PR Event: Mobile Monday London

I went to my first MOMO London (Mobile Monday London) last night, down at the Royal Statistical Society near Old Street.

Titled “Whassup in Mobile Marketing and Media?”, the evening was sponsored by Wireless Foundry. Featuring a high-level panel discussion on current mobile web, services and applications from a media and marketing perspective, the event took a look at everything from mobile web to proximity to messaging to games and highlight creative execution and effective campaigns. They also discussed what media-owners and agencies want and how we as an industry should or could respond. They also challenged the panel to take a glimpse into the future and tell us what's catching their eye on the mobile horizon and what they think will capture the public's attention in the future.

On the panel were:

Helen Keegan (Chair), Beep Marketin g
Marek Pawlowski, PMN
Stephen Pinches, Financial Times
Matthews Postgate, BBC
Robert Thurner, Incentivated

Below are the notes I took during the evening:

Top 11 Mobile Trends:

1. Smart mobile browsers
2. Mobile Web standards
3. Mobile Ajax and Widgets
4. Mobile Search
5. Mobile Ads
6. Mobile Mash ups ad Open APIs
7. Mobile RFID & 2D Bar codes
8. Location and Geotagging
9. Mobile Social Networks
10. Mobile User Generated Content
11. Smart web Devices

After intros from panel (which were quite entertaining as mixed reports of great use of Google Maps, etc, with human error meaning some panelists were late!) the panel were asked what the current state of mobile marketing was and the debate got going.

Mobile Marketing:

Dominated by text-2-win campaigns
Proximity marketing was dream 5-6 years ago
E.g. walk past Starbucks and they would send you a 50p off voucher
What else is on the horizon?
Text-2-win is tried and tested, instant gratification – but severely limited
SMS in this country alone exceeds worldwide Google searches in same period of time
Anyone here like drinking cider?
Text Sun1 to a number and you'll get a voucher to use at participating bars
Need to know where nearest hospital is?
Text HOSPITAL and you'll get the nearest hospital sent to you
As an industry, need to move on from location and text-2-win campaigns
Shark Week on Discovery Channel – Game used real sharks as part of game GPS tagged sharks – sent off Discovery boat but if went near real shark it sent back SMS to tell you that you'd been attacked.
But also sent information to watch programme on Discovery Channel
Take voucher to bus driver and get free ride on bus – not going to work if bus driver forgets glasses
No matter how much technological innovation, need to make sure it's usable by humans too
Subway – had mobile coupon promotion where texted for promotion and had vouchers on display, but staff had not been trained and didn't accept the vouchers
Main problem is that people don't know how to use vouchers
Newspapers is good example as readers get established use of them – e.g. daily – and so can use them in exciting ways once they get use to them
Training is expensive to do and mobile coupons are hard to measure ROI

Applications:

More expensive to develop – development skills cost more
Persuading people to download them and providing the upkeep are two hardest elements of mobile apps
Overheads make developing apps not worth it
Not a waste of time, but must target specific devices that you can't do in a web browser
Mobile browser experience is closing that creative gap
Challenge is to find interesting apps that can't be replicated on web browser based apps
Key issue – can people download the app and do they want to?
Lack of flat rate plans means that high data charges still remain an issue
Only a few apps that work better in apps rather than mobile web
Some corporate clients cannot access mobile web on their Blackberries – apps can get through firewall and becomes a trojan horse
Can role these apps over the whole corporation, e.g. FT online rolled out across investment banks
Therefore death of mobile apps is over-exaggerated, but mobile web users are growing
Start with audience need – FT realised users need both apps and mobile web
What are the BBC looking for in development teams?
BBC have quotas to feel 25% spend must be with external teams efficient system and can find exciting things
Mobile isn't as hard as he believed – have known this for years
Mobile should be simple, personal and location based – joins up other platforms, e.g. internet
News is immediate so mobile web important to BBC

Is this the year of the mobile?

Last year, bigger ad spend in mobile than in the cinema
Haven't caught up with radio, TV or internet
But bigger advertisers, e.g. Jaguar, have experimented successfully with mobile
Next year, those brands will spend more on mobile
Is there a danger of saturation in the market?
It's a permission based market If companies want to get onto someone's mobile, they need to earn the trust and the right to get on it
Not seeing this at the FT – seeing growth with users, but majority of advertisers and agencies say 2010 will be the year of the mobile
Agencies still not at the infrastructure to justify the ROI from it
There is a danger of saying that all mobile marketing is measurable
Mobile and web users will soon be measured together as everything goes mobile
Certainly year of mobile for some users
Colour TV was invented in 1940, but the golden age of colour TV was 1970s – not going to take 30 years for it to grow, but will take time to get better and better
Not year of mobile as mobile is only one part of our intricate lives – we are in danger of looking at it through our own subjective experiences
Google exec – “Don't need to be better than Nokia or Motorola, but need to be better than Trusted Uncle” – the trusted social sphere that mobile users operate in

In conclusion, the future of mobile marketing is not just about advertising, but we need to think about how mobile can activate other media channels, using mobile to glue together whole of the marketing mix. It's not about the effectiveness of mobile on its own, but whether it is more effective than turning on the TV or picking up the newspaper. It will cannibalise other media, but ultimately it is a complimentary channel.

Also posted on puddingrelations.blogspot.com