Recognizing the rapid growth of mobile within the marketing landscape, the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) has established a dedicated mobile marketing council headed by Phil Barrett, senior director of integrated marketing for Research in Motion.
Barrett had previously led a mobile task force that was established in September 2010 as part of the CMA’s digital council. The task force produced what CMA president and CEO John Gustavson described as an “in-depth paper” about mobile marketing in Canada and a quick-start guide to mobile app marketing housed on the CMA web site.
According to Gustavson, the rapid adoption of mobile media by the marketing community necessitated the creation of a full-time council. “It’s now become a permanent, longer term part of the association,” said Gustavson.
“[Mobile] is becoming a fundamental medium and growth engine,” added Gustavson. “It’s growing by leaps and bounds and it’s not going to go away.”
Additional council members will be named within the next two to three weeks, and Gustavson said it will be populated by people with expertise in areas such as mobile platforms, strategy, research and regulatory affairs.
Although the CMA regularly refocuses and renames councils to reflect changing market conditions, Gustavson said the mobile council is the organization’s first entirely new body in about six years. It brings the number of CMA councils to nine.
According to Gustavson, the new council will have a “pretty broad mandate” that will focus on both the integration of mobile within the overall marketing mix and related items such as mobile best practices.
The CMA also announced yesterday the creation of a Mobile Marketing Scorecard, designed to help marketers determine the viability and application of mobile within their marketing plan. After providing their e-mail address, users are directed to a six-page questionnaire that asks them to provide information about factors such as primary audience, their media mix and overall marketing objectives. Once the questionnaire is completed, users are directed to a page that indicates the overall viability of mobile within their marketing mix, as well as suggestions about how it should be utilized.
