Mobile World Congress 2013 and what it means for Mobile Marketing
by david
This year at Mobile World Congress, there was a sense that a new chapter was turned: smartphones penetration had shot past the 50% threshold and tablet penetration has reached 1 in 4 adults in the US. Android and iOS updates, which determine much of nowadays’ user experiences, were challenged by smaller but no less ambitious players, namely RIM, Windows, Ubuntu, and –surprise surprise – Mozilla, which managed to sign up 17 different operators to its
Firefox OS. Moreover, countless companies introduced their mobile wallets and payments solutions, and NFC-powered e-ticketing systems. Tons of promising technologies, each with their strengths and drawbacks, as our CEO Mike Wehrs
explains in this Mobile Marketer article.
Clearly, the mobile landscape has entered the mass consumption phase: for consumers this means that a world of choices is about to open up to them. For the 72,000 visitors who swarmed the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, it meant that the stakes were higher than ever.
For marketers however, this is a double-edged sword: on the one hand the majority of people now interact with, and can be reached through their mobile devices. On the other hand, when targeting their audience, they will have to factor in the increasing diversity of behaviours and touch points, underpinned by the multiplication and ubiquity of these mobile technologies.
In some ways, this mobile technology boom is akin to the television boom of the early 2000s, when the multiplication cable TV channels, each focusing on a theme, meant that marketers could more easily identify and target specific segments. It also meant that they could no longer broadcast an advertisement confident that it would reach a wide audience.
Sure, many of the technologies on display at Mobile World Congress will take months, even years to take on; and many will disappear almost as instantly as they appeared on stage.
Regardless, mobile as a marketing channel has been propelled from “nice-to-have” to “must-have” grade.
The good news is that when it comes to execution, mobile engagement campaigns follow the same principles (i.e. call-to-action, context based and value-adding content, etc. For a detailed review of mobile engagement principles and best practices,
click here) regardless of the technology. We therefore strongly believe that mobile engagement platforms which can process any digital triggers (QR Codes, NFC, images, etc.) allow marketers not to be distracted by continuous shifts in the technology landscape, while preparing them for tomorrow’s challenges.
For expert advice on how to integrate mobile engagement tactics to your marketing campaigns, contact us or visit
www.scanlife.com
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