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Consumers do not care about mobile advertising: panelist

NEW YORK ? With more than $1 billion in mobile advertising revenue clocked last year through mobile Web, applications, SMS and mobile video, marketers have high expectations for 2011.

Panelists during the "Mobile advertising: What?s working, what?s not and why this year is important" session at Mobile Marketing Day 2011 talked about how mobile advertising has changed since mobile publisher sites are up, ad units are getting more sophisticated and ROI is increasingly being proven in the channel. The panel was moderated by Giselle Tsirulnik, senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York.

?Consumer behavior has shifted,? said Richard Ting, vice president and executive creative director for mobile and social platforms at R/GA, New York. ?But consumers don?t really care about mobile advertising.

?They want compelling storytelling, inspiration and utility from brands,? he said. ?The planning and buying of mobile advertising has to be in support of this.?

Consumer focus
According to Mr. Ting, there are several brands, such as Kraft, Nike, Target, Starbucks, Chase, Amazon.com and Volkswagon, who have incorporated mobile advertising well into their marketing initiatives.

Currently, applications are finally multiplatform, extending the reach of in-app advertising across varous operating systems and devices. It is no longer just about Apple?s iPhone.

Brands are realizing that there are other devices on the market such as Android and Windows Phone 7 that have their own app store.

Mr. Ting said that mobile strategies are going to be multifaceted.

Companies should not focus on either SMS, the mobile Web or native apps, but they should incorporate all three.

Commerce growth
Mobile commerce is growing.

Mobile will become the first screen and the centerpiece of all marketing communications, per Mr. Ting.

The RGA executive also said that mobile surfing, social networking, mobile commerce, mobile retail, location-based services and near field communications will become commonplace by 2013.

To craft a mobile marketing strategy, brands should focus on their consumers first.

Then, companies should design and launch "owned" brand platforms, followed by engagement that can lead to earned media.

Brands should plan on paid media to drive awareness and track responses.

?You want to make something that consumers want and like,? Mr. Ting said. ?Design and launch platforms that are owned by brands.

?Don?t plan or buy media before you know what your creative story or platform is,? he said. ?Brands are not in the business of keeping the media companies alive.

Location, location, location
Caitlin Remby, east coast head of sales at Navteq media solutions, Boston, agreed with Mr. Ting and said that companies should focus on consumers.

?Mobile is the fastest growing advertising channel,? Ms. Remby said. ?Progressive advertisers are choosing the mobile medium."

Navteq worked with McDonald?s on a mobile campaign that ran in Europe that incorporated mobile banners and location-based technology.

Ads were served to consumers who were in proximity to a McDonald?s location.

McDonald?s delivered targeted coupons to people who were close to one of its locations (see story).

Additionally, Navteq powered a Best Western campaign. More than 1,000 reservations were booked and tracked via a campaign where Best Western incorporated a unique 1-800 number.

In addition to the reservations, the company saw that more than 200 consumers joined the rewards program.

?Location and advertising brings relevancy to consumers,? Ms. Remby said.

Ms. Remby said that NFC will be big.

?In the near future, everything is going to move to NFC,? Ms. Remby said. ?Its seamless and connects to all of your credit accounts.

?It?s definitely the direction that mobile commerce is going to be going in the next few years.?

According to Ms. Remby, it is important to create objectives for a company?s mobile strategy. It is also important to use experts.

However, brands should make sure that they do not just buy a peel-off deal from their online or traditional media buy because it?s the easiest way to break into mobile advertising.

The evolution of mobile
Mobile advertising will evolve considerably by 2013, per Ian Foley, Portola Valley, CA-based senior director of emerging platforms at YuMe.

Mobile will achieve significant scale this year. More advertisers will be comfortable using mobile as an effective medium to reach consumers.

Mobile video advertising will also gain momentum this year.

According to Mr. Foley, Procter & Gamble is a good example of a brand that is using the mobile video advertising channel correctly.

P&G is leveraging three screens and testing interactive ad units.

In addition, the company is advertising at scale and reallocating a portion of its television budget to mobile.

?Video and interactivity is the best of two mediums,? Mr. Foley said. ?Companies should layer on the core video experience and wrap engagement opportunities.

?Brands should test video units with interactive features,? he said. ?Also bring in an ad mediation solution that can optimize ad serving across multiple ad networks."

Rich media
The panelists agreed it is important to get rich media right.

?Rich media is on the rise,? said Carrie Seifer, regional vice president for East Coast sales at Millennial Media, New York. ?But there are also some rich media implementations that are not done right.

?The thing with rich media is just because you can do it doesn?t mean you should,? she said. ?It depends on the client, on the goals on the device and the consumer that is using it.?

Over the course of time, mobile effectiveness is increasing.

?We can still mold people and their behaviors on mobile,? Ms. Seifer said. ?That?s really hard to do in mediums that have been around for a long time.

?There?s a lot of blending with location and mocial [mobile + social],? she said. ?We?re seeing a lot of businesses using this.?