It’s been said that if you can think of it, then there’s already a magazine about it. The
relaunch of the MMA is a reminder that you can also bet there’s at least one trade body to represent its interests. And so it is in mobile.
Consider online advertising. Control over that particular space is fought for by every single advertising trade association that existed before it came along, plus a complete set of new ones, including one for every specialism you care to name - ad sales houses, search, affiliates, and web analytics to name just four.
The IAB has a rightful claim to consider how the mobile internet might work as an ad medium. Then there’s the GSM and the MDA, which both act on behalf of the operators. The DMA and the ISP (I hope you’ll forgive my dropping of journalistic convention by not spelling out every abbreviation) have had mobile interests for a while. But the equivalent body to the IAB when it comes to mobile is the MMA, the Mobile Marketing Association. And this, after a significant period of hiatus in the UK, has relaunched. So what should it concentrate on?
Here are the three issues I believe it should be focusing on to the exclusion of all others:
1. Measurement
The GSM, in league with the MMA, IAB and others, is already working to develop a metric for mobile site audiences. This really is a crucial task. As we’ve said before, the web never had a single measurement for site traffic, which hampered agencies’ ability to compare media owners and buy space on a level playing field. Developing one for the web – as is happening now – is a painful process of reverse engineering. For mobile to get this sorted out would help immensely as agencies start to buy mobile ad space in greater volume.
2. Mobile search
How people will search on their mobiles compared with their PCs is not yet fully understood. Two factors suggest there will be differences: first, inputting text is trickier, which will affect the length and nature of key phrases and, second, people’s searches will be different based on their altered needs when mobile. Given that mobile search is likely to be the commercial path of least resistance for advertisers and media owners, the MMA needs to provide insight for its members on these kinds of issue.
3. Mobile TV
There is no question in my mind that, within five years, the bulk of commuters will be watching televisual content (not broadcast TV) on their way to work, just as they consume audio content now. The question is how it will be monetised. Pay-per-download services are bound to get traction but, given that TV comes from a world where content is, predominantly, ad-funded, perhaps it will have more luck than the record labels in integrating advertising. The MMA should investigate.
