Mobile for Dingbats Week

We’re all dingbats about some things, and experts in others. Lots of marketers, particularly those over 30, are less familiar with mobile phones and their potential marketing uses than they are of offline or PC-based media. You simply can’t be expert in everything in this constantly evoloving kaleidoscope of options that is the 2008 media environment. But because mobile has become such a critical part of daily life for ourselves and our targets, it makes sense to learn a little more.

If You’re a Mobile Dingbat, this is the week for you on OLDMTA. Each day I will be offering informaiton to help people unfamiliar with mobile marketing better understand this fascinating space. Let's get started!

The Year of Mobile???

Little known fact: In his farewell address, President George Washington predicted that 1797 would be “The year of mobile.” Every year since, pundits have been telling us that mobile’s big time debutante cotillion is definitely next year.

OK, so some of that isn’t true. But for about the last 5-7 years, people have been promising that the year of mobile is only months away. And every year they have been wrong. Mobile marketing is just getting going.

Or so says me. Some define 2007 as the “year of mobile.” In other words it already happened. I am not poo-pooing the observations of these visionaries. But by my definition we are still waiting for mobile marketing to truly go mainstream. True, some big brands did try mobile in 2007 and that is a significant development. ACNielsen reported that 23% of mobile users saw a mobile advertisement in February 2008, which is surely significant.

But I define the “year of mobile” as the one in which we see big time activity. Not the odd SMS program, not an SMS CRM adjunct to an email program, not a small ad buy. But by mobile actually being used by lots of big brands view as a real tool rather than as an experiment. When a packaged good reports that they can attribute 80,000 cases to mobile, or an automaker reports 8 points of improvement in awareness and purchase intent, that will be the year of mobile for me.

The Year of Mobile? Are You Ready?

Why isn't mobile bigger to marketers? People point to a lack of common standards across phones. To the prevalence of old phones being used – phones with limited data functionalities. To limited usage of data services like SMS among people outside their teens. And a bunch of other things.

What’s interesting about these “reasons” is that a lot of them just aren’t true. A little later I’ll outline the data, but the fact is that most Americans 18+ have a cell phone, and more than half do something other than make calls on it. And changes in mobile technology adoption appear to be more abrupt than gradual. American Idol got a plurality teens in America texting in just one season. iPhone and its clones are doing the same thing to Internet access via a phone.

So, in short, I reject the idea that the consumer isn’t ready for major mobile market efforts. The problem is that most of us – us mainstream marketers, people who don’t know what CDMA stands for without visiting Wikipedia – don’t know what to do with mobile. What might work. How it really fits into the lives of our non-13 year old consumers.

Bad Evangelism

And like many technologies, its evangelists haven’t succeeded in finding easy ways to dimensionalize the potential impact of mobile marketing yet. I want to emphasize that I am indicting myself here as much as anyone else, but digital people as a group positively suck at explaining the marketing import of things.
Look how we explain a simple thing like RSS:

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content including, but not limited to, blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" [3] or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.

In short, we explain one confusing technology by referring to others, and focus on the first tiny efforts instead of using big programs as our case studies. By the time the big brands are doing things, most of us have moved on to the next thing.

Gimme Real Proof

Most brands want real proof before they leap into something. Because a dollar spent on something unproven is a dollar that can’t be spent on one of the proven tactics that propel sales.

And real proof is not some fourth tier teen brand collecting 3,500 opt-ins for a mobile program.

And most marketers are busy – too busy to spend a day or a week researching something like an emerging media channel.

This mobile week on OLDMTA is intended to explain mobile in a single place; to talk about the various marketing options available, and to discuss how a brand might use them. If you know the 13 ways that 3G is better than 2G, this week's posts aren’t for you. But if you are looking for some plain English and strategic ideas, I hope you find this week a beneficial investment of time.