Gordon's Republic

Gordon Macmillan

Peter Sells (BBH) won the Big Thinking mobile session partly by not saying that 2010 is going to be the year of the mobile (that was 2008) and by telling the audience that the mobile is in the business of making people happy.

Sells, the creative/head of mobile development at BBH, scored more than a few laughs with his presentation: titled: "Is it just me or is mobile marketing a bit ***?"

Sells added he's a bit tired of the future evangelism schtick (talks about cult of future); quoted Keynes and urged the audience to focus on the now not the future.

He said that all we know is this: more people are using the mobile. He's took the piss out of the idea that every year for the past six years has been the "year of mobile" (Todd Tran argued further down that this was 2008…).

Sells argued that he doesn't want to be interrupted by mobile interruption. He said the advertising business has been seduced by the size of the mobile market.

But the joke, he said, is the mobile industry doesn't care about you or your clients as it is so big and getting bigger by the day (Tesco and the iPod).

He said this offers the ad industry a path to change to get out and understand what consumers want.

Sells was a former professional gambler. He loved horse racing and the numbers that bookies deal out. He said form data (that bookies provide) has some truth in it - it's a case of just finding it. He called gambling a "knowledge market". For Sells, Betfair then came along and showed where the money was going. He found that what the experts (owners/trainers) know is more useful than what bookies or punters know.

So what's the relevance here? Sells said that the ad industry is in the gambling/prediction business as well. He reckoned that agencies back the favourites based on conventional return (i.e. TV campaign over mobile). He said mobile is less risky than you think. How so?

He argued that mobiles are so popular as they have the potential to make us happy.
 
He said that if you want to be successful with mobile you have to create engagement; provide happiness. He gave examples of how iPhone allows that frictionless engagement. When he thinks about BA now he said he is thinks about BA from his holiday balcony.

Sells reckons everyone is miserable and that there is a massive market for happiness. So if you realize your job is to make people happy you'll succeed.

Scott Seaborn's (Ogilvy) presentation was about the mobile future, but really his idea is personal power. An extended metaphor for how the mobile will power so much of our lives because of it will be hyper connected.

He shows the audience the first TV ad - Bulova Time (a ticking clock face before it was back to the baseball). To highlight how it failed to live up to the medium and how this was first true of mobile.

He showed the Apple store app wall and that explosion of downloads. You could watch it for hours (okay several minutes).

Looking at the Ogilvy, IBM, and Mobilizy developed AR system based on Wikitude for Wimbledon. (It is very cool.)  He said it was similar to the tools that Arnie used in Terminator (you know where he walks naked into a bar and scans it for clothes et cet in T2).



By 2020 Seaborn said the mobile will be hyper connected. Mobiles are pulling rather than pushing information. Everything will work in the cloud.

These devices will plug into all parts of our life – shopping list sent to your phone by your fridge on behalf of brand x. 

Seaborn talked about the problem of power, but showed a number of examples of kinetic charging; example of Nasa sending out wireless charging signals; charging bulb by phone.

His big thinking thought? Personal power. Our phone can charge objects around us (he used his phone to light a blub – fairly neat).


Todd Tran from Joule – owned up to being one of those people who has said that the year of the mobile has been on the way for years. But he won't be saying that next year…he thinks 2008 was the year of mobile as that was when it switched from a phone to a computer.

He referenced research about people who had their mobiles taken away and how many said that it was like losing a limb. So true. Asks the question can you say that about other media?

In mobile he says marketers can get to know you very well because it is one to one. Only mobiles do that, but the second thing he says it brings is information about the world around you.

This, he said, creates a powerful personal marketing tool. Personal +context gives ultimate relevance.

He talked about the Orange Wednesday campaign; their great two for one offer for film. He said what is interesting is that it is still a text campaign.

He said that simple text gives us so much; where you are; what you're planning; that you like film. All this and more all from that text. He sugguested personal recommendations.

He said if you go to Empire Leicester square; Orange can send you a text at the end of the film: suggest a restaurant; give you a discount to Pizza Express and let's you know when the DVD is out – and can send you a reminder.

This, he said, is a personal one to one dialogue. And because it is one to one you are more likely act.

Sense Networks - showing a heat map of mobiles in San Francisco. Great contextual opportunities. You can see people in bars and restaurants because of their mobile heat signature.

He also showed some Mobilizy.com.

He said that as online over took TV in the UK; so on that basis says there is a major opportunity for mobile marketing. We have hardly scratched the surface.

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