Adam’s Blog

Mobile Marketing Insights:
Consumer Habits, Ad Standards, and More

SUMMARY:

Mobile marketing requires marketers to reconsider several factors when building campaigns. They include the technology’s advantages, limitations, and the audience’s browsing habits. As marketers gain experience in the channel, key insights are emerging.
Uncover which factors a major mobile marketer considers the most important when approaching the mobile channel. Includes discussion of technology limitations, metrics to measure, and tips for reaching your audience.
The differences between mobile and online marketing extend well beyond technology. People who browse the Web on a cell phone, for instance, do so much differently than those using a computer, says John Hadl, Managing Partner and Founder, Brand in Hand, Inc.
“Mobile marketing not a technology rethink. It’s a consumer rethink,” Hadl says.
Brand in Hand is a mobile media and marketing agency whose clients include P&G, General Mills, Red Bull, Esurance, DIRECTV and American Express. Hadl says that about 70% of the consumers his team markets to are female.
Hadl and his team have built a wealth of experience in the mobile channel, having invested tens of millions of dollars in various campaigns for their clients. We sat down with him to discuss his insights into effective mobile marketing. He shared several tips below.

BEFORE GOING MOBILE…

Mobile phones offer a powerful channel for reaching consumers when they’re out in the world and closer to stores. Many consumer marketing principles carry over to the new channel. However, there are key differences to be aware of.
-> Rethink the consumer, not the technology
While mobile Web browsing undoubtedly requires different technology than browsing on a personal computer, Hadl emphasizes that the more important difference is in how consumers use the two channels.
The biggest difference is in time spent, he says. Consumers spend much less time browsing on their phones than on a laptop. Also, while online advertising typically reaches consumers at home or work, advertising on mobile websites can reach them elsewhere — such as during the commute or when out to lunch.
-> Follow your audience, not the hype
Most consumers have a television or a home computer with Internet access — but not every consumer has a mobile phone that can browse the Web. Therefore, mobile marketing may not be the best channel to reach all audiences.
For example, mobile marketing might not be the most effective way for a pharmaceutical company to reach women age 65 and older, Hadl says.
- Audiences by phone
The various types of available phones further segment consumers. And the types of phones that your audience has will impact the mobile tactics you can use to reach out. Few phones, for instance, have the capability to run interactive ads.
Apple’s iPhone, one of the most sophisticated phones on the market, does have some rich media advertising capability. Tens of millions of iPhones have been sold, but not all types of consumers own one. For example, about one in three iPhone users is a male ages 18 to 34, and only about 1% are teenage girls ages 13 to 17, Hadl says. Therefore, mobile campaigns that are specifically designed for the iPhone should only be used to reach certain types of consumers.
- Key metrics
To judge whether a campaign is reaching a target audience, Hadl uses a metric he calls “large scale relative reach.” It is the number of people in the campaign’s target audience who see the ad, compared to the overall size of that audience.
Also important is the “relative activation,” the number of people who click an ad and engage with the brand, compared to the overall audience.
-> Principle: “Impressions need to make an impression.”
Hadl says that most of his clients are looking for large-scale reach, so his team buys a lot of display advertising. For mobile display advertising to be effective, it needs to make an impression, he says. The ads have to be seen and they have to quickly communicate — which requires image-based ads.
One of the biggest benefits to mobile advertising is that “You can’t miss the ad,” Hadl says. When a person is browsing the Web on a computer, there are many places for the eyes to look, making ads easy to ignore. The phone screen is much smaller, making ads more prominent.
- Limited animation
Easy display of rich media ads is not a ubiquitous mobile phone feature. The technology is still emerging. A moving ad might attract more attention and make a stronger impression, but so few phones are able to properly display moving ads that the potential audience is relatively small, Hadl says.
-> Beware of limitations
Animated display ads aside, here are two other limitations when marketing through mobile:
- No online forms
Online forms are too cumbersome for mobile consumers to fill out to be effective. That means building a database of names can be more difficult compared to building a file through an online channel, such as search. One option is leveraging the click-to-call feature on phones and having an operator take down consumers’ information.
- Metrics come late
The mobile market is rapidly evolving. A steady stream of new technology is pouring in and prices are falling. Newer phones have immature customer bases. Older phones have customers that trade their phones for newer ones. All this change makes the industry hard to benchmark, Hadl says.
“By the time that research from a panel hits the market and hits my desk to where I can use it, it’s often now longer relevant, given the growth of mobile.”
John Hadl spoke at ad:tech San Francisco 2009 in April.