Since this is the first post on Mobile Matters, maybe it’s best to get the question of whether mobile really does matter out of the way. Yes, yes it does.
Why? Well, since we’ve all got at least one mobile phone and that, because of the iPhone, they will all very quickly become at least four times as effective at allowing us to access media – then, it’s safe to say that, for the media industry, the mobile phone is going to be really quite important. If ever you are faced with a non-believer, get them to use the BBC iPlayer on an iPhone. And they shall see the light.
We’ve spent some of the past twelve months submerged in the mobile ocean. The goal was to dive in, touch the bottom, spend a few hours in a decompression chamber, and work out what to make of the strange things we found. Our conclusions, apart from ‘yes, mobile really matters’, can perhaps best be summed up as: mobile is the same as digital, but different.
Same but different
It’s the same because, as, the iPhone shows us, when we view the web, for example, on our mobile devices, we will increasingly not be viewing a mobile version of the web, but just the web on our mobile. It’s a significant step and one that helps us to understand how its value as an advertising channel, for example, is likely to evolve.
For, thanks to all our experience of planet digital, one of the things we know about internet-based channels is that a sure-fire way to secure budgets for them, is to help advertisers value user interaction. For example, on the PC-based web, advertisers have been able to value interaction through sales: ‘I advertise, people click, that gives me a sale (or a lead to a sale)’. This is why Google claims more than 50 per cent of all UK online spend – because advertisers can value the user interaction it delivers better than anywhere else on the web.
So how can mobile interaction be valued? Lots of ways potentially but first to occur is cost-per-call. Certain businesses will pay a big wad of cash for a phone call. Who are they? How much is the call worth? How can the media industry help deliver that call? Answer those questions and routes to budgets will emerge.
Mobile needs
But we must also take care to think about how the mobile is different. Essentially, it comes down to the fact that a mobile device is smaller. This is what makes it both portable and less usable, and this is what defines why we will want different things from our mobile device than the telly, a poster, the radio or our computer.
When we are ‘mobile’, we are more likely to want services that are relevant to our location. When we are ‘mobile’, we are even less likely to interact with banner-style creative because we’re likely to be on the move, short of time and the whole process is much more fiddly. In essence, when we are ‘mobile’, we are more likely to be wanting to fulfil one of two immediate needs – save me time or fill my time.
But, the fact we might want different things from our media providers on a mobile phone – yet are able to connect to the same web and internet as from our desktops - presents some problems. Increasingly we use our mobile devices to access media when we’re not actually ‘on the move’ – we might just as likely be at home, in the office or on holiday. Our needs then might be precisely the same as when we’re at our computers or watching TV. The problem this presents is this: if you are aiming to deliver a piece of content, a service or a piece of advertising to a user you know is on a mobile device, how do you know what they want?
Silly operators
That’s just one of the challenges – with your help - we might investigate as this blog evolves. Or we might just bang on about how mobile operators are really silly. Either way, I hope you feel able and willing to offer your view.
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Blog: http://mediaquake.wordpress.com
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