As with Mobile Marketer?s recent analysis of Wendy?s ?Where?s the Beef? campaign (see story), the FedEx effort is ripe for a mobile makeover. The idea of fast-talking translates well to mobile, where speed is highly valued and voice interfaces such as Siri are growing. 

?The FedEx product is also about mobility, or things in motion, which is the context that drives value within mobile platforms,? said Tom Cramer, associate partner at Rosetta and mobile strategy lead of Rosetta Consulting, New York. ?The [Fast Talker] campaign would need to be re-imagined through a mobile-social lens, but the core value proposition remains timeless.?

Mr. Cramer is not affiliated with FedEx and spoke based on his experience in mobile. 

FedEx did not respond to media inquiries by the press deadline. 

The FedEx ?Fast Paced World? television ad first appeared in 1982 and continues to be hailed as one of the best commercials ever created. It featured an executive speed talking as he went about his various responsibilities, with the voice-over espousing the benefits of company that can help professionals keep up with the fast-paced world of business by providing overnight delivery.

?Today, the speed of business has not slowed,? Mr. Cramer said. 

?In fact, digital technologies have continued to make things go faster and increase expectations,? he said. ?FedEx?s ownership of that ?assurance? value proposition still makes sense; however, they now have cost competition.?

Mobile and social are good mediums to demonstrate speed as users tend to be looking for short snippets of content that can be quickly consumed on their phones while they commute to work or otherwise take a break from their day. 

One of the first steps to making over the Fast Talker campaign for the mobile era would be to splice the spots into shorter, individual pieces so they can be viewed and shared on mobile. 

Matt Rednor, CEO and founder of Decoded Advertising, recommends also re-editing the spots to work without sound since watching online video without the sound on is popular with many consumers. 

Leveraging mobile?s location capabilities could also bring added value and utility to the campaign. 

?We'd definitely want to create a mobile utility that allows you to see where the nearest FedEx delivery truck is for on-demand pick up, an Uber for FedEx if you will,? Mr. Rednor said. 

Finding the humor?
Social could be used as a way for the brand to embody speed. 

?We could challenge all the FedEx community managers to have to respond as fast as the ?Fast Talker? speaks or you get discounted shipping,? Mr. Rednor said. 

Rosetta?s Mr. Cramer would reimagine the campaign for mobile by focusing on the fast-talking humor and integrating this with mobile?s voice capabilities. 

?I think it would be fun to re-introduce some of the fast-talking humor ? either through commanding in a Siri/Cortana interface, speaking fast into a voice recording function or even a voice acceleration feature and sending the message to friends/colleagues,? Mr. Cramer said. 

?The customer utility from mobile technologies could be connecting package tracking meta-data to the voice file to inform the recipient when the package might get there,? he said. 

?Additionally, the further the actual package travels, the faster the message speed is played ? creating the possibility to be very funny and engaging!?

Time to mobilize?
FedEx has embraced mobile marketing in a number of ways. 

It offers apps that enable users to customize deliveries to their home, manage shipments, track shipment status and find a nearby location.

The company also has an industry-leading mobile site in terms of performance.

In a reflection of how all types of content, including business articles, are increasingly consumed on a mobile device, FedEx also recently brought its annual publication, Access, to mobile readers via a new application (see story). 

?Mobile and social are the best mediums to demonstrate speed since consumers have short attention spans and need content that's designed for the flick,? Mr. Rednor said.