Mobile Fix: What a waste of money
Simon Andrews, founder of the full service mobile agency addictive!, on Twitter, Windows8, HTML5, the E word and branded apps…
We were going to add a fascinating infographic (showings the 20 most expensive keywords on Google) at the end of Fix. But we decided to try a little experiment – we searched for the first three keywords on our mobile. And guess what? The lead advertiser for each (Insurance – GoCompare, Mortgage – Moneysupermarket, Loan – Sainsbury’s Bank) is paying to drive people to sites that are not optimised for mobile.
How much money are brands wasting by not going mobile? In every project we have done, the cost of developing mobile friendly landing pages has been more than covered by the value unlocked in mobile search. What are people waiting for?
With some big numbers – 100 million active users – Twitter has been talking about their plans for the future, including advertising. Their CEO Dick Costolo spoke last week.
Some of the smartest thinkers have built on this news. John Battelle has a typically well thought through piece on twitter advertising. One key quote –
“( I think) Twitter will adopt a model based on two familiar features: a cost-per-engagement model (the company already uses engagement as a signal to rank an ads efficacy) and a real-time second-price bidded auction.”
Fred Wilson shares some thinking about the different ways people use Twitter, reminding us that lots of people just treat Twitter as a place to get news and views – essentially a broadcaster that aggregates people you’re interested in.
It is this scale – the constant broadcast – that sums up Twitter’s greatest asset but also its key problem. There is so much content how can users get to the good stuff? Other media have solved this problem – print lets you tear out the good articles and search back issues online. The reason Sky+ is so popular because it lets people organise their TV viewing – saving the stuff you really want to see whilst the on-demand services like iPlayer and 4OD let you access stuff you missed.
But on Twitter that’s just not possible – so we get a degree of Twitter anxiety if we don’t check every few hours; worried about what we might have missed.
If Twitter can solve this problem and highlight the good stuff, they make themselves even more valuable. And advertising could prosper if it can be that well-targeted. But advertising that merely adds to the noise it will be resented – and have little purpose other than perhaps motivating sign up to a premium ad free service – a la Spotify.
We were interested to read that the YouTube founders who have bought delicious from Yahoo! are thinking on similar lines and see the potential to evolve the bookmarking service to focus more on social discovery.
Windows 8
With lots of buzz around Windows 8 this week we were reminded that Bing is pushing out some good mobile products – all getting ready for the imminent debut of Nokia phones running on Windows?
The E word
Engagement is a word that has really taken off in marketing recently. Everyone is talking about it – usually without a clear understanding of what is meant and/or how to measure it. Twitter are using it as a measure for their advertising. After reading a very well thought through post – Engagement – Fashionable but Bankrupt – from a Wiedens planner, we’ll be a lot more careful how we use the E word in future.
HTML5
Our pitch in Sao Paulo last week revolved around using HTML5 as the platform, with native features blended in.
Branded Apps – Utility & Content rule
Forrester have a good summary of brands that are getting it right on mobile. The common theme? They solve a problem for consumers. All our projects are conceived around the belief you can only solve a business problem by solving a consumer problem. Branded Utility is alive and well and thriving on mobile.
And Branded Content is back too. We’re convinced that the best use of mobile is around these two strategies; Brands creating (or curating) content and delivering utility have an opportunity to make mobile really work for them.
Alternatively you can design an app as a more orthodox marketing tool and see what happens.
Finally
Over the next few weeks there are some good events that are worth going to. The MMA have an excellent line up for their London forum, with Coke, Unilever, BBC and other major brands speaking. And brands can attend for just £200.
With Connected TV a hot topic around the world (our guys in Brazil are just delivering 20 games for the LG appstore) the MediaTel event on this subject is well-timed. Speakers include LoveFilm, Samsung, Google and BARB.
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