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Conde Nast exec: Mobile advertising is about motivation, not just impressions

NEW YORK ? A Conde Nast executive at the 2015 Mobile: IAB Marketplace said opportunities in mobile lie in stepping up to find alternatives to the inert creative that does not speak to consumers that has been a mainstay of the mobile revolution so far. 

The session, ?Get Creative: Lift Your Tech, Data and Mobile Ad Performance,? called upon mobile leaders to share examples of what works with the data to back it up when building great mobile brand experiences. 

?Storytelling ads that emit emotion, that get me involved in a brand are the phenomenal opportunity of this personal device that we all now have in our hands,? said Ned Newhouse, executive director for mobile and native with Conde Nast.

?Don?t just think of those 1,000 impressions as just elements on a page. Think about the opportunity to try to motivate a million people all for your brand,? he said. ?And there?s never been a better media device than mobile.? 

Adolescent medium
Joining Mr. Newhouse for the session were Andrew Hoffman, vice president of Mobile Marketing for Mobext, and Douglas Wiesen, account director for Joule.

Ned Newhouse at IAB Marketplace.

Although mobile increasingly is the first medium consumers turn to, not just for personal interactions, but for entertainment, information, services, promotions, payments and tracking lives and health, it is still an adolescent medium, with growing pains and a cloudy evolutionary path.

Ads have to earn and reward consumers? attention, Mr. Newhouse said. The criticism frequently leveled at banner ads must be borne by marketers who fail to provide calls to action supported by engaging content for myriad reasons including misguided budgeting strategies and organizational roadblocks.

?Let?s make sure the ad you are going to post is worthy of my time,? Mr. Newhouse said. ?And that?s the missing element.

?We don?t have banner blindness. We have creative that doesn?t speak to people to make it worth [their] time,? he said. ?It?s a phenomenal opportunity we?re not taking advantage of.?

Missing an opportunity in mobile.

Joule?s Mr. Wiesen cited a Dell campaign that promotes the new Hulu-exclusive film series ?What Lives Here? as an example of good creative. 

The Dell Venue 8 7000 Series tablet is a key character in the series, which focuses 
on the personal journey of the son of an acclaimed children?s puppeteer, an absentee father.

Director Robert Stromberg invited the public to collaborate with him to create the world of the imagination in which creatures and monsters reside by submitting sketches and drawings to www.WhatLivesInside.com. 

Thinking holistically
A campaign used the native functions of the phone to inspire consumers to engage with a mobile ad, including shaking the device to make the monster move.

Joule's Doug Wiesen. 
?It?s not just static brand impression,? Mr. Wiesen said. ?It?s actually asking the person to do something.?

Mr. Hoffman said it is important to think about using platforms holistically to drive innovation and take the mobile industry to the next level.

?We need to get to the point where mobile is at the center of everything,? he said.

Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York