Three Ways to Make This Your "Year of Mobile"

Nothing says "Doh!*" like the statement that this will be the "year of mobile."

We have heard it (and said it) for years. Some very smart people I know do believe that we are really at a watershed moment with mobile. They say the equivalent of "this is the year of mobile" with a quick follow-on apology acknowledging that every year since 2001 (year that the 3GSM World Congress was held in Cannes, France; precursor to World Mobile Congress) has been the year of mobile.

This year is special due to four trends coming together:

• 3G/4G device connectivity speeds (We really can watch video now)
• Increase in unlimited data plans (except when I am roaming overseas - watch out!)
• Growth of smartphones (apps make it all easier)
• The fast growth of the iPad (stretches our thinking of what is a mobile device)

See how three of these come together in the US:

We really can do more with our phones in the US, Europe and Asia. That these four factors vary around the world as do socio-economic conditions is a testament to how market-specific strategies have to be. It's not as simple as launching a Web site even one that is localized in 20 markets. ComScore has a great Mobile Year in Review report. (I would also point you to Mary Meeker's preso for Kleiner Perkins) There are great differences in use even between US and EU as seen in the ComScore report:

People using phones for a growing number of purposes has a reached a critical mass. Now, what do I have to do to be successful as a marketer in 2011 and going forward using mobile?

Study People Behavior 

I have this great Powerpoint deck on mobile marketing. It's exhaustive. It covers global stats and all the variety of mobile media use from SMS text messaging to mobile couponing to location-aware services like, well, just about everything these days (How many apps do you have that are able to combine your location with some useful service?).

Don't get me wrong, its a great deck but it doesn't really help start to anticipate or really understand behaviors. It can inventory what people are doing like interacting with Cityville (game), reading the New York Times, or texting but it doesn't connect that too what people are doing in their lives off of the phone. Are they standing in line at Barnes and Noble?  When traveling and finding they are a bit short on wardrobe, are they shopping for a pair of black Hugo Boss Alabama-style jeans (why is that so hard)? Are they guilt-ily trying to squeeze in a few emails at their kid's soccer game?

Mobile will enable more and more behavior change. While 10% of Japan's mobile users (10mm of 100mm) use their phones to make payments, we, in the US, crave that experience. It will change how we checkout and maybe how we shop and decide what to actually purchase. 

To be really successful, we need to think about context. It's not enough to consumer data as if the mobile device were just a channel. Luke Wroblewski at Benchmark Capital focuses on mobile design and puts it this way:

"It's hard to find advice about mobile design that doesn't emphasize the importance of context. While many people are quick to point out understanding mobile context is key to delivering a great mobile experience, few define context explicitly enough to make it actionable. That's why I'm always excited to find concrete insights into how people are using mobile devices."

We need to mix anthropology, psychology and sociology and apply it - again - to marketing to understand this "context." There are not enough studies about this mostly cause it's hard. It requires more than aggregating data. We need studies like Novarra's. They segmented users in 5 groups and came up with this useful nugget about multitasking parents: 

"The study found that multitasking parents rely on their mobile devices to stay in touch and stay organized, never leaving home without their phone. Novarra warns marketers to remember that multitasking parents are more tech-savvy than given credit."

Design Experiments

If all you want to do is shoot out a mobile coupon to the right users, you should barrel ahead. Most other promising uses of mobile have not been codified yet. They remain a little unpredictable which is fine for the marketer willing to innovate (take calculated chances) but drives the hard-core 'optimizers' ("I need a 5% improvement on my CRM ROI before I will do it...") crazy. 

To succeed in mobile, I must adopt an experimental mindset. This is a little different than what Ogilvy calls "agile marketing." The latter tells me to set up a program to be evaluated in the fly to allow for constant optimization. Experimentation is a bit more bald-faced, "let's try some things."

This will work if I do three things:

1. Set aside a modest budget for experiments. Walking around Facebook HQ last week, we were all struck by the slogans on the wall encouraging "failing fast." By identifying that experimental budget I am embracing the ok-ness of failing

2. Define how I will measure the success of a series of programs. That way I can gauge the efficacy of each experiment. It is the only responsible thing to do. 

3. Make post-mortem's de facto standards. I would love to get another Latin term in there. But suffice it to say that beyond just evaluating KPIs, we need to learn as an organization for every mobile experiment. What did we learn about our customer, our business and our organization? How many times have you sworn to do a post mortem examination of a project and then let it slip away? 

Integrate Everywhere

Mobile, like social, is not a standalone strategy. Using mobile devices to engage people can be apart of many, if not most, relationship marketing and even campaign marketing efforts. Treating mobile separately is a short-term neccesity. It is kind of "stimulus-package" approach to jumpstart the organization's use of mobile. In the long run, mobile will just be a part of everything we plan in marcom. 

From the very beginning of these experiments, I need to be looking for ways to integarte mobile into the base level planning on every marcom inititaive. We have gotten pretty good at doing that with social media and are now applying some of that success to integrating mobile.  


*("Doh!" is that Homer Simpson expression that telegraphs disappointment usually in oneself like getting caught doing or saying something stupid. It has a nice self-effacing quality. This is not to be confused with "Duh!" which is usually said about someone else ad in "that is so obvious and you are so stupid for having said it." This is too negative for my blood.)

Comments

[jeremy epstein]

been a while since i commented, but just wanted to say thanks for this post and keep up the good work. Great perspective, as usual.