I once before blogged at taking pleasure in reading contradictory views on important goings on in the mobile industry, and much to my delight (or chagrin) it has happened again. It’s important to highlight and interpret these cases, as both savvy and novice mobile marketers look to supposed experts to help guide their decisions.
On one hand you have this February 4, 2010 post on MobileMarketingWatch.com citing expert commentary from a recent event, where the consensus view was that mobile advertising was “harder than ever…citing extreme fragmentation and a plethora of new devices sporting varying technical aspects as the main culprits.” The situation sounds intimidating to say the least, begging for a wait and see approach.
Juxtaposed with this is research cited in a February 5, 2010 article in MobileMarketer.com titled, “Mobile ad campaigns 5 times more effective than online: InsightExpress study.” Based on the title alone, you can imagine the article describes how much more effective mobile advertising is today than its online counterpart. And that is the case.
You can read about the differences in effectiveness but it all comes down to “engagement and context” according to the study, both of which we describe as central to mobile marketing’s value proposition, be it a focus on advertising or direct engagement via SMS text messaging, email and mobile web.
I think the disconnect between “experts” and the facts on the ground is due to control; advertising networks are the gateway to this value while many experts working on the boundaries are left struggling for relevance with end customers who have cash to spend. Marketers would be wise to quickly discern the quality and subjectivity of viewpoints they consider when prioritizing mobile marketing efforts.
