Today’s news was all about the debut of Google’s mobile phone, Nexus One, and also Apple’s acquisition of mobile ad network Quattro Wireless for $275 million. The timing of either announcement cannot be coincidental. Google and Apple appear to be converging on the same opportunity; mobile devices as platforms for advertising.
Yet read between the lines and you could imagine each company’s approach complementing one other very well, providing marketers with a variety of effective and measurable approaches to reaching consumers.
While there is nothing to prevent Google from developing a large screen tablet mobile device such as is expected of Apple shortly, a larger screen should serve as a higher value advertising basis than handheld devices. This January 4, 2009 article about Nexus One on The New York Times website says as much:
“…some surveys show that users are wary of ads that could clutter the precious real estate on their small cellphone screens. And phone users seem more willing to pay a few dollars for applications or content than PC users, potentially reducing the importance of advertising.”
Handheld devices lend themselves much better to simple advertisements akin to those seved by Google in association with its search engine or even by recently acquired AdMob. This article speculates:
“(Apple) could develop ad units and formats that it thinks are way better than the tiny banner ads already on the mobile web.”
Apple’s reputed tablet device may be the ideal basis for such higher value ad formats. Marketers will soon be faced with having to decide among different approaches for reaching their customers via mobile advertising, but should not neglect the need to engage customers directly using mobile marketing techniques such as those offered by Interactive Mediums.
With advertising focused almost entirely on acquisition and loyalty a constantly moving target, marketers require compelling engagement capabilities to rope customers into fulfilling experiences that encourage consumption. That’s what Active Customer Engagement is all about.
