A very interesting piece in Ad Age earlier this month explained in more detail the argument I’ve been making about where mobile fits in.
It says, essentially, that mobile is much better for response than branding. It talks about how mobile allows users to go ‘the next step’ – to lead-generation - in a way that backs up my [small] criticism of the iPint.
Through mechanisms like click-to-call and click-to-SMS, we can enable potential customers to do something fast and easy that, for us, generates a valuable lead and, for them, is just a step further in a journey they’ve already started. Why hold them up?
However, I’m just not sure about this continued ‘siloing’ of marketing (or at least advertising) into brand OR direct-response. My view – thoroughly contended by some I know - is that interactive channels blur the lines between the two so far as to make them disappear.
So, when Ad Age talks about the ‘brand vs direct-response debate’, I wonder whether we’re engaging in an argument that’s just not worth having. If a brand, for example, makes it easy to interact and ‘respond’ to a piece of their marketing, it makes me think better of it.
