Complex ecosystem threatens mobile's success: CTIA panel

By Rimma Kats

March 23, 2010

From left: Kai Buehler, CEO of MindMatics, Bruce Stewart, CEO of kgb, Saj Cherian, principal of Valhalla Partners and Ingrid Kelly, vice president of Motorola

LAS VEGAS - Mobile is a great way for brands to connect with consumers, but the complexity of the ecosystem is going to make it hard for it to succeed, according to CTIA panelists.

The “Evolution of an Ecosystem – How Technology Influences Marketing” panel at CTIA discussed how the ecosystem is evolving and how mobile has influenced consumer purchase decisions. In addition, the panel also discussed how to measure mobile advertising, whether it consists of a successful campaign or not.
 
“I think regarding the ecosystem, we’re not that early,” said Kai Buehler, CEO of MindMatics, Santa Monica, CA. “We’re in a position where the Internet was 10 years ago.

“The application universe has evolved in the past 18 months,” he said. “How did it evolve that quickly? It’s just how much usability these devices have and how easy it is. It’s mind boggling.”

Mobile concept
Mobile marketing is not a new concept – there has been a good response of smartphone adoption and mobile has the potential to integrate with other channels.

“To the extent that smartphones have, they have grown,” said Saj Cherian, principal of Valhalla Partners, Vienna, VA. “When I would talk to startups a year ago, they would say ‘I’m developing for the iPhone and maybe BlackBerry, but now they’re developing for the Android – it’s quite suprising.'"

Several of the panelists – which also included Ingrid Kelly, vice president of Motorola, San Francisco, CA, and Bruce Stewart, CEO of kgb, Washington – agreed that the ecosystem is still immature and developers do not know who to partner with or where to turn for help.

Mr. Buehler who worked on several mobile marketing campaigns such as “Deal or no Deal” and “America’s Next Top Model” said the company still has the hosts telling viewers to text in and showing them exactly how to do that.

He said that millions of people are not really thinking about it yet.

“We’ve had some great brands and launched some great games, including an Inglourious Basterds game,” Mr. Buehler said. “Here in the U.S., our revenue has been innovative.

“We launched an SMS game for Deal or no Deal,” he said. “It was a simple SMS game and there were people who played 200-400 times a month – it was mind boggling.”

“You have to eventually – in the next 1-2 years, look into the app business as well. It’s very interesting.”

According to the panelists, there is a strong segment of users that text – not just teenagers. With SMS, no matter the device, it always has a place.

Mobile expansion
Today, the mobile component is everywhere – print, television, radio and outdoors.

Additionally, mobile is finding its way to different budgets and companies are incorporating their businesses into mobile. 

“Increasingly people are looking at how they’re spending their dollar,” Mr. Stewart said. [They will] see mobile as one of the elements – is there a mobile call-to-action? Is there a browsing experience?

“What I find interesting is how much advertising there is out there,” he said. “Whether it’s on TV or radio. We’re sitting here today and we all have our phones with us; we have them when we’re watching TV.

“We did something with Warner Bros. where we promoted their film, “Sherlock Holmes” 2-3 weeks ahead of time. Why not give people an opportunity to text in and play some games?”

The future of mobile is transactions, according to Mr. Cherian.

A lot of mobile ad inventory has been built on the back of content and many consumers are using their phones to execute transactions.

Additionally, many brands are self selecting. A significant amount of money goes into iPhone development because brands feel they can put in a compelling user experience.

“You look at it and it doesn’t diminish the brand,” Mr. Stewart said. “And your click throughs are multiplying compared to other devices.”

Motorola development
Ms. Kelly is currently working closely with Google to make sure that consumers want Motorola handsets.

The company worked with developers to make sure that it has the right tools for its devices.

According to Ms. Kelley, the more applications that are available to users, the m