There was once a widely held belief that we’d all be going to work by jet pack, popping food pills and communicating via video watches.
Well, one out of three isn’t bad. The video watch is now the mobile phone and finally, for creatives, it has come of age.
In January 2008, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said that mobile advertising was poised for a “huge revolution”. As ever, he was right.
In early 2009, research carried out by Orange revealed the popularity of using phones to watch videos, listen to music, play games, and to search the internet, among all age groups. Over half used their phones to access the internet, 64% sent picture messages, 55% played games, 49% listened to music and 26% received email. Some 87% used mobile media at home, and 73% when they were "out and about".
For me there were some interesting factors here. People were actively using their mobiles to access the internet and then they were continuing to use their mobiles even when they were at home. I could create a commercial, put it on YouTube and people would be watching it at home, on the bus and at work.
That other agencies have also grasped this is confirmed by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), who stated that mobile advertising in the UK has continued to grow quarter on quarter throughout the recession and was worth £28.6m last year - a 99.2% year-on-year increase.
This growth is due to two things. Firstly, clients have now realised that mobile can deliver the audiences they need, which has meant that agencies can get mobile creative work ‘out’. Secondly, with the rise of smart phones and 3G capability, we can deliver content that lives up to brands’ expectations.
Volkswagen has exclusively launched their new model, GTI, on mobile promoted via the iPhone app “Real Racing GTI”. To not even support this with ‘traditional’ media may be considered rash, until you read a press release from comScore, which stated that smart phones and touch screen are both popular with the age group under 35 with 51.4 and 57.7 percent respectively.
This shows that Volkswagen is acutely focused on their primary target audience: males aged from 20 – 40+ with a disposable income - in other words, typical GTI drivers.
And they’re not alone. Nike customers can find colours that they like in everyday items and photograph them with their mobiles. Having sent these in, Nike then dispatch a pair of trainers manufactured to the same shade within a week.
Mobile isn’t just delivering customers, it’s also raising brand stature and awareness (a concern that advertising agencies have held for a long time).
For instance, Nestle ran just a mobile internet ad for Kit Kat that drove awareness of the chocolate bar up by 35%. When a panel of 600 people was then asked to name the first confectionery brand they could think of, the number who mentioned Kit Kat had increased by 247%.
Now add to this GPS and augmented reality (AR).
With AR you can look through the camera view on your phone, and be shown information about the world around you, be that finding the nearest London Underground station (www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2uH-jrsSxs) or being able to create a reality that no longer exists and seeing the Twin Towers (www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8D5wBEiwgk). The possibilities this affords creatives is now almost endless.
Mobile has finally arrived. It’s delivering technically and it’s also delivering the audiences. This in turn is capturing my clients’ attention, which means I can write film scripts, games, apps and AR concepts; in other words, it’s giving me an even bigger blank canvas to enjoy.
Author: Mark Blaylock, Flipside Group Creative Director