Touch screens, high-speed data connections, GPS, and accelerometers; the ability to stream video, play games, buy stuff, take photos, and connect with friends through text, social networking, and the classic phone call; a tool for engaging consumers wherever they happen to be. Mobile devices are alive with capabilities. All too often, however, mobile marketing doesn’t take full advantage of this abundance. Not enough people know how to produce powerful brand experiences with the small screen and mobile setting just yet.
That’s why I was absolutely thrilled with the presence of mobile marketing at the 2012 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival of Creativity. For anyone curious about producing vibrant and effective mobile campaigns, the big two mobile firsts at the 59th year of the annual event–the first-ever mobile awards category and the first-ever all-day forum dedicated to creativity in mobile advertising moderated by our own Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB–provided valuable instruction and inspiration.
At the last session of the historic IAB forum, “Secrets of the Mobile Superstars“, Thomas Fellger, founding partner and CEO at iconmobile, demonstrated how mobile can be used, not just for advertising, but also for innovative types of marketing by showcasing the breakthrough MINI Connected app. Car owners, after downloading the app and plugging their devices into equipped MINIs, can gain access to features like a navigation system, thousands of online radio stations, the ability to scan and post to Facebook, and a dynamic music system that creates an audio experience based on the characteristics of the drive itself. The MINI Connected app literally changes the experience of using the car, building brand loyalty in the process. Also from the stage, Per Holmkvist, Founder and Senior Advisor at Mobiento, told the audience it’s time to move past why mobile and to focus instead on how mobile, and to use apps only to “superserve” consumers. Colleen DeCourcy, CEO and founder of Socalistic, advised marketers to think of mobile as an extension of their brand and product line, to obsess over the nuances of behavior and interaction, and to make mobile the enabler within a larger ecosystem.
At another session, MEC Global highlighted the important notion of mobile first, which means embracing mobile at the very outset of campaign development in order to build out from it and deeply incorporate its capabilities into multi-channel initiatives. The Cannes Gold Mobile Lion winner in the category “Use of Multiple Screens or Networked Mobile Technology,” illustrated the enormous advantages of this type of extensive mobile integration. For the Super Bowl this year, Chevrolet and Goodby Silverstein & Partners designed the Chevy Game Time app to give viewers an incentive to watch the Chevy commercials very closely and to interact with the brand throughout the game. Here’s how it worked: Super Bowl viewers, who were also app users, would answer trivia questions about the brand’s ads during the game–and in return, they’d receive a unique license plate number. If they saw their plate number in a later ad, they had won a car. With a game-inspired app, a car as an incentive to play, and real-time association with content, the brand interacted with 700,000 users.
Cannes attendees were brimming with thoughtful optimism about mobile, and I viewed so many eye-opening examples of best-in-class mobile marketing, I returned to the IAB headquarters even more excited for the IAB Mobile Marketplace event on July 16 and assured that we are doing the right thing by expanding the MIXX Award categories to include both “Mobile Ad” and “Mobile Brand Destination Site.” There’s a demand to see great work; there is ample great work to celebrate and showcase; and there’s no better way to learn what you can do with mobile, than observing what great work others have done.