Mobile Marketing

I'm not a huge mobile person really. Hell I didn't even own a cell phone until less than a year ago. Even now I only use the thing like once a week and it usually just sits there dead waiting for me to finally recharge it. Ergo I'm really not the target audience for any sort of mobile advertising. I can't deny that it's becoming a huge part of advertising though.

Even the mobile ads I do see, I'm not very receptive to them. Usually any text message I get that involves any level of advertising is immediately deleted. Half the time I don't even bother to read the entire thing. Offhand I can only think of one mobile activity I took place in that I enjoyed. Back when the movie Snakes on a Plane was about to be released, you could fill in something on the website, provide your cell phone number, and then you would get a phone call from "Samuel L. Jackson." I can't say it was really effective, I just thought it was well-done. I knew I was going to see that movie anyway.

I believe it's in Japan only but I did see one cool mobile feature where by taking a picture of a movie poster on your cell phone, you are immediately shown a trailer for that same movie. I can't even begin to understand how that technology works, but it's a great idea.

One application a friend of mine is essentially a full recipe book contained right on the cell phone. There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of recipes to choose from, each one broken down step by step. There is even a list of ingredients for each one, so you can just look at this on your phone while you are out grocery shopping. This is one of the cooler things I have seen in the world of mobile applications.

I think mobile campaigns have been integrated into just about all of our past projects, at least on some level. We did a campaign centered around Nokia that was very heavily focused on mobile. I won't lie I don't remember a lot of the details, but there was definitely texting involved.

It always seems easy to incorporate mobile devices into a campaign, even on a very basic level. Whether it's texting a number to enter a contest or taking a picture on the phone, it's an effective method and I feel has a place in just about every marketing campaign.

I honestly don't have a lot to say about mobile applications since they honestly don't interest me much. I do think it's an important part of advertising however since I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority with those feelings.

Broadband

My first year living here in Ottawa we didn't have cable. We got 2 channels that came in clear, Global and the Aboriginal Channel. We would sometimes get a very fuzzy CTV, but that's it. Needless to say we didn't spend a whole lot of time watching TV. Once I moved into my new apartment, not only did we get cable, but we got some specialty channels and a whole lot more. So to make up for first year, I now watch a ton of TV.

For the sake of this blog, I did take the broadband challenge and attempted to go a while without watching TV and just watching everything on the Internet instead. I won't lie, I didn't go a full week. Plus if I don't watch Lost when it first airs, bad things happen. But I gave it a pretty good shot and here are my thoughts on everything.

My favourite way of watching things online is using torrents, or P2P. Sure it's illegal, but damn does it ever work well. You do have to wait a little while after a show airs for that episode to appear online, but it's never more than a day at the very most. Then you just download it (which depending on the length of the show usually never takes too long) and watch it on your computer, completely commercial free. It's the exact same quality it was on TV, only someone was kind enough to edit all of the commercials out of it.

The only real downside of torrents is the little length of time you have to wait to get a new episode of something. Other than that, it's a great way to watch your shows online. Another thing about them I really like is that if you're really behind on a show, or want to start from the very beginning of one, torrents allow you to download complete seasons of shows. I find with many official network sites such as CTV or ABC, you can only watch the last few episodes of something and they very rarely allow you to watch the older episodes. Another huge advantage of using torrents.

If you are looking for a more immediate fix than the streming video sites work well too. Official network sites usually allow you to watch some of their shows on their website. Once they load up, you have to sit through usually just one advertisement (that you can't skip, try as hard as you might) before the show starts. However many of them (CTV included) divide each episode into clips instead of playing the whole thing straight through. Therefore you have to load each clip up to see the entire episode. Of course each time you load a new clip, there is that unskippable ad at the start.

The problem here is that it's often the exact same ad before each clip. So by the end of your episode, you hate that commercial. Not a very good strategy on the part of the advertisers. Sometimes the commercials do change which helps things. It's still shorter than having regular commercial breaks if you were watching these shows on TV.

The ads around the episode usually change as well, unless their is one specific sponsor, then it will be the same static image the entire time. Often you're so caught up in the show that you don't even notice these ads really. So I can't say they are particularily effective.

Overall there is a lot less exposure to advertising when you watch shows online but I'm sure that will change very soon. That one unskippable ad will turn into 3, the show will be interupted more frequently, etc. They'll think of other ways to get the messages out there I'm sure. In the meantime I will continue to watch TV on an actual television. The convenience is worth having to sit through more ads. Plus how else can I watch my Family Feud?!

Branded Utility

I really don't use a lot of branded utilities. I do own an Xbox 360 but it doesn't go online so I don't really see a lot of the advertisements. There are a lot of them on there though, I remember that. I especially remember the branded video games. There was one for the Yaris, and I know there was one for Doritos recently as well. They were free games so automatically people would download them. I mean why not? Even if it was terrible they at least don't cost you anything. The games were always subpar, if not flat out terrible, and were just a giant advertisement for the product. But it got everyone to pay attention. I'm not even positive that counts as brand utility, but it's still some clever advertising that needed to be mentioned.

I use to have a couple widgets but I found them, at least the ones I had, to be more obnoxious than anything. They always seemed to be drawing attention to themselves. They would shake or make a noise and it would get so irritating that I just had to delete them. I think something like a widget should blend into the background. 

I do think it's a great idea for advertisers to use something like a widget. Take those countdown widgets for example. Nothing gets me (or any human for that matter), more excited about an upcoming product/release than a countdown. I think that is a fantastic way for advertisers to get people excited about a product. The key is to make it subtle, not loud and irritating.

The thing with branded utilities is that it's tricky to do it well. The ones that are a success are much rarer than the ones that really don't get any attention. It seems every company now has a viral video and I think viewers are now just immune to it. These videos are just so standard now that they've become almost boring. It used to be exciting and cool if a company had some sort of online viral video. Now there are hundreds (maybe even thousands of them) and the most intense reaction I can muster up for them is "meh". I would say maybe 10% of these videos are actually engaging, the rest just exist because companies feel they need to make one. Don't do it unless you're going to do it right!

The best way to go about it is to give the customer an incentive to use your utility. It shouldn't just be some video that tricks them into thinking they're involved. It should be something that draws the viewer in and lets them play a part in everything. It's like those online webisodes (god I hate that word) that I believe Dove is doing where viewers actually choose the outcome of the story, sort of like those old Choose Your Own Adventure books. Something like this is a great idea because it actually is interactive. I'm not sure if this is branded utility either though. Wow, I'm bad at this.

There really aren't any companies that couldn't do some sort of branded utility. Some of them might be a stretch, but I can't think of a single company where it would be impossible for them to do it. 

I think the same thing is going to happen to these online utilities that will happen to 3D movies. At first they're exciting and rare and worth talking about. But then there's going to be way too many and everyone is going to be doing it, and people are going to get burnt out by them. Eventually nobody is going to give a damn about these things and advertisers are going to have to latch on to something new.

I do think that the idea of branded utilities has a long life ahead of it before people get to the above stage. There are a lot of great ideas still waiting to be used, and as long as companies can come up with innovative ways to use these utilities, then people will continue to use them.