michael de souza, mobext 20121012

Mobile ROI

Michael de Souza General Manager, Mobext / Singapore & Malaysia

Agenda

•  The mobile landscape –  It’s hard to define ROI, let alone achieve it

•  A new paradigm –  The rules of marketing and advertising are changing.

•  Examples –  Who’s doing it right?

© Mobext 2012 mobext.com 2

THE MOBILE LANDSCAPE

What you already know

1.  Mobile’s really, really big.

2.  It’s changed how we communicate and interact.

3.  It’s breathtakingly efficient, cheap and offers a better user experience then ever.

4.  The future is already here. –  It’s just not yet evenly distributed



So, why’s it so difficult to make a business model work?

•  For publishers?

•  For advertisers?


Publishers

•  Many competing businesses ‘trying to eat the publisher’s lunch’

–  Platforms –  Operating systems –  Device manufacturers –  Ad networks

•  All trying to ‘own’ the consumer / ‘own’ the advertiser experience

•  Many players are duplicating efforts, while ignoring other areas altogether


The dismal state of mobile monetisation

•  Potential catastrophe awaits publishers who don’t get their business models right.

•  Only a few players getting it right.


HTML5

FT.com learnings

•  Didn’t just disappear when they abandoned the app store •  Discoverability was no problem

–  In fact, it was easier for them to promote the app

•  You can forge your own direction is you are prepared to do so.


Advertisers

•  Brands spend very little on mobile –  1% of total ad spend (BUT, this excludes non-media expenditure) –  Most marketing departments have no dedicated mobile resources / time

•  The budgets barely cover the basics –  App / mobile site development –  Limited marketing campaigns to support these

•  Work is therefore limited to adaptation of PC services / content to the small screen –  Almost no chance of developing for mobile –  Let alone device-specific strategies


And yet…

"It's not about the size of the screen, or the size of the ad,

it's the size of the audience, and the depth of engagement.”

- Rohit Dadwal, MMA Apac


A Self-fulfilling prophecy?

•  Achieving ROI with no investment is impossible

–  A recent example from a travel client.

•  Total media budget: $3.4m (4 countries, 4 weeks)

•  Mobile budget: $80k (2.4%) –  No mobile booking function yet, so client unwilling to allocate more than that.

•  Addressable market (3G connectivity / 20-49 years / mobile & tablet) –  CN: 51.7m –  ID: 11.2m –  MY: 2.9m –  SG: 2.3m

•  Weighted budget –  CN: $61k –  ID: $13.1k –  MY: $3.1k –  SG: $2.7k


So what’s the optimal budget allocation, then?


So what’s the optimal budget allocation, then?

7% on mobile (September’s MMA / Marketing Evolution study)


Around 7% (adjusting per goal and category)


SIRFs


Methodology


Share of the mix


Using mobile at launch


Yet, “the 7% answer” is still not entirely clear

•  The myth: “Mobile campaigns reach everybody” –  Don’t mix up numbers (eg SMS reach) in campaign planning –  Each mobile channel is a distinct market

•  Mobile can’t be a convenient anytime / any place extension of your other campaigns

•  There are numerous distinct communities and behaviours within mobile

–  Social networks –  Mobile gaming –  Web content –  In-app content

•  …and many more


The challenge

•  To ‘overinvest’ your time and energy in mobile now –  Even if you have far less budget to work with

•  Stop looking at your media budget for answers –  Mobile should form part of the actual brand experience, not just advertising

•  The Risk: failing to stop and think will damage your brand –  We see it all the time.


The industry’s plagued by antisocial practices

•  A property developer walks into a bar…

–  10,000 SMSs > 2 sales •  Interruptive, disrespectful, unsustainable

–  These guys aren’t alone •  Mobile carriers, banks, many others…



Swamped

peakwater.org


Why are these problems so prevalent?

•  Mobile interaction is one-to-one

–  That gives cover for otherwise respectable companies to pass the ‘red face’ test –  Marketing heads plead ignorance (or turn a blind eye) –  Brand guidelines don’t yet cater for mobile

–  Recipients tend to ‘avoid the noise’



Insidious damage

•  Bad practices are usually not bad enough to cause torrents of complaints –  It’s a gradual erosion of trust

•  The damage done is seldom intentional –  Usually, it’s the result of someone taking a shortcut

–  Although sometimes, lack of consideration is acknowledged and intentional…



‘Spray and pray’

•  Mass is no excuse for lack of appropriateness

–  “With this many impressions, we’re bound to reach someone in our target market!”

•  Is that really what you want?



No time to think!

•  Oh no! They asked for ‘something mobile’!

–  Can you put down some quick ideas by lunchtime?



Enough, already

•  The industry badly needs to –  Stop shouting at a faceless crowd –  And start having respectful conversations

•  Decide that we’re in it for the long haul –  Build relationships –  Establish trust –  Earn a customer’s lifetime value



Mobile’s personal

•  Everything we do affects customers intimately and immediately –  There’s no escape!

•  It requires that brands form a new kind of relationship •  It requires an authentic, personal conversation



We need to redefine ‘R’

•  It’s no longer this easy:


Carrier

Licensing

Media cost

Billing provider

Revenue


So, how to redefine ROI?

•  We’re playing a longer game now

•  We need new measures for success

•  It’s getting more complicated –  No longer just about instant revenues

•  A reputation built slowly can be damaged very quickly



The new model… is something like the old model?



It’s an ongoing conversation

A deliberate, considered approach spans a range of brand activities: •  Brand exposure •  User engagement •  Building a permission database •  Gaining consumer insight (user data) •  Making a sale



THE NEW PARADIGM

The new paradigm > A new set of rules

1.  Listen 2.  Interrupt gracefully (if at all) 3.  Reduce the noise 4.  Be authentic 5.  Whisper, don’t shout 6.  Understand context 7.  Build a platform


THE NEW PARADIGM

1. Listen

•  It starts with listening.

–  Who are your customers? –  How do they interact (with you, with each other)? –  How do they use technology?

–  If unsure about their motivations, ask!

–  Ask ‘Why?’ – a lot.

•  The result:

–  Respectful, relevant interaction.


THE NEW PARADIGM




THE NEW PARADIGM

2. Interrupt gracefully (if at all)

•  Advertising has always been brash, but we’ve reached a watershed:

–  Shouting for attention is no longer a virtue (especially such a personal, direct channel) –  It’s exhausting, and it makes your brand appear insecure and desperate

•  Make sure that interruption is a conscious choice, not a default setting.

•  “It’s not advertising if it’s relevant and useful” – focus group respondent.


THE NEW PARADIGM

"Marketing by interrupting people isn’t cost-effective anymore. You can’t afford to seek out people and send them

unwanted marketing messages, in large groups, and hope that some will send you money.”

- Seth Godin


THE NEW PARADIGM




THE NEW PARADIGM

3. Reduce the noise

•  Customers everywhere have access to more data and stimulus than ever.

•  We face a wall of white noise – people shouting for our attention. –  Impinging on us in the physical and digital world.


THE NEW PARADIGM

Filtering out the noise makes us happier

•  We’ll even pay for it.

–  Not just in premium / ad-free versions of sites and apps, –  But to remove ads from our devices themselves...


THE NEW PARADIGM

Filtering tools are evolving

•  There are more tools than ever to protect us from unwanted noise –  And there will be more on the way

•  … especially with a wide market willing to pay $15 per user per device!

•  So, if you’re contributing more noise than value, customers will filter you out, –  and then, you simply won’t exist in their world.


THE NEW PARADIGM

Caveat: Less noise ≠ less information

•  The problem isn't the amount of data that we're receiving. –  More useful information is a good thing. –  It's that data needs to be presented more intelligently.


Simple sells




THE NEW PARADIGM

4. Be authentic

•  Consumers are looking for authenticity –  Brands with a back-story –  Artisan-made / natural over artificial /

ethics over profits

•  Accept that you don’t own your brands, your consumers do.


THE NEW PARADIGM

Right now, just two groups connect with mobile users in an authentic way: 1.  A handful of global corporations

2.  A multitude of small, nimble brands –  They can't help but speak with an authentic human voice –  They have genuine conversations –  There's no corporate firewall to hide them from view


THE NEW PARADIGM

•  Learning to speak in a human voice isn’t some trick. –  Lip service about "listening to customers" won't do the job either.

•  Intelligent, approachable humans exist in (almost) all companies. –  Real human beings with Twitter followings and meaningful Facebook connections. –  Humans who are imminently qualified to make contact with the outside world.

•  Don’t handicap your organisation’s ability to deliver genuine knowledge, –  Don’t crank out sterile happy-talk that insults the intelligence of markets who are too smart

to buy it.


THE NEW PARADIGM




THE NEW PARADIGM

5. Whisper, don’t shout

“In a room full of people shouting, It’s the person who’s whispering Who becomes most interesting.”


THE NEW PARADIGM




THE NEW PARADIGM

6. Understand the power of context

… and learn to spot opportunities for value exchange.

•  We can be reached at work, on holiday, in a meeting, in bed –  at moments of boredom, excitement, loneliness, inspiration…

•  Understand these contexts, –  then identify moments of value exchange.


THE NEW PARADIGM

For the first time ever, advertisers have to ask:

‘Why might this person care about my brand

at this moment?’



Put another way…

Mobile has enabled you to be closer than ever to your consumers.

As marketers, we’ve never had this kind of potential.





THE NEW PARADIGM

7. Build a brand platform

•  Campaigns: episodic outbound messages across a channel –  Goal: “tell people about that”

•  Platforms: fuelled by the campaigns –  Must be utilitarian –  Must serve a community –  Goal: To be interesting / useful enough to adopt

•  Never a hard sell


THE NEW PARADIGM

Commodification

•  Consumers are spoilt for choice, and better informed that ever.

•  Overwhelmed with equivalent goods and services. –  Is your hamburger / hatchback / fizzy drink really better than the others?

•  Brands need to work harder to differentiate –  They need something more than a great brand story.


The remedy

•  Platforms provide: –  A community, a niche, a sense of belonging –  An identity –  A set of behaviours


Platforms start with permission

•  … which is the nicest thing a customer can give you.


WRAPPING UP

Wrapping up



WRAPPING UP

Where to start?

•  Start by allowing customers to grant you permission to talk to them

–  And please, don’t be anything like that property developer.


WRAPPING UP

One final thought

“You don’t do mobile because it’s big and because it’s growing. You do it

because it works.”

- Brian Colbert.


WRAPPING UP

We’re a small, nimble tribe of mobile specialists

WRAPPING UP

Thank you

Michael de Souza General Manager / @mobext

Singapore & Malaysia +65 9783 4092

[email protected]


michael de souza, mobext 20121012

Business