Mobilizing

[Posted by David Card]

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I had fun judging some mobile content yesterday. I'm sworn to secrecy, but trust me, the winners were cool. And some of them even integrated advertising gracefully.

However, I was a bit disappointed - as were several other judges - about how many of the apps missed out on applying some core values. Way too much "port over a Web app, and try real hard to accommodate the small screen and keyboard."

Doesn't it seem to you like mobile content should actually exploit the fact it's mobile (that is, on the go), that it's local, and that it's running on a device that's optimized for communications (that is, social)? Sigh. Anyway, my report in production will show that on-the-go broadband will be dominated by the small screen (versus on-the-go laptops), and that there will be a critical mass audience for marketers and programmers to target in the US beginning in 2010. Till it's posted, here's what's up in the US, and the outlook for mobile broadband PCs in Europe.

I don't think the Internet will gravitate to the handset, either. Intersect with it, for sure. And that's one reason why He who synchs best, wins, as former colleague Michael Gartenberg would say.

Consumer Forum Day Two Wrap-Up

Back in the office and a little tardy with my Consumer Forum wrap-up. I met with another half-dozen execs who pretty much confirmed some of my observations from the day before. I am still rather amazed how little economy-obsessing went on at the event. Are we wearing blinders, or is digital really more insulated? Better subscribe to Forrester Downturn Alerts to be safe.

Day 2 featured the second annual Groundswell awards for social applications. Note that not all the winners were huge companies with massive resources: the Brooklyn Museum and a credit union from Alberta are right next to Starbucks and Mattel. At the risk of repetition, the ROI metrics still seem more compelling for customer service than for objectives earlier in the marketing funnel.

Highlights from the executive keynotes included Citi Brands CMO Debra Coughlin observing that, with four commoditized credit cards in every wallet, it's all the more critical for Citi to succeed at multichannel consumer communications. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping author Paco Underhill charmed the audience and noted that during economic crises, consumers say they're more time-poor than money-poor.

He also riffed a bit on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, a topic that came up in two Forrester presos. James McQuivey argued on Day 1 -- compellingly -- that consumer technology needs must be addressed in parallel, rather than in a linear progression. He's got a survey in the field testing his hypothesis and framework that I'm eager to see more of. Lisa Bradner counterpuncheded a little with thoughts on a more traditional approach for marketing more traditional products (a new set of the four P's, anyone?).

Check out the Forrester presentations here.

Trend-Spotting at Day One of the Consumer Forum

I did about a dozen meetings during the course of Day One of the Consumer Forum, most of them about social computing strategies for marketing. Some quick pattern-matching across the conversations produces the following trends:

• Social marketing budgets are safer than mobile initiatives in the current climate
• That said, social marketing measurement and ROI are sketchy at best. So marketing leaders continue to earmark for experiments more than full-blown campaigns
• CPGs are keen to participate
• It's way easier to prove ROI for social marketing for customer service cost-savings than for branding objectives or customer acquisition. That said, it felt like initiatives were equally distributed
• Social marketing doesn't exclusively equate to youth marketing -- no, not at all. And it piques a lot of interest for business to business marketing, not just consumer

Some highlights from the keynote executive presentations:

Since I'm a media analyst, I'll give more than equal time to NBC. NBC's digital content VP, Cameron Death, illustrated the Big Change Agents NBC was facing: continued TV fragmentation and audience niche tastes, DVRs, broadband as a viable video distribution channel, an increasing pace of consumer technology adoption, and a new environment where viewers are way more likely to "lean forward" and actively engage with multiple screens. No surprises, but a good, broad perception of the state of the art.

NBC's responses are on the money and appear effective, if not lucrative. NBC's attempt to scope audience size of the various new channels for, say, the premiere of "Heroes" shows TV with a 4:1 lead (24.5 million viewers to 8 million) over video streams, while a combo of downloads, VOD, and mobile added an underwhelming 130,000 viewers. Death promoted NBC's embrace of branded entertainment -- in this case, on-air commercials where a show's actors hawk goods -- but conceded that he worried that viewers could end up equating with these ads with spam. And, in a very big admission from a big network, he said that hyper syndication was alive and well while destination viewing was dead.

I've always said a broadcast network's core skills were acquiring (not creating) shows, selling ads, and cross-promotion on-air. Death is a content guy, so it's natural he's all about content, but NBC will have to prove consumer and advertiser value in promotion and ad targeting across the new media.

Acxiom SVP Tim Suther estimated $112 billion in advertising is wasted, and pushed 21st centruy behavioral targeting by what he called "confluence" and aligned measurement and incentives, and quick wins. Blockbuster CEO James Keyes says Blockbuster can't mean "video" but must be "media." Twitter commentators remained unconvinced. Consultant Patricia Seybold re-introduced marketing leaders to consumer ecosystems, and opined that empowering kids today will help you figure out the future.

Marketing's on the road

I had to cross Paris this morning to speak at a conference.  And in the soft spring weather, I was struck by the number of people on bikes.  It’s nowhere near Amsterdam, but since I only go through the center of Paris very occasionally before 9 in the morning, I noticed the change. 

Many of the cycling commuters were on Paris’ new Vélibe, the essentially free bikes funded as an exchange for the right to an outdoor advertising concession.  No, there aren’t screens on the bikes, nor advertising on the stands where the bikes are rented.  At least, not yet.

But advertising has certainly taken to the road.  There is a growing game of cat and mouse between consumers and advertisers.  Consumers are evading ads and marketers are finding ever more ways to get in contact with them. 

I’m working on a platform called Ubiquitous Marketing, which examines many of these new marketing channels that try to follow consumers where ever they go:  from health clubs and grocery stores, to the strip in Vegas; from shopping malls, to anywhere any of us are, thanks to that mobile phone we all have in our pocket.

What surprising or strange places have you seen advertising crop up?   What have you tried for your brand or recommended to your clients? And how must marketing messages evolve to take into account these new - and often very personal - media? 

Meanwhile, to get away from us all, I’ll be taking a spin on my bike.