities and video will mesh in devices that will make today’s cellphones as outdated as Ma Bell’s rotary contraptions. With that in mind, Marketing cuts through the hype to uncover four very real advertising opportunities in mobile’s not-so-distant future.
Search (whenever, wherever)
Marketers already understand the power of search on a PC. But what happens when consumers can look for, say, information on digital cameras while they’re out shopping for one? It’s the holy grail of advertising: reaching the consumer when they’re ready to buy. It’s no wonder mobile search is set to become one of the most important tools in a marketer’s arsenal over the next few years.
Of course, consumers will search on their phone differently than they do on their computer. For instance, “if a user searches ‘Toronto,’ our research has shown they are most likely looking for weather,” says Nick Patsiopoulos, product manager for mobile at Yahoo Canada. The company’s new OneSearch initiative brings up weather information, but alternative categories like restaurants (rather than individual websites) are also suggested. “It is a much more streamlined search, rather than trying to take you to a sea of web links.” Advertisers can then purchase search and display advertising on the result pages.
Meanwhile, mobile websites (designed to be seen on the cellphone’s smaller screen) are also attracting ad dollars. Jeff Janner, chief marketing officer of Boston-based Third Screen Media, which sells an inventory of 225 million impression placements across 180 U.S. content publishers, says mobile ads cut through the clutter “because of the novelty, and the simple fact there’s not as much inventory. It just doesn’t take as many clicks to get to somewhere you want to go.” Advertisers like Burger King and Toyota have placed ads through Third Screen Media on the mobile websites of USA Today and CBS SportsLine. According to Janner, those advertisers generate, on average, a clickthrough rate of 4% to 5%.
The iPhone effect
Can ber-cool Apple remake the cellphone the way it did the MP3 player? That’s the big question surrounding the upcoming launch of the iPhone, which combines three products: the phone, a widescreen iPod and an Internet communications device with e-mail, web browsing, maps and search.
Analysts say the US$600 price tag for iPhone is too steep for most consumers, but its biggest impact may be to force other cellphone makers to improve their devices. “Will iPhone raise the bar? If everything else Apple has done in the past 10 years tells us anything, the answer is clearly yes,” says Evan Neufeld, vice-president and senior analyst at M:Metrics, a Seattle-based mobile market measurement firm. In other words, if it’s not iPhone that convinces the masses their mobile phone is actually a converged media device, it will be products from other manufacturers that follow it. “The cellphone is already on the verge of forever becoming a converged device,” says Tejas Rao, director of product technology and sales, Nokia. “Today an everyday consumer would upgrade their phone to include a digital camera, video camera, music player and web device. What we’re seeing on mobile devices is all of those features becoming mainstream.”
At last! TV on the go
Advertisers are bullish on mobile video. Not surprising, since it represents an extension of their TV broadcast business. Unfortunately, wireless carriers have not yet streamlined their video capability so that mobile video can be accessed cross-carrier. That’s why most mobile video is often advertised as part of a promotion with a specific wireless carrier, thereby creating content “exclusive” to the carrier.
But if and when a cross-carrier video platform is created, mobile video will take off, thanks to the viral opportunities. Currently about 25% of devices are video-enabled, but just a paltry 2% of people use the service, says Raja Khanna, CCO of QuickPlay Media. But within the next two to four years, 50% of cellphone users could be consuming mobile video of some kind.
QuickPlay is already providing technology to the wireless carriers that helps personalize users’ mobile experiences. For instance, one person might be served ad-supported sports highlights and another a preview of a TV program. QuickPlay provided such technology for the new Rogers Vision service, which shows video-on-demand from sources like YouTube, ET Canada and CNN. “Consumers don’t want to be browsing around a catalogue for content,” points out Khanna. “They want to find the video content in just a few clicks.”
Your cellphone becomes a wallet
As if the cellphone needed to add another function to its repertoire, experts say it can now replace a ticket to a sporting event, or even a credit card. In some New York City stores, consumers can already swipe their cellphone as a credit card (they just hold their phones near a secure payment terminal). It’s part of a trial between Citibank and MasterCard that may also provide opportunities for advertisers, thanks to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that can identify when a wireless device is near a certain location and then send promotional or discount information. “It is a great opportunity for advertisers to be very targeted in their messaging,” says Nokia’s Rao.
In another example, last month the Toronto Raptors ran a promotion (left) with Impact Mobile in which cellphones became the ticket to a basketball game. For Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference quarter-finals at the Air Canada Centre, predetermined ticket holders and Rogers mobile customers were sent an SMS alert after they purchased their ticket, informing them they could show their ticket via their mobile browser. Although Philip Camino, GTA marketing manager, Rogers Wireless Partnerships, wouldn’t disclose any of the results, he says the trial “was a complete success and we are evaluating future applications of the technology across our various marketing platforms.”
