Wisdom from Media Leaders at Mobile World Congress 2016

Here are some of the highlights from both brand and agency leaders.

Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer of WPP, said "the mobile revolution hasn't registered yet with companies" and there's an underinvestment in mobile in the marketing industry. "If there's one thing that's become clear at Mobile World Congress, it's that marketers have a lot of work to do on mobile," he observed. "The essential problem is that big companies are not thinking about mobile in the right way. They're thinking of it as an extension of digital, just a way to reach consumers. They're not thinking of it in a way that changes their businesses or adds values in a way they weren't able to do previously."

Laura Desmond, Group Chief Revenue Officer at Publicis Groupe, said, "Mobile is about more than a device or platform. The combination of immediacy, personalization, scale and global reach mobile provides has democratized content, commerce and culture. It has given unlimited power to consumers who spend on average 11 hours per day on mobile devices."

Mark Fields, CEO of Ford said that Ford is an auto and mobility company. "We have decided to disrupt ourselves," he explained. With the launch of FordPass, Ford is reimaging itself as a customer experience platform and is targeting the $5.4 trillion dollar transportation industry as a new market.

Richard Fain, Chairman and CEO, Royal Caribbean Cruises said that mobile has transformed the way Royal Caribbean does business. "We can get you curbside to shipside in ten minutes," he declared.

Mobile World Congress is a unique event with attendees from 204 countries. There were government delegations representing 137 countries and 31 international organizations. There were over 5,000 CEOs in attendance this year. It is estimated that 75 billion devices/constructs from home appliances to nuclear power plants to satellites will be connected to the Internet by 2020, according to Cisco. Understanding the impact of these technologies and its effect on consumer behavior are two of the many reasons why brands and their agencies attend Mobile World Congress.

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