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Mike CarsonCMOMyxer |
Mobile advertising is everywhere. The power and ubiquity of digital mobile ads provide a way for consumers to not only obtain more information about a brand or product, but for advertisers to keep consumers interacting with a brand long after that first impression occurred.
If you are a marketing executive in charge of deciding where your advertising and marketing dollars are spent, then you should familiarize yourself with three important points when considering mobile advertising:
1. The environment in which the ad is viewed: From an environment perspective, mobile advertising increases the opportunity for consumers to view in a dramatic way, based simply on the amount of time in which they spend using their mobile phones relative to the amount of time that out-of-home or Web advertising can impact a consumer.
2. The format of the mobile advertising: The format or size of the advertising is reduced, albeit with a higher frequency, allowing brands to touch consumers via a new ad space on an extremely personal device at a higher frequency.
3. The level of action a consumer is able to take with respect to the advertisement: Most digital mobile ads provide a way for consumers to not only obtain more information about a brand or product, but to actually purchase or access it in a nonstatic environment.
Virality, Distribution, And Digestion
The distribution of content in the mobile space is extremely important in that it improves a brand's effectiveness by allowing consumers to engage in an active fashion. Take a recent campaign Myxer conducted on behalf of Geico, one the largest insurers in the U.S. We created custom Web and mobile Web storefronts for a wide range of Geico ringtones, including those featured in commercials as well as sound bites of the popular Gecko character.
Overall, more than 350,000 downloads of Geico mobile entertainment content were recorded in the campaign's first 60 days, leading to a major spike in traffic to the storefronts. It wasn’t just consumer downloads that made this successful, but the ability for these ringtones to be shared with others that continued to resonate long after content delivery because the item now lives in their personal catalogs.
Always remember to use an integrated approach when possible. This helps to create an affinity with the brand, plus a memorable experience with consumers that reaches them at different points of their media consumption.
For example, all of the sharing features from the Geico campaign were available from both the Web and directly from a user’s phone. In addition, the campaign leveraged the custom SMS keyword “GEICO” (Text “GEICO” to 69937) to deliver a direct link to the custom Geico mobile content storefront on Myxer. Your takeaway: Having your campaign tightly integrated with other campaign components, and cross-promoted through the different channels creates a 360-degree approach to reaching your audience and keeping them interested.
Your Audience Moves Fast-- So Should You
The mobile environment is fast and frequent, with consumers growing ever more fickle by the day. In that environment consumption patterns can be high so that items such as free content and coupons present consumers with opportunities to engage and stay active without frequent purchase commitments.
For a brand to convey its persona, it first and foremost has to be seen and experienced. Most would argue that reach alone is half the battle. There are benefits for ad context on the Web versus mobile due to size constraints. However, mobile is beginning to offer some very interesting contextual opportunities with respect to in-app advertising, which also provides maximum reach.
Even if you don’t fully understand the opportunities presented by the growth rate of mobile and smartphones, it should be considered, at a minimum, as an additional effective media outlet to reach an ever illusive audience and help keep your brand top of mind.
About Mike Carson Mike Carson is chief marketing officer of Myxer, a mobile technology company based in Miami. Carson oversees communications and brand development, with a focus on customer acquisition and retention strategies.
