New York - An executive with JPMorgan Chase at the MMA Forum yesterday said that its mobile users are engaging with the brand an average of 12 times per month via mobile.

The Multiplatform Advertising discussion that was part of the Beyond Mobile track focused on where mobile budgets will come from and how different platforms interact. The JPMorgan Chase executive pointed to the important role that mobile is playing for financial institutions and the need to be able to effectively engage with them in mobile.

?On a monthly basis we look at all the channels and are finding that mobile users are checking their accounts 12 times per month,? said Russ Eisenman, head of mobile product marketing and partnerships at JPMorgan Chase, New York. ?It varies by customers.

?People are incredibly engaged with their devices and we know that part of that, we need to respect what that,? he said. "People are saying, ?You are this close to me, please don?t abuse that.??

?We have customers who are just using the mobile channel. We are looking at how do we deliver unique experiences for them.?

The moderator on the panel was Michael Rosen, vice president of online and mobile media sales at AT&T AdWorks.

More metrics needed
Mobile is increasingly a focus of discussions over where to allocate marketing budgets.

However, challenges exist in terms of driving higher mobile spends because of a lack of the right analytics.

?The clicks are great but we don?t know if it leading to an installation,? Mr. Eisenman said. ?We need some accountability there to really start to see more dollars going in that direction.?

Other metrics that would help, per Mr. Eisenman, include knowing which ad lead to a download, how the company?s efforts are driving interest in an individual product from a specific segment of customers and to have greater transparency into iOS users so it can market to JPMorgan Chase customers on the platform.

While allocating budgets for specific campaigns depends to a certain degree on the goals of the individual effort, marketers are looking at mobile from a broader perspective at how it can be used to extend and amplify each campaign.

For example, an effort to drive awareness of a new branch opening could be augmented with mobile activities using geofencing to further build awareness.

?Mobile offers an opportunity to talk with our customers a lot more, whether it is a mobile alert or push notification,? Mr. Eisenman said. ?Mobile is a very engaging platform.?

Strategic buying
Mobile budgets as a share of digital continue to grow and are up 100 percent from last year, according to Jeff Ratner, senior vice president of digital strategy at ZenithOptimedia, New York. However, this is off a small base.

?As we continue to figure out the platform, the dollars will grow,? Mr. Ratner said.

ZenithOptimedia is JPMorgan Chase?s media buying and digital strategy agency.

What is happening as the media landscape continues to fragment is that marketers are thinking less in terms of allocating budget by channel and more in terms of display and video strategies and which is the best screen possible for that strategy.

?There is a blurring between video on TV, PC and now into mobile and tablet,? Mr. Ratner said.

Mobile brings a new dimension to media buying and planning strategies by adding the element of where in addition to the traditional factors of who and when.

?We refined the who and the when as we went into digital and we are now adding a third axis, where,? Mr. Ratner said. ?Where are they experiencing this content has added a whole new way to create media plans and messaging.

?That is the thing we are experimenting with and planning for now,? he said.

The future in marketing is about understanding the consumer experience from soup to nuts and moving them down the pipeline by putting the right offers in front of them.

?We want to be able to create the right experience so you don?t think about Chase as just a marketer but as a communications provider,? Mr. Ratner said. ?Mobile is a fantastic way for them to do that.?

Final Take
Russ Eisenman is head of mobile product marketing and partnerships at JPMorgan Chase