MarCom Professional

Mobile Ad Watch July 2008

Another month, another innovative form of mobile web advertising catches our eye. The new T-mobile mobile web portal has been branded in conjunction with the new release of the new Batman film ‘The Dark Knight’. This is the first time we’ve actually seen a takeover on an operator portal. I must say it is visually engaging and also offers some above average content, including a free trailer. Some operators are still charging users for this type of sponsored content. Doh! The takeover concept has also been used to promote the film in magazine and newspaper ads, so an interesting case of the mobile mechanic reflecting the approach in other channels (which actually works!).

On the other end of the scale, Land Rover has launched a mobile internet site in the US. Another automotive site by numbers, it seems, with ‘request a brochure’ and ‘view clips’ being the most exciting features on offer. Car makers have been quick to get into mobile, but there seems to be a lack of imagination when it some to executing their mobile sites. Do tiny pictures of the models on offer really do justice to the brands involved? Hmmm, not really.

Inside Mobile, have produced a campaign for Reebok in the US that we really quite like. For the most part its a standard site with your ubiquitous ringtones, wallpapers and videos. But they have also included a call-back feature so that during the game, when the star player does something fancy, they call people on their phones with a special message. The idea being that the ringtone will go off round the stadium. Slam-dunk!

Meaningless statistic of the month award goes to those promoting the D&G mobile advertising venture. This consisted of display ads pointing to a mobile site, which included a downloadable game. The report makes much play of the 10% Click Through Rate achieved, as if this was the ultimate measure of success. No figures on those who interacted with the brand beyond the click, number of game downloads or even an assessment of how the campaign might of raised brand awareness or recall. Raw figures are pretty meaningless in our opinion, as we always say, think beyond the click!

Also posted on www.welovemobile.co.uk