Red Door Interactive convened a panel Tuesday morning to discuss mobile marketing. The panel, moderated by Red Door’s Morgan Witt, discussed many of the considerations necessary when launching a mobile campaign. The panelists were:
- Dan Flanegan, CEO of Brand Anywhere
- Greg Hallinan, CMO of Verve Wireless
- David Gould, CEO of mShopper
- Sue Chandler, Senior Production Manager at Cricket Wireless
Chandler kicked off the discussion noting that “reaching the customer through the mobile phone is exploding.” This medium is attractive to brands for a variety of reasons, including high levels of engagement and accessibility, or as Gould put it, “We all carry our cell phones everywhere.” Several panelists cautioned branders against thinking about the mobile channel as purely an iPhone application, noting that the SMS messages and mobile websites remain important to reach a diverse set of consumers.
The panel was in general agreement with Flanegan’s statement “less mobile, more marketing,” meaning that while the medium is different brands must maintain their overall marketing mindset when going mobile. Hallihan gave more direction noting that like any campaign, a mobile one “must define and focus on objectives” with these goals often encompassing “branding to engagement to action.”
If mobile marketing is still marketing at its core, there are several important differences that must be considered. While a mobile phone is an attractive target due to strong consumer interaction, Gould warned that given the personal nature of the phone the wrong types of branding interactions can “quickly be perceived as intrusive.” Gould noted that marketers must consider how the value proposition is different when offered through the mobile phone. Although mobile engagement can present challenges, the medium offers several advantages including the high level of user interaction with much higher response levels than common on the web and the potential to contact users by location. Flenagan emphasized that when beginning to navigate the mobile marketing world it is best to approach it with a “test and learn mentality,” altering course as necessary to meet objectives and not breaking the budget on the first effort.
Red Door Interactive, an internet presence management firm with offices in Denver and San Diego, offers speaker series and webinars designed to educate businesses about web related topics.
