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<\/p>\nBy Doug Stephens<\/p>\n
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In a recent article<\/a><\/strong> for Adweek David Gianatasio asked the question, \u201cWhy Does Mobile Advertising Stink?\u201d<\/b> And it\u2019s a great question, because it really does.\u00a0 And one can\u2019t help but wonder why, if everything is truly going mobile, advertising on mobile devices remains so ineffective?\u00a0 How, if as studies<\/a><\/strong> suggest, we are almost never without our mobile devices, can advertising on those devices be so bad?<\/p>\n Some would argue it\u2019s simply a user-interface problem.\u00a0 Mobile ads are often so small you need eyes like a hawk and fingers like knitting needles to interact with them. Some of this can certainly be improved through mobile optimization of websites and \u201cresponsive\u201d design, which lays the ad out differently depending on the device it\u2019s being viewed on. But I think we can all agree that if all we do is shrink a webpage down to the size of an smartphone screen, we haven\u2019t really solved the mobile ad problem at all. Similarly, the evolution toward more native<\/a> <\/strong>advertising is likely to make some positive difference in efficacy, but I don\u2019t think these things alone addresses the real problem – which is that we still treat mobile advertising like advertising<\/i>. \u00a0And the truth is, that just can\u2019t be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With other media channels like television, it was understood that the advertiser \u2013 not the consumer \u2013 owned the channel of communication and therefore, they also had permission to interrupt and annoy us anytime they wanted with advertisements. It was up to us to change the channel. The same is not true of mobile.\u00a0 Consumers have an intimate and personal relationship with their devices which are often highly customized with apps, skins and settings of their<\/i> choosing.\u00a0 When our device is hijacked by an annoying or cumbersome piece of advertising, we hate it and the poor impression we have of the offending brand can linger.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Secondly, advertising, as we know it today, was never built for the mobile reality. It was a media form built for passive and sometimes even subliminal absorption \u2013 often while the user was doing nothing else.\u00a0 TV, magazines and newsprint worked well for advertising because the media was entirely location and context agnostic.\u00a0 Most had no situational relevance at all, only a degree of demographic targeting. Advertising wasn\u2019t about consumer context but merely consumer consciousness of the advertisers product or service.<\/p>\n Mobile isn’t like that at all. It\u2019s\u2026well\u2026it\u2019s mobile!<\/i> And that means in a high percentage of situations, people are on the go and busy doing something else while consuming your content.\u00a0 And within that, the structure of information they need from brands, retailers and institutions needs to be entirely different.\u00a0 It has to have new properties:<\/p>\n Most mobile advertising that I see hasn\u2019t made these adjustments \u2013 particularly when it comes to location, context and relevance.\u00a0 For example, every time I arrive at the airport in Toronto, I log onto the airport Wi-Fi and I\u2019m presented with the exact same message \u2013 it\u2019s an ad for a credit card.\u00a0 Now, I suppose it could be argued that at any given time, a small percentage of travellers might be interested in getting another credit card but it\u2019s hardly an offer you need to target on a location-specific basis. \u00a0That ad could be anywhere.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I can\u2019t help wondering why the ad isn’t something that gives me instant and true incentive to act on an offer right in the moment, like a coupon to save money on noise reducing headphones for my flight\u00a0 – that I\u2019m taking right now<\/i>.\u00a0 A voucher to save at the duty-free store\u2026right now<\/i> or even customer reviews of the restaurants adjacent to the gate I\u2019m sitting at\u2026.right now<\/i>. \u00a0Moreover, the fact that I log onto that Wi-Fi network an average of three to four times a month, could be taken to suggest that I\u2019m a business traveller, which should trigger an even more relevant level of messaging tailored to my travel needs. But a credit card?\u00a0 We have to be able to better than that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mobile advertising requires a completely different approach to anything that\u2019s Mobile is ME<\/b><\/h2>\n
Mobile is NOW<\/h2>\n
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Give ME something NOW<\/b><\/h2>\n
It\u2019s not just a different device, it\u2019s a different language<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>come before it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just a new channel, it\u2019s really a completely new format of spatially and contextually driven communications \u2013 a new marketing language. It’s not well suited to shot-gunning for attention or awareness.\u00a0 It\u2019s about serving relevant information to consumers based on where they are and what they\u2019re doing. They should be welcomed bites of information or offers that seem completely congruent and welcomed in the moment.<\/p>\n