IM-Mobile

MobiMarketing Club Members have emailed me their biggest challenges when trying to convince marketers and advertisers to increase mobile advertising media buys. Currently, only 1% of all advertising budgets is spent on mobile website advertising. Due to unique advantages of mobile phones, mobile advertising evangelists believe 1% is much too low.

First, I want to share MMC member comments. Then, I’ll discuss recurring themes and provide suggestions to help you weather the storms ahead. Please note that not all questions and issues are covered in this post. Thanks for your help.

Here are some of the questions, comments, challenges and situations reported by MMC members. I edited the comments a bit for clarity:

• Marketers and advertisers are resisting buying mobile ads or marketing services.
• “…marketers are already waiting to do all the things mobile has to offer.”
• Educating buyers about mobile’s value for small businesses is difficult.
• There’s no reliable data about mobile end users (German consulting firm?)
• How do I promote mobile’s capabilities and usefulness to clients?
• Traditional marketing is the safe and normal route. Mobile is risky.
• We’re always searching for new active members for our mobile service because we’re always losing them
• I want to develop educational webinars for small businesses to learn about mobile marketing: types, benefits, how to’s, and value
• Promoting my mobile service and creating a prospect database is costly
• Getting a job in the mobile industry is tough.
• How do you effectively work with mobile ad networks?
• How do I avoid in-house sales channel conflict?
• Ignoring technical hurdles, what will future mobile advertising look like?

Before I discuss the questions and challenges above, let me explain the BIG challenge we all face.

They’re too many players in the mobile ecosystem: operators, telecommunications manufacturers, mobile marketing and advertising companies, traditional ad agencies–many of whom are moving into mobile–ad networks, content providers and application developers.  If any other industry–say, the food industry–had so many players dividing up so little revenue, the industry would collapse. Everyone wants to get into mobile and there isn’t room using traditional business models.

Only through partnerships and increased ad spend will the mobile communications industry grow: carriers working with handset manufacturers, mobile ad networks lending expertise to traditional advertising agencies, content providers collaborating with publishers, application developers filling consumer needs by consulting with handset manufacturers. Rather than consolidating, successful mobile and wireless companies need to create partnerships

Now on to questions posed by MMC members. If you group the above statements, it seems to me the questions, challenges and situations boil down to four areas: buyer resistance, educating prospects, promoting your services effectively and understanding and explaining the technical advantages and disadvantages of mobile telephony.

Advertiser Resistance

Traditional advertisers are aware of the studies showing consumer acceptance of smartphones and they’ve seen the success of the iPhone. But many are still living in the ancient past of reach, frequency, radio “drive time” or the number of eyeballs reading magazines or newspapers. They don’t understand the significant differences of mobile.

Advertiser resistance is also a result of “mobile overkill.” They need to hear different words, like portable, flexible, the “ultimate direct marketing response medium.” They need compelling stories and case studies. In our age of social media,  Web and mobile users want to control content and delivery. They resent old business models. And they don’t like advertising. They don’t want to be sold. They want accurate, reliable, current and relevant information to make buying decisions.

Educating prospects so they have enough information to make a buying decision

Resolution of this issue will take time until, like Internet advertising, marketers and advertisers “get it.” Many big brands already have; the rest will follow. SMB advertisers, more impacted by the global recession, will gradually jump aboard if convinced that mobile is a legitimate part of the marketing mix. Part of the solution, since mobile is such a different medium, is to tell stories that create visions of the future. I tried doing that in my recent MobileBeyond piece about how one guy’s life would change once 4G wireless networks are deployed.

Read “A Day in the Life of a 4G Wireless Mobile Phone Guy.” The blog post doesn’t preach; it attempts to target 25-49 year old males about how their lives might positively change in a 4G world. The links point to articles that provide more information for readers.

Bottom line: Don’t preach, teach. And there’s nothing more powerful than a good story.

Promoting your services or products persuasively

In his podcast interview with me, MIckey Khan, editor-in-chief of Mobile Marketer, addressed the “ad spend” issue. When I first asked him why mobile advertising revenues were a measly 1% of the world’s total advertising purchases (over $500 billion; $230 billion of that in the U.S.), Mickey said that was perfectly reasonable since even the iPhone was introduced only a few years ago. Later, however, when I asked him what percentage of advertising budgets should go to mobile, he said 5%., a difference of 4% or countless millions of dollars.

What happened? Why did Mickey first say 1% was “reasonable” then later say 5%? Did he change his mind? Did he forget he mentioned 1%? Something happened in our conversation. I believe he persuaded himself that, considering how often people use their mobile phones, 1% of total advertising revenues was ridiculous. His attitude changed. And so will a media buyer if you tell a convincing story and ask penetrating questions. Let the prospect change his or her mind. You just sit back and smile.

One MMC member raised the issue of personalization vs. annoyance in mobile ad formats. This is certainly a concern, although mobile click-through rates approach 30% or more. Search engine advertisers, such as Google, are testing videos now to increase sales conversion. I would suspect mobile advertisers are doing the same. Optimizing your mobile website, however,  is probably just as important. (Listen to SiteSpect’s Eric Hansen podcast for more information about websites.)

Mobile Technology Alternatives: Choices and Changes

One MMC member talked about “leaving technical hurdles aside” when thinking about mobile advertising. I don’t believe it’s possible. Recall the iPhone/Apple/AT&T network and other technical snafus. iPhone owners love Apple and hate AT&T. That kind of love/hate relationship does nothing but harm mobile advertising.

Unconverted advertisers are still comparing a mobile phone’s screen size, audio quality and other characteristics to television, radio, print and the Web. Advertisers probably feel they can provide better presentations of their products and services using traditional media. As mobile screen sizes and resolutions have improved, this is becoming less of an issue. But it’s still a technical concern that marketers and advertisers think about.

Finally, mobile advertising evangelists need to re-define what is “mobile.” The mobile communications’ ecosystem is expanding, like an octopus, in many directions: mobile phones, mobile readers, like the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader. Amazon’s larger sized Kindle II (8X10) is an example of developing mobile technology.

You can even access the Web for mobile search and content using Sprint’s remarkably-fast 3G network. Of course, it’s black-and-white. But Amazon offes one-click buying on the Kindle home page and cross-sells books of interest to readers just like its Internet site. Is it “mobile advertising?” You bet. Is Amazon a trusted brand? Yup. Will advertisers buy space on a Kindle? Why not?

Roku’s digital video player, offering on-demand movies, television series, sports and documentaries in high-definition, is also a mobile device due to its size and portability. While NetFlix, Amazon and others have partnered with Roku to deliver multimedia content over wired or wireless broadband in the home. Roku’s pocketbook size makes it a mobile device. Unplug it at home and take it with you next to your mobile phone and laptop. Wherever Wi-Fi is available–and eventually 4G networks–Roku is a fantastic example of a mobile multimedia device, ready for tasteful ads on its home screen.

Will advertisers “go mobile”? Yes, in good time.