Saatchi mobile marketer: Mobile web is better value than apps
We all know that mobile is a rapidly evolving marketplace packed with plenty of sleek shiny gizmos – but it’s all too easy to be dazzled by the newest toy and forget the basics. James Hilton, joint managing director of M&C Saatchi Mobile, says commercial success comes from creative and effective communication – and you don’t need an app to get it.
Just five years ago when the company was founded as the independent agency Inside Mobile, mobile content was a tricky terrain. Phone apps were created in Java and required individual builds which, even after a considerable investment, wouldn’t necessarily run on all handsets.
The irresistible rise of the smartphone
But now smartphones have revolutionised how and when we interact with the web and online-enabled apps. Hilton believes a major shift in perception came from the stability that the Apple store and the iPhone platform provided.
But development costs are high. In order to get a successful uptake there needs to be considerable investment and bug testing. When the app is launched it needs to be closely monitored and promoted carefully to be picked up in the Apple Store or Android Market.
Nevertheless if he had £10,000 to spend on a campaign, he’d opt for a mobile site rather than an app:
“This makes it agnostic of all technology so all users are open to the opportunity. If you are designing for mobile internet then the content needs to be a lot shorter and more snackable.”
The bad old days
Illustrating what can be done without apps – and that people have been doing this stuff intelligently for years – Hilton mentions one of Inside Mobile’s most award-winning campaigns was for Reebok, built around the 2008 NBA basketball playoff final. The campaign combined branded SMS and ringtones while greater context and exclusive content was carried by voice messages and a WAP-enabled microsite.
See it for yourself:
Resistance to viral
Whilst certain things stay the same there is no longer a secret formula for making digital or mobile content go viral. In fact it’s much more difficult to do this now given the number of agencies specifically trying to make their product take off on forums YouTube….
“In 2000 almost everything on the internet was viral. Now we find that our audience has matured and become more sophisticated. We can still provide the touchpoints for viral – allowing sharing of something using social media – but it’s difficult to predict what will work.”
Apps are currently leading the mobile media debate but perhaps this won’t always remain this way – according to Hilton, something very close to all phones around today can access the internet. He anticipates that because of increasing deployment of Google’s Android operating system, there will be some innovative use of HTML 5 on the horizon – and the boundaries between apps and the web will start to blur.
“We’re finding the lines between mobile and digital is blurring. Companies such as M&C Saatchi appreciated that their clients want to move smoothly between different platforms. Mobile is now integrated and at the heart of the business.”
For more vital analysis and case studies on the evolution of mobile media, come to Mobile Media Strategies 2011 on June 14 in London, the second-full-length conference from TheMediaBriefing.
Originally published on TheMediaBriefing
Counting the cost and benefits of community managers
The role of community manager has gone from being a social experiment to an integral part of the newsroom. But are they there to teach old hacks new digital tricks or is there now a genuine business imperative and ROI factor in having staff to represent your brand through social media?
Which side are you on?
Kate Day, social media and engagement editor for Telegraph.co.uk, and is about to appoint a community manager, a new role for the title. Although Day admits she spends a lot of time in both marketing and editorial departments the new role will be closely linked to editorial.
She tells me: “We received a lot of applications from journalists, and also social media marketing people. This role is rooted in editorial so we are looking for someone who really understands the newsroom and it's likely that they will be a journalist. The role will involve helping journalists source and develop news stories by making the best use new tools and platforms as well as helping to build a loyal, engaged digital audience.”
As far as Day is concerned, this role is there to not only help journalists do more but also to recommend the best social tools and skills to others. They will be required to have an overview of the industry and what competitors are doing with socially online.
The Telegraph’s community manager will focus largely on Facebook and Twitter but also keep an eye on comments on the site and the My Telegraph blogging platform.
Making it count
Day claims that because the Telegraph’s audience is fragmented across external networks and its own website, it’s no longer possible to generate a single stat to measure success.
“We can measure referral traffic, the number people on Facebook and Twitter amount of time they spend on the site and so on,” says Day. “There’s no single number that represents engagement or revenue return very well.”
Justin Fogarty is online community manager for Ariba a spend management site. He oversees a customer community called Ariba Exchange as well as managing several LinkedIn groups. He maintains that even from a B2B perspective the money is often difficult to trace, at least at first.
He writes on Mashable: “It’s not about ROI or advertising dollars at the beginning. It’s not about messaging and positioning. Customers will come back to a place with a compelling reason for going there in the first place.
“Let the user determine the model, and look at the type of user that you want to attract as the primary driver behind the online presence.”
But surely some companies by now are reaching a point where we can begin to see the money?
Social monetisation manager?
Mashable’s community manager Vadim Lavrusik, who previously worked at the New York Times, says making money is the next logical step for news organisations. He cites a job advert from Cox Media Group, which emphasises the revenue generation aspect of community management. Cox runs 15 broadcast television stations, 85 radio stations and eight daily newspapers. Interestingly, it already has a social media manager, Mathilde Picard, and this is an extra role – another example of how media groups create interaction first before moving to monetisation.
“In some ways, Cox is making a big bet that social media will play a big role in its revenue strategy — at least one big enough to require such a position,” says Lavrusik. “The position is part of a further shift in company strategy to invest in digital.”
The question is: are we ready to take this leap into a focus on not just interaction but revenue in the UK? Social media is about conversation, not pound signs, and brands risk losing credibility by seemingly selling out to advertising and harsh marketing messages.
Originally published on TheMediaBriefing