Mobile Marketing, an integral part in the new SoMoLo Trend
@Flickr:ChrisGrabert
Vienna, the city of classic music and brilliant composers like Haydn and Mozart. Vienna, a city of vivid and rich history, and nowadays one of the cities with the highest quality of living on the planet, a lively hub located at the heart of the European Union. Yet to me, the city was always just the capital of our southern neighbours in Austria, a country I had only visited for recreation in the decent skiing areas. However, this view changed when I was assigned to be trained in mobile marketing by our new partner IQ Mobile.
Mobile, an integral part in the new SoMoLo Trend and Austria a country of “merely” 8.5 million people? How does this go together?
Well, as a start, the fact that Austria has probably the cheapest mobile service fees all over Europe, might give you an indication on how developed the market might be. But as I met the people of IQ Mobile and JWT colleagues from countries such as Israel, Denmark and Belgium (by the way, it was truly worldmade!), I was about to discover a completely new perspective on the mobile world. Thus, it was a trip that not only changed my perception of Vienna and Austria, but also that of the opportunities that lie within mobile marketing.
During an intensive one day session held at our JWT Vienna office, we were trained and educated by IQ Mobile CEO Harald Winkelhofer on questions such as ”When can you call your brand mobile ready?”, “Is your mobile thinking really integrated or just a one-off” or being more specific ”Do we need an App or are we better off by creating a mobile portal?”. These and some more very basic questions are the ones that we should ask ourselves and our clients when it comes to mobile marketing. And after being introduced to various best practice cases as well as some theroretical knowledge, I must say that these questions shouldn´t be “optional”, but have to be considered as an integral part of strategic planning and campaign execution.
Sure, buzz-words like augmented reality might whooo some and scare others, but within mobile there are so many different tools, approaches and solutions, that the channel can be incorporated in almost every campaign execution and for every target group. Obviously, the target group 50+ probably isn´t the right one to launch an NFC campaign to, but smart messaging solutions can help to build brand loyalty among these people, not only in an easy way, but also very efficient. On the other hand, mobile offers solutions for every “task” that we know from the “classic” world of communication – be it CRM, Branding or catalyzing sales.
To me, this insightful trip was highly valuable, because it changed my perception. It added a theroretical and strategic background to the world of mobile, or to express it visually: It added the under-water part to the shiny iceberg I had already crashed into, yet with great pleasure.
Mobile is the future. Not on it´s own, but integrated into modern communication solutions that activate, engage and infect. Sometimes it will be a smart and small, accompanying activity extending a big campaign idea, sometimes the core idea can be a mobile solution. The only thing that´s for sure: It is targeted, measurable and efficient. The mobile generation “demands” it and brands better have the right answers!
- Dag Gehring / JWT Hamburg