The March 2014 ad spend share report from eMarketer proclaims that by 2018 mobile ad spending will be 25% of the total US ad spend. That would place mobile as the second largest segment behind TV (36.1%) and ahead of digital, print, radio and outdoor. The idea of mobile as a disrupter in the marketing marketplace was highly debated at a conference I recently attended—the 5th Annual Mobile Marketing Day.
Mobile Marketing Day was hosted by the Direct Marketing Association and Mobile Commerce Daily. The event offered strategic, tactical and executional advice from a wide variety of mobile marketing experts and there was a lively debate around growth and best practices of mobile strategy. Following are a few of the most thought-provoking statements that were shared.
With Mobile, “Everything and Nothing Has Changed.”
Jeff Hasen, one of mobile’s leading strategists, evangelists, and teachers, and author of Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty through Mobile Devices, started the day off with the most basic summary of mobile as a marketing tactic.
Hasen stated that with the advent of mobile, "everything and nothing has changed." His advice for marketers was to take a "meat and potatoes" approach to mobile marketing and use it in line with its best features. While a diligent mobile marketing enthusiast, he states that the best use of mobile is for loyalty programs that offer personalized rewards. In his opinion, mobile is best used for a call to action message from a recognized brand. If you don't have an offer that can be easily redeemed in-store or online, then maybe mobile marketing should not be a major part of your overall marketing approach.
Social Word of Mouth Encourages Mobile Traffic
Robyn Mermelstein, Group Marketing Manager from Earth's Best Baby Food, had a different approach to mobile. She spent her time discussing the importance of using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube to shape your mobile program and provide consumer-driven conversations regarding your products and product promotions. According to Mermelstein, social word-of-mouth is the best way to encourage mobile traffic for your brands.
Design Websites for Mobile First
Robert Dayton, the EVP of MindStream Analytics, started his presentation with a startling statistic:
For 22 hours of each day, consumers are within 24 inches of their mobile device.
His charge was for marketers to change their design habits and design web sites for mobile first and desktop second. Most marketers start with a website and then figure out how to optimize or enable it for mobile devices, a plan that can lead to fewer mobile efficiencies. He laughed when he said, "Please don't drive mobile traffic to web pages that are not mobile enabled," and provided horror stories of advertisers that alienated customers by doing just that.
While each of the industry experts had a different take on the future of mobile marketing, everyone had an optimistic viewpoint that mobile spending would increase, and with that growth, the industry would develop best practices. It was encouraging to see that everyone recommended mobile as part of a bigger program and not as a stand-alone tactic. With that recommendation, will mobile get to 25% of the total US ad spend by 2018? Only time will tell.