Part II: Mobile marketers react to economic slowdown
November 14, 2008
Is mobile recession-proof?
This is the second part of a series that looks into how mobile marketers and their clients are reacting to the economic slowdown. For some the next year looks bleak and for others, the economy may be an opportunity for the industry.
Mobile Marketer's reporters got in touch with the various companies that make up the mobile ecosystem and asked them one question: How are you and your clients reacting to the ongoing economic slowdown? Here is what some respondents had to say.
Zak Dabbas, managing partner at Punchkick Interactive Inc., Cleveland, OH
When the economic meltdown first started to unravel, we were naturally concerned that mobile marketing budgets might start to be scaled back. In fact, we've found the opposite to be true.
For most clients, mobile marketing represents only a fraction of their total marketing budget. Many of our mobile services cost significantly less to execute than the price of a traditional media buy.
With television and print costs soaring, mobile is really starting to gain recognition as a cost effective way to connect on a deeper level with consumers. Another reason that mobile continues to present itself as a great option for our clients is the sheer variety of options available to any budget, no matter what the size.
For some clients, custom mobile applications might be a solution of choice, while for others, a targeted SMS campaign will do the trick. There's almost always some way to provide clients with an engaging mobile solution.
Although marketing budgets in general are getting trimmed, marketing is still a necessity for brands. Thankfully, marketing directors throughout the country are starting to realize that half of the world's population can be reached in its pocket.
David Katz, vice president of mobile advertising and publishing at Yahoo Inc., Sunnyvale, CA
There's no question that the economy is going to be a challenge, but even in this environment major brands in the automotive, travel and leisure, high-tech, consumer packaged goods and finance categories are coming to Yahoo to navigate the mobile advertising market.
Historically, the strongest players have used slow economic periods to capture share from weaker competitors. The same is likely to happen this time and we expect that many of the strongest brands will want to continue developing expertise in mobile.
With more than 24 million unique users visiting our mobile Web site in U.S., and some of the highest quality inventory available, we think Yahoo is well positioned to help these brands to reach their target customers wherever they are on the PC and the mobile Internet.
The global mobile opportunity is tremendous. It's projected that by 2010, there will be at least three times as many active mobile phones as PCs -- providing a real possibility that mobile services and mobile advertising will ultimately be more important than their equivalents on the PC-based experience.
During these uncertain times, this is a huge opportunity for advertisers. Mobile devices are hyper-personal and by creating indispensable mobile Internet services that meet these consumer needs.
Advertising will always follow the consumer. It did so in the '90s with PC display, and earlier this decade with search, recently with video, and now, and perhaps with the highest growth rates on a global basis, in mobile.
The mobile platform extends reach and enables brands to reach their customers where they are -- on the go.
Gaurav Jain, vice president of business development at Polar Mobile, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Our publishers are using mobile to generate additional revenue from existing content, a smart strategy given the declining numbers in print and TV and an overall slowing economy. Through mobile they are able to increase the aggregate engagement with their audience across all their media properties.
Moreover, projections indicate that both mobile advertising and the economy will get better over the next couple of years, and, hence, publishers are investing time and money now to develop robust, scalable and sticky mobile applications that will become a key part of the value chain over time. They are using this "down time" to gather key learning's in mobile, and create a strong footing in this space.
With shrinking advertising budgets, advertisers are investing more of their budget in measurable campaigns. Through surgical targeting they want to reduce or eliminate waste, and provide a better ROI on their marketing efforts.
Mobile applications have one of the best targeting capabilities of all media, including parameters such as location, day/time, carrier, handset, user behaviour, etc. Our advertising clients are leveraging these capabilities to create targeted, effective and measurable mobile campaigns, thereby reducing their cost of customer acquisition, a must-have in this slowing economy.
Similar to publishers, advertisers are also leveraging this time to gather key learning's in this space so they are ready when the market explodes.
We provide all our applications free of cost to the consumers, thereby, addressing the issue of shrinking disposable income as the economy slows down. In fact, the consumers appreciate that they can get access to content anytime, anywhere, free of cost.
Mobile Marketer's Giselle Abramovich, Dan Butcher and Mickey Alam Khan did the reporting for the "Mobile marketers react to the economy" series.
If you are interested in providing your thoughts on the economic slowdown, email .