Mobile Marketing - The Elephant In The Room For Marketers

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"A difficult situation that is very obvious but not discussed or addressed."

That's just one of I'm sure many definitions of the phrase "elephant in the room." Frankly I don't really care which definition you subscribe to. The fact of the matter is that mobile marketing - despite all it's continued hype and promise has been severely under utilized by marketers of all shapes and sizes.

English: A female African Bush Elephant in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania Français : Femelle éléphant africaine au Parc national de Mikumi, Tanzanie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And the word "continued" is absolutely the operative word in the sentence above.

Recently, in a piece for Digiday, Brian Morrissey wrote of the Ad Industry Lies and at the top of his list was mobile:

"1. It’s the Year of Mobile (for the fourth year in a row)
Everyone talks about the power of mobile and how it will change advertising. But the truth is, no one has figured it out yet. Mobile advertising is like going back to the internet 1995, except on a much smaller screen."

Did you catch the "fourth year in a row" reference?


Think about it. 

How many times have we all heard that this year is the year of mobile?

About a month ago I wrote a piece entitled Mobile Marketing Too Large For Brands To Ignore which featured a very telling quote from  Mark Donovan, comScore SVP of mobile: "“With nearly 86 million Americans now shopping on their smartphones, this pronounced shift in consumer behavior is simply too large for retailers to ignore, with the future of their business depending on how well they adapt to the new environment.

According to eMarketer:

• Time spent using mobile devices for activities such as internet and app use, gaming, music and others has more than doubled in the past two years.
• This year, the amount of time US consumers spent using mobile devices—excluding talk time—will grow 51.9% to an average 82 minutes per day, up from just 34 minutes in 2010

So we know consumers are more and more turning to their mobile phones to do well, pretty much everything but first and foremost they are using it to spend money, to buy your products, services and wares.

Then how do you explain that, according to the Chief Marketing Council, a mere 16% of companies have a mobile marketing strategy to establish and foster customer engagement which theoretically leads directly to more sales?

Or, also according to eMarketer, that less than 2% of all U.S. marketing spending, or just $2.6 billion, to go toward mobile advertising?

Is The Price Not Right?

As per a recent infographic the Wall Street Journal released "the cost and market for mobile ads remains relatively small compared to other outlets like television and the Web."

I realize these are estimates and best-guesses and all that but the infograph clearly shows that mobile ads are the least expensive medium for advertising at just $2.85 which is half the price of ads on the internet and ten times cheaper than those on tv.

And by no means am I stating that all marketers should suddenly shift all ad dollars into mobile. Of course not.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge proponent for creating an integrated marketing strategy.

The point is that marketers can obviously see the massive shift into mobile marketing and mobile advertising. 

There is most assuredly a tremendous opportunity to set yourself apart from your competition by taking full advantage of the fact that more and more consumers are going mobile. And isn't that Marketing 101? Be where your customers are. Get your message in front of the right people at the right time on the right platforms?

Sounds easy when I put it that way.

Sources: eMarketer, Wall Street Journal

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a senior content strategist at Responsys, a leading global provider  of on-demand emaion-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions.

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