Who owns mobile in your company?

By Mickey Alam Khan

January 7, 2008

Mickey Alam Khan is editor in chief of Mobile Marketer

Any new technology or medium requires ownership within an organization for it to flourish – or at least be taken seriously. When was the last time you talked to the director of mobile marketing?

Now we’re not asking that companies pad their payroll. But it’s time that they take the mobile channel seriously. Television has its corporate votaries, and so do print, radio, mail, outdoor and the Internet. But few speak for marketing, media or commerce directed to the 243 million U.S. consumers using mobile phones for voice and data activities.

As things stand, mobile is clumped together with the interactive function in a typical organization. Which means that it’s the last line on a budget or that it’s served crumbs left over from an Internet marketing allocation. That attitude won’t do this year.

With more smartphones on the market, consumers can increasingly conduct their normal activities on mobile and with growing ease. As their expectations increase, so will their propensity to understand that marketers or retailers with whom they have an established relationship may like to dialogue with them on mobile.

However, unlike other channels such as the computer-based Internet or mail, marketers have to be extra sensitive in their mobile marketing. Overtures via the Internet or mail don’t have the same potential to annoy as much as an unwanted text pitch or cloying rich media ad on a mobile phone – especially if the consumer is footing the bill for that commercial message.

A mobile czar
So what this requires is a special skill set. An ideal mobile marketing executive within an advertiser company will require expertise in several areas: the data understanding born from direct marketing, the interactive creativity from the Internet world, the branding-based broadcast abilities from TV and radio. Oh yes, don’t forget a vital requirement of all modern communications – familiarity with technology and ways to measure its impact when combined with marketing.

At present there is no shortage of executives with mobile technical knowledge. What marketers need to do is send their marketing staff to shows and seminars on mobile marketing. Read publications like … need we mention? Expose them to the latest mobile technology and marketing case studies.

Alternatively, they can hire people who’ve worked in mobile services firms or the few agencies that can call themselves mobile specialists.

Small-screen marketing is a different creature. Just as TV experience didn’t guarantee a straight shot at Internet marketing jobs for the smaller computer-based Internet, so does an Internet marketing background not automatically qualify for a mobile marketing position.

Don’t confuse mobile marketing for Internet marketing. Yes, there are similarities, but you don’t have to deal with gatekeepers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T with Internet marketing. With mobile marketing, you’ve got to knock extra hard to be let in. And it must be a face you can trust will do the job once in the door.