6 Trends in Local and Mobile Marketing
The speed of the shift to mobile has confounded marketers. Although research by IABUK says clients know 14% more about mobile than they did in 2011, that’s not enough to make up for the 145% growth of mobile in 2013. By 2014, there will be more phones than people in the world.
While mobile technology can be a path to going global very quickly, the most promising uses might end up being hyperlocal: connecting to the one consumer in the supermarket who is ready to buy your brand as she walks up and down aisles consulting the list on her phone.
Back in the day, consumers searched in the phone book and the newspaper. But no one reads either anymore, and in the past twenty years one technological revolution after another has altered the old game of brands trying to reach consumers. While “big data” theoretically makes it easier to target the “who” (women 25-49), advertisers have to move on to the “when” or the “where” if advertising spend is going to convert to sales. And go ahead and throw the collaborative economy into the mix, and it’s no wonder brands especially are tearing their hair out.
Here are six trends that will define mobile advertising in 2014:
1. It’s all about performance. You can build “brand love” with mobile, but it is a key customer acquisition tool, as well as a key customer service tool.
2. Success metrics are elusive. For nearly half of mobile advertisers results are inconsistent and unknown, partly because the customer experience is very different between mobile and tablet, and even among different phones.You can either design the experience as “click to call,” or you can measure cost per engagement if a video is sent to friends.
3.Mobile has different uses than the desktop. The web is for planning your day, while mobile is for impulse, location, or time-driven decisions. The consumer is using the device to do something in real time, rather than planning to do something.
4.Location data is key to drive sales, and the majority of mobile media is now location targeted.
Location data reveals shopping patterns,lifestyle, and demographic insights, right down to the anonymized individual. Advertisers can also marry search data with location data and determine the right customer message.
5.But location data by itself not enough So far, there appears to be little relationship between proximity and click through rate; for example, I’ll never eat at McDonald’s no matter how close it is or how many coupons I get. You, the brand, will have to know more about me. And it’s possible I will never be your customer.
6. If you’re a national brand, you will juxtapose your global footprint with local information by measuring whether if a given consumer is exposed to your ad, her device shows up at a retail location. In this way, a centralized ad campaign can generate leads for a local merchant.
