Mobile Devices – the future of Communications?

Mobile devices such as smart phones, laptops, ipads and kindles have come into their own this year. After many false dawns, the mobile age is finally upon us. The fact that advertising and communication spending on mobile grew 32% from 2008 to 2009, midst recession, is evidence of how seriously this channel is being taken by the big media spenders. So, what is it that makes mobile so well placed to take adverts and therefore money away from traditional media?

Personal Device

First of all it is a personal device. This may seem fairly obvious but watching how a person reacts when another handles their phone shows just how attached we have become. At a recent seminar in Google HQ the facilitator demonstrated the personal nature of mobile by asking all participants to unlock their phone and pass it to the person on the left hand side of them. Around the room, after a sharp intake of breath, phones were passed. The facilitator then asked for the phone to be passed again to the left – two spots away from the owner. What was interesting, apart from the logistics of those at the end of rows, was how the anxiety level in the room jumped on the second passing to the left.

Is it really surprising then that most people go to sleep with their phone plugged in and resting lazily on the bedside table beside them?  For advertisers, this omnipresence is a golden opportunity to communicate. 

Personalised Device

Mobiles may all start the same with their factory settings but within minutes of landing in the palm of a new owner they have personalised ring tones, address books, photos, short video clips, apps and even morning alarms. For advertisers, being let into this world of the personalised individual is a dream come true. We have come a long way in mobile communications from the opt out marketing text. Advertisers are using apps, games, competitions and mobile only sites to hook the customer and keep them receiving their messages. Mobile users, certainly for the time being, are happy to trade their personal information for these communication methods.

Portable

Mobiles come with us everywhere. Trust me, there will be a big prize for the technology engineer that manages to create a shower proof mobile. Half jest aside, there is a big opportunity for advertisers to combine using traditional media such as billboards with driving download of their mobile goods. Take the recent example of the Guardian ipad app. The advertising was everywhere, but the call to action was only via the ipad.  Customer sees it advertised, customer goes to app store and customer buys it.

Mobile devices offer plenty of opportunity for advertisers and communicators provided they think outside of the constraints of traditional media. When television news first appeared, the news was read by a radio announcer in a dinner suit at a microphone. It took a while for TV news to experiment and try different things until they found a format that worked for the medium. When press advertising first transferred to online, it appeared in old press style adverts. It too has taken some time to bed in and realise what works best for the format. Now that online advertising is moving to mobile, the same process of reinvention is happening. Communicators can rest assured that mobile will be the future of communication for some time. The challenge is to work with the format and find out where and how customers are happy to receive messages on this highly personal device.