During a period when online publishers were already improvising monetization efforts to compensate for the rise of programmatic buying, mobile introduced yet another variable that would further complicate the situation, forcing a shift in focus. Already squeezing every last cent out of online CPM’s, mobile traffic immediately made its presence felt as online audiences were no longer restricted to a computer screen as a means of accessing their favorite digital content. As a result, mobile traffic began cannibalizing impressions from the desktop impressions, further impacting an already depleting bottom line. Digital publishers reliant on online advertising revenue were suddenly dealt with a brand new form of supply to figure out and monetize immediately, or face a slow death at the expense of mobile's rapid growth.

By properly understanding the psyche of the mobile user, and aligning approaches to meet what consumers demand, these basic mobile guidelines for publishers will not only help your properties produce a mobile experience that maximizes mobile audience engagement, but also the revenue stream that follows:

· Content is king, and this is especially true in mobile. When determining how to slice and dice online content for the mobile screen, hone in on the content that matters to your audience and make it compatible for their mobile viewing pleasure. For this content to be considered mobile compatible at least two requirements must be met. First, this content needs to be easily found and identified by the user upon initial visit and, second, it must be made native to the mobile screen. Simply shrinking pre-existing content, which then requires the mobile visitor to pinch and zoom to engage with information is a mobile property’s worst enemy. In fact, a recent study commissioned by Google found that 79% of mobile visitors that find a mobile site difficult to use would immediately leave to find a suitable replacement.

· Mobile is a “need to know now” medium. Unlike TV, Radio or PC, mobile users carry this Internet connected device with them at all times. This reality feeds our instincts for instant gratification, so it’s only natural that a mobile user is accustomed to immediately being able to access desired content or information. Within seconds, a mobile device can be leveraged to find the nearest food, access the latest sports scores, lookup tomorrow’s weather forecast, watch a trailer, or purchase movie tickets. To reproduce a successful mobile experience for your organic audience, their immediate asks must be met.

· Which is better, App or Mobile Optimized site? Depending on who you ask, there is an argument to be made for either as each format comes with an inherit set of benefits and limitations. When deciding on which to adopt, it is advised to let the content influence the decision-making. For example, apps are conducive to rich content experiences. Publishers with an audience who primarily consume video, music, images, and social media are more likely to reproduce a favorable mobile experience for their audience through an app. On the other hand, a well-designed mobile optimized site may be best suited for content that is research or task oriented. Whereas apps are largely utilized for consumption of media or leisurely browsing, mobile web audiences are typically on a mission in search of facts or specific information.

· Monetization of mobile is very possible. For most publishers reliant on ad revenue, low mobile CPM’s and ad fill rates are top concerns of this medium. That said, many publishers who find themselves in this situation can look to experience immediate gains by examining mobile monetization shortfalls and adjusting appropriately. For one, just because a site can be accessed from a mobile device does NOT make it mobile optimized. All too often I come across web based properties simply trying to milk their pre-existing ad demand by serving online formatted banners within mobile based viewing sessions. Plenty of mobile demand exists, but a "mobile first" ad serving infrastructure must be in place to start reaping these benefits.

Given that mobile traffic already accounts for 20% of all daily U.S. Internet traffic and, with sales of mobile devices also surpassing PCs, this shift in traffic from desktop to mobile is not destined to slow down anytime soon. For those ill-prepared to fully absorb this continual transition, the good news is that it’s not too late for publishers to adopt a successful mobile strategy, regardless if they are starting from scratch or purely looking to improve upon current framework.

For those already on board with mobile advertising, make sure to run with Rich Media creative. Mobile is all about engagement; so don’t be shy about using the native functions of the smartphone to engage consumers with your brand, products and offers.

• Use push notifications to let users know when they are close to your store.
  • GPS locators are great for retail stores—brands like Starbucks, Target and Goodyear use this creative functionality to drive in-store traffic.
• Include the option to set calendar reminders.
  • This functionality is great for entertainment clients that want to remind fans to watch upcoming movies and shows, or for retailers to remind customers that a sale is starting or announce that a new product is available.
• If you have an app, increase interactivity by implementing a rewards or loyalty program.
  • Consumers will be more excited to keep spending with you if they are getting something in return.
• Apply audio and video to grab attention and make your offer more appealing.
  • Audio and video complement cross-platform campaigns, especially for new product launches as they can align with radio and television advertising respectively.

Also, make sure ads are built in HTML5 when possible—this will lower the cost of creative and you will be able to run the ad on both mobile and display.

Outside of advertising on mobile platforms, there are two distinct ways for brands to better connect with mobile consumers—mobile optimized sites and branded apps. Any brand ignoring mobile optimization risks losing revenue as 61% of customers who visit a mobile unfriendly site are likely to go to a competitor’s site and 57% of consumers will not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site[iii]. And, although users prefer to shop on the mobile web, apps are important too.  This is especially true for retailers; 43% of mobile consumers have downloaded retail apps to shop[iv]. As mobile usage continues to grow, so will these numbers.

Developing a mobile marketing strategy can seem overwhelming. Some savvy mobile platforms will create alternatives to the above options as an added value if your creative development resources are limited. Instead of going without a mobile presence at all in Q4, partner with someone who can solve your cross-platform media needs.  The efforts will keep your brand top of mind among mobile audiences and boost sales as m-commerce continues to skyrocket.

Last week the Mobile Leaders Alliance kicked off MLA Sessions, an innovative new continued education series, in New York during this year's Advertising Week. The first iteration was an in-depth classroom on mobile planning that featured several tenured professionals leading sessions on Holistic Mobile Planning, Mobile Planning for Social Integration and Navigating Mobile Creativity.

With nearly three hours of curriculum, attendees walked away with a plethora of knowledge and thanks to our sponsor Eye - the innovators behind the location based service Amplify by Eye, enjoyed cocktails and networking at the After Sessions Cocktail Party with mobile leaders from: Mediavest, Fresh Digital, Disney, Chase, Travora and more.

The MLA, in conjunction with Eye, has just released a downloadable white paper that includes MLA Sessions Key Takeaways & Best Practices. This comprehensive document recaps the learnings and best practices discussed during the inaugural MLA Sessions. Download the white paper today and contact the MLA directly for more information on a customized Session for your business.

 
Download the White Paper
 

When I sat down to write this, I wasn’t exactly sure what to say.  For those of you who know me, you know that’s a rarity when it comes to me and the topic of mobile.  I decided to watch a little early morning television and hopefully find inspiration in the comfort of that glorious blue tint.  When I turned on the TV, there was an Eva Mendez movie on called, ‘Live!’.IMDB describes this 2007 drama as, “A mocumentary following an ambitious TV network executive trying to produce a controversial reality show where contestants play Russian Roulette.”  I know, sounds amazing, right?!?

Now, ordinarily I would have just changed the channel, but as I scrolled through my guide hoping to find a suitable replacement, a quote used by Andre Braugher while attempting to persuade the FCC to air the reality show got me thinking. He said:

"The function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute.It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea." - Supreme Court Justice, William O. Douglas

With Douglas' statement in mind, I propose to you that mobile is to the marketing industry today as free speech has been to the American way of life;  a platform both 'provocative and challenging' that has had 'profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea.’  Not too far off from what the digital world experienced in the early 2000’s, but at an accelerated rate, with a greater degree of difficulty in the execution and increased demand on traceable results; heavily due to best practices and standardization of the digital platform over the last 15 years. It is important to remember that mobile is not a new digital medium.  It is a new platform all unto itself and a very powerful one when used properly.  

Mobile shot to the forefront of the marketing industry around 2008 with the launch of the iPhone.  Let us not forget though that mobile did not begin with, nor should it ever be defined by the iPhone and its capabilities.  Make no mistake; what Steve Jobs and Apple have done for this industry has been truly monumental.  However, much like the introduction of fire, the wheel and (dare I say it) the original GameBoy, mobile itself has changed the way we live.Thus, it is imperative to our future as (mobile) professionals to remember that this is just the beginning and not a time to become complacent with the ‘tried and true’, but a time to push the medium;  to continually reinvent it, so that in the end, people will marvel at what we’ve built.

This emerging platform has given us access to long-sought-after consumer data like real-time location, a piece of information we use to create “relevance,” one of the keys to mobile advertising according to IAB Mobile’s recent Local Buyers Guide.  While location has its place in the ecosystem, I challenge that our job is not merely to remind consumers where they are, but to help place them where they truly want to be at that moment of engagement; driving that new car, sitting in first class traveling to some tropical place or simply satisfying a quick caffeine fix.  Only mobile has the ability to provoke such inspired emotion and subsequent response, because we see the device as an extension of ourselves; a distinct identifier of whom we are as people.Finally, a truly one-to-one form of communication between brands and their consumers, but as it's been said, "with great power comes great responsibility."

Our mobile phone is the most private device we own.  It’s what makes mobileinteractions so powerful; the exchange of private information for perceivedvalue back to an individual.  But what does that really mean?  Individuals are as different from one another as the operating systems that power their devices.  So how do we find that perfect blend of value exchange while still achieving both relevance and reach?  We do this by creating a deeper understanding of our consumers as individuals and how they prefer to interact with their device or brand of choice.

Understanding consumers at this core level takes time and heavy investment, two things mobile marketers often find themselves in short supply of in these early days.  However, when considering going mobile, one merely needs remind themselves that the “R” in ROI stands for return, not revenue.  Defining short-term, realistic goals for your business’ mobile strategy is pivotal to its long-term success.  I often refer back to the world of construction during this process, using the mantra, “Measure twice. Cut once.” There’s nothing more detrimental to a brand’s mobile success than a poorly executed user experience.

Innovation is moving fast and while eyeballs are shifting, some marketers are struggling to shift with them, seemingly stuck in a never ending cycle of “dipping their toes in,” while cries of fragmentation and insufficient attribution echo in sellers’ ears.  While better attribution models seem hopeful, the fragmentation of mobile is not simply going to disappear, and sitting around waiting for it to “stabilize” is not a strategy, it’s a death sentence.  Mobile does not come with a one-size-fits-all label attached. You can’t merely check it off a list.  It requires substantial planning of a holistic mobile marketing mix with cross-platform tie-ins, testing various pieces of the puzzle at a time with a grander image as the end-game.

Lastly, and most importantly, investing in a new platform isn’t just about running test campaigns and analyzing engagement rates.  It means investing in the hiring, education and development of resources to help better understand the infrastructure. It means employing qualified mobile professionals in-house and empowering them to make the tough decisions, not just offer suggestions.  What’s more, it means educating yourself, because information is everywhere and absorbing it means the fragmentation stops looking so scary.  You never know, you might just find something to get passionate about (again).

Smartphones are the all purpose in-motion utility device. The voice/text/audio recording tool replacing watches, alarm clocks, instant cameras, to-do lists, address books, PDAs, gameboys, calendars, weather 800 numbers and soon -- wallets. Tablets are becoming multi-dimensional infotainment centers. And personal computers, which are more likely than either phones or tablets to be shared devices, are serious tools for serious matters and the repository, or gateway to the cloud repository, of our key files and critical data.

The division of labor seems to a function of technical capabilities, psychology, demographics and habits. People are used to doing certain things on the go, like texting, calling, checking e-mail, tweeting, etc. Shopping is a mixed bag. According to PriceGrabber, 1 percent of on online shoppers will buy exclusively using a mobile device and another 45 percent will combine offline, online and mobile to make a purchase.  And while the number of these tasks is expanding to include payments, ticketing or boarding passes and app use, we are, after all, creatures of habit where tradition and inertia plus ease of use drive many of our behaviors.

107 million Americans, 46% of US adults own a smartphone. The average person glances at their phone 150 times at or every 6.5 minutes. Fifteen percent download mobile apps, 10% research products using their phone and 4% bought something with an average value of $80. Forty-eight percent use their phone to get coupons and 44 percent check product reviews. Forty percent use their phones while watching TV and two-thirds listen to music on their phones. Payments are the next new thing for smart phone users.

The 54.8 million tablet users, 19 percent of US adults, account for 22 percent of Internet users and are generally concentrated among the better educated and higher earning segments, more than half of whom are millennials. Four times more tablet users access the Internet on their device than smart phone users and they spend 4.4 hours/week using their tablets accounting for 4 percent of online retail traffic. Seventy-two percent make weekly purchases averaging $123.00, about twice the time smartphone users spend shopping and twice the value of smart phone purchases.

Tablets are becoming the preferred device for consuming long form content that requires longer attention spans. More than half of tablet users use apps, watch videos, read newspapers or magazines, read books or play games on their devices. More than half have paid for access to music, books, movies or TV shows. iPad users, the majority of tablet owners, spend 35 percent of their time surfing the web, 22% on social media, 12 percent each on playing games or watching videos.

Desktops and laptops have perceptually merged in consumers’ minds. And while these computers introduced us to e-mail, web video, games, ecommerce and social media the portability, speed, and convenience of tablets are eclipsing the laptop. Yet consumers overwhelming see legacy devices as more secure and critical for storing information, It’s hard to imagine consumers filling out a mortgage, credit card or the common college application on a phone or a tablet. Similarly, even though tablet traffic to tax preparations sites is up 50 percent, most of us still do our taxes and our financial work on desktops or laptops.

Savvy marketers will keep an eye on these behaviors and will create content, build messaging and promotions using native functionality built-into the devices in tandem with variables like day of week, time of day, GPS location and other factors to leverage existing device usage and provide consumers with an experience that will feel natural, organic, useful and fun.

I did a quick study to see what the brands people most love are doing in the mobile space and which were using one best practice for mobile design - the auto scroll for Mobile Safari. Why is this a best practice? Well, for iPhones, the address bar consumes about 12.5% of pixel screen real estate by default when a page is loaded. The status bar and button bar consume an additional 13.34% of screen real estate. This leaves users with less then 75% of the screen for viewing content. The obvious answer: you want to maximize every available pixel when your page loads by buying back the space taken up by the address bar.

Process and results after the break...

Process:

Using a list of MyBrandz rank of the top 50 most loved brands from 2010, I conducted the following procedure for each brand:

• Using the Safari browser, conducted a Google search
• Selected the brand from the Google search results page
• Waited for complete page load before capturing a screenshot and conducting analysis
• Determined if result was a mobile specific site
• Observed if an automatic scroll on the Safari browser was implemented

This test was conducted using the iPhone 4 and Mobile Safari.

Study Findings

Conclusions

While only less then half of the 50 most loved brands have mobile sites (tsk, tsk), 7 out of the top 10 do! These 7 brands include Facebook, Disney, NBA, Google, MTV, CNN, and Twitter. These brands generate large amounts of traffic to their regular sites and unsurprisingly to their mobile sites. It is perhaps the ability for audiences to access the brands and their sites while mobile that is part of their brand affinity. It is not unlikely that some of the top 50 brands tested opted to start with a mobile application instead of a mobile friendly site. Whether one option is better then another is certainly a debate, but the best alternative is to accommodate both platforms.

Out of the 24 brands that did implement a mobile site, 17 of them implemented an automatic scroll to save screen real estate (bravo!). This is a simple best practice that can help brands make a stronger first impression, either by offering up larger images, buttons, or content value. The thing is, when someone enters your site by specifically selecting your link from a Google search result, they intended to go to your site. You don't need to waste screen real estate by showing the address bar in order to verify the address to them.

Two additional catches I found was that two phone brands (Nokia and Blackberry) actually did have mobile sites, they just didn't default to them. Perhaps it is an error or an industry practice. Whatever the reason is, it doesn't make any sense! If you spent the time to create a mobile site, make sure you default to it on mobile devices! The second catch came out of those sites that did not have mobile sites (boo..). It's one thing to not have a mobile site, it's another thing to have a flash fail site! Three brands had flash error messaging on their home pages. If you don't have the time or resources to implement a complete mobile site, at least try to make a non-flash version of your site. That is a tip regardless of whether or not you are thinking mobile!

Congrats to the brands that passed our auto-scroll test and since people already love you.

Top Brands That Pass This Mobile Best Practices Test

*Note Facebook and Twitter did not have auto-scroll on sign in screens, but passed if authentication information was already stored.

Two Brands Have Mobile, But Default to the Full Site

3 Brands With Flash Fail

The Results in Table Format