What will it take for mobile to hit the big time?

July 13, 2009

Lance Johnson is global head of sales and marketing at Nokia

By Lance Johnson

It's been a painful year for the wider advertising community, but last month at Cannes Lions the industry got together to banish the gloom and celebrate excellence in advertising.

However, with numbers down almost 40 percent on last year's show and agencies and brands tightening their belts, there's an increasing focus on more measurable media, namely digital.

Biz Stone, Twitter's co-founder, headlined the event, and the Cannes Grand Prix prize and three gold Lions went to a UGC campaign from Tourism Queensland, proving that you don't have to be a super brand with enormous budgets to make the cut.

So when will mobile bask in the glory of the Cannes sunshine? What will it take for a cigar-chomping marketing director to be slapping the back and filling up the Champagne glass of a mobile agency or network?

Well, more creative ideas would be good for starters.

Agencies need to focus on their mobile campaigns, and brands must make mobile the center of their campaigns, not an afterthought. The mobile device is capable of such a wide variety of interactions versus other media.

Moreover, with highly capable smartphones generating around 40 percent of traffic on the mobile Web, brands must create campaigns that are in tune with sophisticated audiences.

Perhaps, however, it's the perceived lack of scale of mobile that has prevented brands and agencies from dedicating too much time and effort.

It is scale, of course, that has put Biz Stone in the limelight in Cannes, and had ad executives listening to Linked-In's CEO at this year's show.

What's clear to these executives as well is that mobile is now becoming the primary access point to these types of services, not to mention other premium digital services.

So scale will soon lessen as an issue as mobile Internet usage grows rapidly.

Increased trust in the medium is also a requirement for larger budgets being committed to mobile and this is where we can play a part.

Common standards and measurement are key and this is gaining traction at agencies today, particularly now that they can start using industry-standard ad tools to integrate into mobile networks.

Add to this the ability to run campaigns on trusted media brands and we are making great progress.

So, all the above is well and good, but what the industry needs is something unique to mobile -- something that is going to make us stand out from the crowd and show that we mean business.

Something that advertisers simply can't get elsewhere. A unique selling pojnt. This is coming in the form of location.

We once began our conversations with friends and colleagues with "What are you doing?" Social networks are now often answering that question.

Mobile can immediately add the answer to the other question "Where are you?"

Coupled with information on your likes, dislikes and favorite content, and suddenly there is a rich digital picture that has been developed of ourselves for our friends, but also for the brands who want to engage us with our permission.

This location and behavioral data will take relevancy of advertising to unprecedented levels.

While it's true that location based services have been on the horizon for years, within the next few they will proliferate and demonstrate the unique and innovative aspects of mobile as an effective marketing medium.

As budgets come under more scrutiny, the prospect of a channel that enables tight targeting, location awareness and even physical and digital payment mechanisms "from operator billing to mobile couponing -- should really whet the appetite of Cannes attendees, from creative types to CEOs for years to come.

Lance Johnson is head of global sales and marketing at Nokia Interactive, London. Reach him at .