So this week's New Media Age lands on my desk this morning and I read, with a certain level of surprise, the cover article, outlining recent concern on the use of mobile application advertising.
The article highlights, that whilst many well-known brands are embracing the opportunity that advertising in iPhone and other mobile apps may bring, their approach could not be described as particularly well-thought out.
That is not to detract from the 5% of brands that appear to be doing it right, but what of the other 95%?
NMA quoted fairly shocking figures, with up to 30% of ads within mobile apps linking to flash sites which cannot be displayed on an iPhone, and the majority linking to sites not optimised for mobile. If only 5% of advertisers are actually linking to a mobile-enabled site, what sort of user experience are the other 95% giving the consumer?
In a world where both time and financial resources are increasingly scarce, it seems crazy to waste both, with a poorly planned and executed advertising campaign that just doesn’t make sense. So how has this happened?
In defense of the brands, it appears that Google’s launch of AdSense for Mobile Apps has caused this potential issue, with all ads booked via Google automatically running within apps unless the advertiser opts out.
Google probably should have made this clearer to advertisers upon launch to ensure the appropriate changes could be made to the search campaigns. However, contrary views suggest that mobile browsers are sophisticated enough to handle standard, non-mobile-enabled sites, therefore suggesting no change is required.
But if they are offering anything but the best possible user experience throughout their campaign, surely brands should not settle for this?
Marketing budgets are often fought very hard for, both to get and to retain, and if achieving anything but the highest possible ROI, they are certainly not doing their budget-holders, brand or objectives any justice. More worryingly, they could also be causing damage to their brand.
It will be interesting to see how industry bodies respond to the COI’s request for guidelines on advertising in mobile apps.
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Showing posts with label mobile marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mobile marketing. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Gold Star to M&S for QR Campaign
A gold star goes to Marks & Spencer for trying to engage more with their customers with the trialling of mobile QR codes on their ‘Food to Go’ freshly squeezed juices.
What, you may ask, are QR codes?
Not as it may appear a weird layout for a new type of puzzle, but a neat way of offering consumers product information and money off future purchases that has proved to be very popular in Japan. All you need to do is scan the QR code on the bottle with your phone’s camera and you will be directed to a ‘Food to Go’ mobile site which features a range of content and a voucher code to claim against your next bottle of juice.
It’s not the first time it has been tried in the UK; The Sun used them last year to drive traffic to their mobile site via an eight page pull-out section in the newspaper. This was then followed by campaigns from brands like the BBC, Pepsi and Volvo. However, there has been a small hitch in the development of the format over here due to a lack of QR code readers that are automatically embedded in UK phones. Small but potentially significant problem. It will be interesting to see how it works for them. If you’re an M & S freshly squeezed juice fan, you could save yourself a fortune so it might be worth checking your phone does have it!
Consumers may be a difficult target in the short term but one area that QR codes should take off in is at the good old trade fair. Maximising the huge investment that it takes to attend these shows could ensure that B2B clients think about providing mobile QR codes on their stands as a novel way to provide a direct link to mobile phone formatted information with order forms and product information. It would certainly make you stand out from the crowd! Keep an eye out for future QR developments as they may well be the key to the success of your campaign…
Jill Thater
Client Services Director
What, you may ask, are QR codes?
Not as it may appear a weird layout for a new type of puzzle, but a neat way of offering consumers product information and money off future purchases that has proved to be very popular in Japan. All you need to do is scan the QR code on the bottle with your phone’s camera and you will be directed to a ‘Food to Go’ mobile site which features a range of content and a voucher code to claim against your next bottle of juice.
It’s not the first time it has been tried in the UK; The Sun used them last year to drive traffic to their mobile site via an eight page pull-out section in the newspaper. This was then followed by campaigns from brands like the BBC, Pepsi and Volvo. However, there has been a small hitch in the development of the format over here due to a lack of QR code readers that are automatically embedded in UK phones. Small but potentially significant problem. It will be interesting to see how it works for them. If you’re an M & S freshly squeezed juice fan, you could save yourself a fortune so it might be worth checking your phone does have it!
Consumers may be a difficult target in the short term but one area that QR codes should take off in is at the good old trade fair. Maximising the huge investment that it takes to attend these shows could ensure that B2B clients think about providing mobile QR codes on their stands as a novel way to provide a direct link to mobile phone formatted information with order forms and product information. It would certainly make you stand out from the crowd! Keep an eye out for future QR developments as they may well be the key to the success of your campaign…
Jill Thater
Client Services Director
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