Mobile on verge of take-off: SES attendees

By Giselle Abramovich

December 6, 2007

David Golini, director of sales at Where 2 Get It Inc.

CHICAGO – This is the year of mobile, according to many attendees of the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Exhibition this week in Chicago. They believe the mobile channel isn’t fully embraced yet, but forecast its acceptance in the upcoming year.

Show attendees noted that the mobile medium is still in its infancy, but is becoming more accepted as a successful branding and marketing tool.

“The role of mobile search is to ensure that you adopt your online marketing campaign in a way that makes sense to a mobile user,” said Joanna Orcutt, Web marketing specialist at Sagerock.com, Akron, OH.

“Because users are searching at a faster pace and not researching, it is important to provide immediate results that can be used right away,” she said. “There is definitely a greater awareness of mobile now than there was a few years ago.

“Marketers that are extending their reach globally need to get into mobile, especially if they are entering the Asian markets,” Ms. Orcutt said.

World leads US
While marketers begin to embrace the mobile channel, it is consumers that are going to be hard to convince. For one, privacy issues haunt mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing also faces challenges such as spam, implementing short codes and offering suffix support, an opaque pricing structure for advertisers and the high costs of voice and video platforms.

Search seems to be the most attractive of all the mobile mediums, since both marketers and consumers are just beginning to explore the possibilities.

“This is the year of mobile search,” said David Golini, director of sales at Where 2 Get It Inc., Anaheim, CA. “It is coming, but hasn’t fully matured yet and that’s why it isn’t fully embraced yet.”

International markets such as Japan and China are way ahead of the United States in mobile search. The medium is accepted and embraced in these markets. But as screen sizes increase and broadband gets better, the US is expected to acknowledge the potential for monetization in mobile search and its other marketing capabilities.

Indeed, international markets are a key indicator of a change in mobile behavior.

“[Mobile] is on the edge of exploding,” said Andrew Goodman, principal of Page Zero Media, Toronto. “International markets are proof of that. Right now is the time to show consumers just how useful mobile search can be to them.

“I believe that every tab on a mobile phone will eventually have some sort of implication and opportunity for marketers,” he said. 

Banking on mobile
Other SES attendees believe that for some marketers, the mobile component is mandatory for their multichannel efforts.

Take banks and other financial institutions that offer payment services. This sector has embraced the mobile channel to connect to customers.

For example, Bank of America allows consumers to pay their bills via handset and even boasts the larger mobile customer base among its peers nationwide. Chase can send balance mobile alerts to an account holder.

Not only can these companies use these alerts as a marketing opportunity, it is an ideal way to improve the customer experience.

“For some companies, mobile is mandatory,” said Bill Parkes, senior vice president of media and technology services at nFusion, Austin, TX. “For other sectors, however, mobile is a big question mark.”

Retail is a case in point. For retailers, mobile search competes on a priority basis with other channels that are already working and bringing in revenue.

“How do you get traditional marketers to do something non-traditional?” said Don E. Schultz, professor of integrated marketing communications at Northwestern University. “You have to generate respect."