What a global view of mobile marketing and advertising can teach the United States

Thomas Burgess
CEO, Third Screen Media

Historically, the United States has lagged behind many of the world’s most advanced nations in the adoption of new media channels.  With the exception of TiVo/DVRs, most media technologies since the invention of radio have initially witnessed higher international usage rates than the US.  In 1939, there were 20,000 television sets in London, compared to only 7,000 in the US; yet the in the decades that followed, the US quickly developed into a TV culture where families lived and ate meals around their TV.  The same will ring true for another technology that is shaping the way Americans get their information: the mobile phone.

Take a flight to London, Paris, Seoul or Mumbai, and you’ll see mobile components to advertising campaigns as soon as you step off the plane.  From soda cans to giant billboards, mobile contests abound.  TV advertising encourages users to respond via mobile, subway platforms have Bluetooth-enabled content hotspots and viewers enjoy soap operas on their phones, courtesy of advertising.  

Marketers toying with international mobile efforts have seen tangible, qualitative results to mobile messaging components; response rates and usage for specific types of content that can be translated into future success stories.  Although traffic volume for international mobile marketing campaigns is relatively small, users are savvy and sophisticated.  As many of these markets are modest to begin with, they provide scaleable testing grounds for trial and error with a knowledgeable audience.

In Australia, marketers learned that ‘dwell advertising’ (advertising that is consumed during idle time, such as bus stops and train platforms) is a useful tactic for encouraging people to pick up their mobile phones and respond to an ad via SMS.  Though campaign SMS volumes remain moderate, advertisers have seen how some off-mobile media placements and channels prove far more effective at driving mobile usage than others.  

Global marketers have also discovered which content works best within the mobile landscape for specific target audiences.  American Express learned last year that the time-sensitive nature of sports made including a mobile element in its Wimbledon sponsorship more exciting, while Disney captured Japanese audiences with its mobisodes.  Johnnie Walker found a bottle cap SMS contest targeting consumers had a stronger effect on bartenders collecting caps and pushing more of their cocktails in the bars of Singapore.

Because many international marketers have abused the system by charging premium rates for responding to an ad via mobile, sending spim (mobile spam) and collecting phone numbers, audiences have grown savvy by seeking out the mobile fine print.  The key to a campaign’s success may rely on mobile ads promoting that a response via mobile is free to the end-user, or one that highlights the privacy policy on a WAP site data collection page.

The most valuable lessons that major brands are learning involve how to integrate mobile into their communications platform.  The U.S. market is still dominated by brands that want to dabble in mobile, while many entering the mobile space believe that simply being on a mobile phone increases brand awareness.  International advertisers are building campaigns that revolve around a mobile messaging concept or strategy and are finding formulas for success.

There is another lesson from overseas that shows consumers are fast reaching a saturation point for mobile content and services.  Growth in new subscriptions is limited, yet many international ad-supported mobile content providers such as Yahoo! continue to retain large audiences.  Consumers want premium content and don’t want to pay for dozens of seemingly small subscription fees that are burdensome in aggregate.  Large and small publishers will need to embrace the ad-supported model if the mobile marketplace in the US has intentions of expanding beyond the basic consumer messaging alert, ringtone or wallpaper download.

U.S. marketers and content publishers have much to learn from the successes and failures of their international counterparts.  But international markets should also be keeping a close eye on the US, as the most advanced media market is driving the ultimate goal in mobile advertising: to establish mobile as an independent media channel.  In this regard, Europe and Asia are following North America.

While international markets make great testing grounds for messaging and technology acceptance, the U.S. domestic media market is quickly advancing in practical application and establishing a mobile advertising infrastructure.  With the US leading in sales of mobile advertising, Madison Avenue ad agencies are structuring new departments led by experts in ‘emerging media,’ and media planners have tools available today that allow them to research and purchase ad inventory for mobile in terms and models they are familiar with: CPMs and auction models.  Mobile campaign measurement criteria are also being established in the US, which will inevitably define the success metrics for global campaigns. U.S. brands are further conducting awareness surveys and monitoring the addition of the mobile channel as part of their overall media mix. 

The mobile channel has become an advertising medium unto itself in the US.  With international messaging best practice and a domestic market media planning-buying infrastructure already in place, the critical mass is prime to develop; it is only a matter of time before the tipping point arrives.  When that happens, the US will become a culture that consumes mobile advertising faster than it learned to eat a TV dinner.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />