Jonathan MacDonald (“jMac”) explores the world of mobile advertising in his 5 episode series on Mobile Industry Review beginning today.
Episode one features a discussion with Freddy Friedman, Director of Marketing, Mobile Advertising at Mobixell Networks.
I was planning on editing this down to sub 10 minutes — but after watching it through multiple times, I think the 20 minute length is justified. There’s no gimmicks — just Jonathan and Freddy sat discussing the topic of mobile advertising and the medium’s future.
Find out more about Jonathan MacDonald via his site and find out more about the Every Single One Of Us mobile advertising movement here.
Here’s the first video:
MIR Show – jMac Takeover – Freddy from Mobixell from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.
@jmacdonald ROI as a measure from your @MIReview video my response is here http://is.gd/fUs8
Great show! Nice one, Jonathan…
It was really intersting to hear Freddie's views on what he believes needs to happen in order to breathe some much needed oxygen into the mobile advertising movement.
In particular, it is somewhat surprising that mobile operators outside of Western Europe like Turkcell seem to be ahead of the game with regards to user opt-in programmes whereas over here, the UK networks seem to be very much fumbling around in the dark.
Freddie's V.I.P. (value, interaction, personalisation) can never be realised here in Western Europe with existing operators unless networks build the opt-in mechanism in from the outset (in the same way that Blyk has done). Without doing this, mobile advertising will be restricted to blanket banner ads which have little value and even less targeting significance.
Jonathan's question of whether online metrics can be applied to mobile is something that needs to be explored further. As Freddie rightly points out, there is no standardisation for measurement currently available for mobile advertising. Also, online click through measurement isn't at all an exact science and is rapidly changing as both established and emerging online media platforms (social networks, blogs, forums) are not covered under Neilsen Net Ratings.
So is ROI the only viable measurement of mobile advertising success? Well yes and no. Yes because it is by far the easiest equation to gauge efficacy of this new ad medium. On the other hand, the social media marketing industry which relies heavily on word of mouth via communities and social networks is looking to a metrics system around “return on interaction” which I guess would be even more relevant to mobile given that the platform is highly personalised.
What the traditional ROI model overlooks is brand loyalty. Consumer spend doesn't have to be instantaneous in order for the platform to be deemed a success or a failure. Sure, ultimately, the advertiser is looking to shift units but I think that mobile is the ideal platform for building brand awareness over immediate sales.
Finally, it's interesting to hear that credit crunch will have a direct impact on mobile operator's APU. Whilst this shouldn't come as a major surprise – I think it's optimistic to think that this will have an acceleration effect on mobile advertising. There are plenty more technical barriers to overcome before mobile advertising comes of age which means a significant investment on behalf of the operators. Whether this spend will be seen as a priority in 2009 remains to be seen.
Really enjoyed this MIR – looking forward to the next guest slot.
Great show! Nice one, Jonathan…
It was really intersting to hear Freddie's views on what he believes needs to happen in order to breathe some much needed oxygen into the mobile advertising movement.
In particular, it is somewhat surprising that mobile operators outside of Western Europe like Turkcell seem to be ahead of the game with regards to user opt-in programmes whereas over here, the UK networks seem to be very much fumbling around in the dark.
Freddie's V.I.P. (value, interaction, personalisation) can never be realised here in Western Europe with existing operators unless networks build the opt-in mechanism in from the outset (in the same way that Blyk has done). Without doing this, mobile advertising will be restricted to blanket banner ads which have little value and even less targeting significance.
Jonathan's question of whether online metrics can be applied to mobile is something that needs to be explored further. As Freddie rightly points out, there is no standardisation for measurement currently available for mobile advertising. Also, online click through measurement isn't at all an exact science and is rapidly changing as both established and emerging online media platforms (social networks, blogs, forums) are not covered under Neilsen Net Ratings.
So is ROI the only viable measurement of mobile advertising success? Well yes and no. Yes because it is by far the easiest equation to gauge efficacy of this new ad medium. On the other hand, the social media marketing industry which relies heavily on word of mouth via communities and social networks is looking to a metrics system around “return on interaction” which I guess would be even more relevant to mobile given that the platform is highly personalised.
What the traditional ROI model overlooks is brand loyalty. Consumer spend doesn't have to be instantaneous in order for the platform to be deemed a success or a failure. Sure, ultimately, the advertiser is looking to shift units but I think that mobile is the ideal platform for building brand awareness over immediate sales.
Finally, it's interesting to hear that credit crunch will have a direct impact on mobile operator's APU. Whilst this shouldn't come as a major surprise – I think it's optimistic to think that this will have an acceleration effect on mobile advertising. There are plenty more technical barriers to overcome before mobile advertising comes of age which means a significant investment on behalf of the operators. Whether this spend will be seen as a priority in 2009 remains to be seen.
Really enjoyed this MIR – looking forward to the next guest slot.
@jmacdonald ROI as a measure from your @MIReview video my response is here http://is.gd/fUs8
@jmac ROI investment is an intriguing way to measure effectiveness, however it is hard to measure. Example if I get message on my handset from dominoes, how do they know I read the mms and went to dominoes. They could send a voucher with the mms and it *much* more likely to be used then say a voucher through my door or my email box. However what about a service that is not so easy to measure recently Coke ran a campaign on Blyk regarding there coke point system, how do the company know that I bought their specific product due to the mobile advertising the sent me and it was not just an impulse buy.
4 things.
1. Lets not base how things will be done on how things 'could' be done now.
2. Lets start from the position of EVERYTHING being possible and work back.
3. Lets look at how companies REALLY work. Cash, profit and return. It's only due to construction that the media industry has invented its own way round logic.
4. Lets converse tomorrow #powwow. This is a fairly major point which I will raise and open for discussion. Pitch in.
jMac
@jmacdonald
Very Interested on your views Jonathan, if your model can clearly show to potential advertisers that ROI on mobile is higher then traditional mediums then this really will be the future.
Unfortunately #powwow living in Manchester is not possible, hopefully between MIR and your personal blog hopefully they will be a summary!
@jmac ROI investment is an intriguing way to measure effectiveness, however it is hard to measure. Example if I get message on my handset from dominoes, how do they know I read the mms and went to dominoes. They could send a voucher with the mms and it *much* more likely to be used then say a voucher through my door or my email box. However what about a service that is not so easy to measure recently Coke ran a campaign on Blyk regarding there coke point system, how do the company know that I bought their specific product due to the mobile advertising the sent me and it was not just an impulse buy.
4 things.
1. Lets not base how things will be done on how things 'could' be done now.
2. Lets start from the position of EVERYTHING being possible and work back.
3. Lets look at how companies REALLY work. Cash, profit and return. It's only due to construction that the media industry has invented its own way round logic.
4. Lets converse tomorrow #powwow. This is a fairly major point which I will raise and open for discussion. Pitch in.
jMac
@jmacdonald
Very Interested on your views Jonathan, if your model can clearly show to potential advertisers that ROI on mobile is higher then traditional mediums then this really will be the future.
Unfortunately #powwow living in Manchester is not possible, hopefully between MIR and your personal blog hopefully they will be a summary!