Why Campaigns for the Desktop Generally Don't Work in Mobile - Ujjal Kohli

Hint: It's not the smaller screen

The intense ramp of mobile spending relative to desktop is a hot topic. Following the path of the consumer, smart marketers are making it their business to figure out how to market and engage on the mobile platform. Research source eMarketer says we can expect a $2 billion increase in mobile search spending in 2014, and a $1 billion increase in mobile banner spending. As an industry, we can safely say, the mobile shift is happening.

But, this trend does not guarantee a smart digital marketer's success in mobile. In order to succeed, marketers must be clear on the fact that the mobile platform as a consumer environment is completely different than desktop. You've got to get that part right in order to reap the benefits of the mobile shift. What's true for buyers is just as true for sellers too. Publishers worried that their online dollars will become dimes on their mobile sites, as much of the commentary in the trades has been recently proclaiming, are probably making many of the same mistakes their buyers are making.

It starts with this question: how many times have you heard someone say something like, "I know this campaign will work in Mobile. It worked well for TV and translated well to the web. What's different about mobile? It's just a smaller screen!"

According to Nielsen, there are many differences between mobile and desktop campaigns beyond the screen size. With all the money entering the mobile segment, it somehow remains true that all too many players in the segment continue to neglect some core attributes that are unique to mobile.

For starters, the vast majority of mobile users (80%) find mobile advertising to be more intrusive than advertising they see on television. Multiple studies have found that of those users who find mobile ads to be annoying or intrusive, those with strong emotional attachments to their devices tend to have relatively warmer responses towards mobile ads than those who don't. What this tells us is that these users interact with mobile ads, and that they watch the videos they initiate on their devices. Mobile users want to be in control of their experience, on what they overwhelmingly think of in far more intimate terms than they do their laptops or other screens.

Avid mobile users have relatively short attention spans, so advertising messages that come through have to be clear and eye-catching in order to appeal to and generate any effectiveness on this audience. By and large, these users like initiating any activity on their devices. At the very least, they demand control of them. So, smart advertisers find a way to think beyond the one-way communication of their everyday static ad and develop new ways to engage these audiences in a multi-way, multi-stage interaction in order to effectively engage them.

This is not about coupons or premiums. It's about understanding and leveraging the flexibility of rich media to enable users to interact with a mobile ad outside of a simple tap-to action. Do your campaigns talk to a mobile user? Do they listen?

Think about how we build relationships in our own lives. There are generally dialogue exchanges and some give and take responses before we consider ourselves to have built any form of relationship with someone, whether it is as close as a significant other or as distant as an acquaintance. These principles apply to the engendering of mobile advertising user engagement.

Users have to feel as though they are involved in the decision-making process whether or not they engage with the ads they consume. The decision of whether or not they want to build a relationship with the brand is made on their hand—essentially, on their person. Not on a screen a few feet away. Remember, this device is unlike any other. It's more intimate, so a consumer needs to be invited to participate, not forced to.

When any targeted audience is able to interact with and feel engaged by the ads they consume, the majority of that audience will be more likely to receive more of the information related to the brand. They will also be more likely to actually pay attention to the ad content. This is true on any interactive device, but it is essential on mobile devices. By giving the user as much control as possible over any creative unit and by engaging them with humor and playfulness—not shoving your creative down their throat, but engaging them the way they want to engage with you—smarter brands are enjoying tremendous success with their mobile campaigns.

Ujjal as 25+ years of experience in general management, engineering, marketing, strategy, M&A, and venture capital, mostly at the intersection of advertising and mobile. The suggestion you consider Ujjal'svoice is his life's work; his overall body of work in mobile... Ujjal was EVP of Marketing & Sales for AirTouch Cellular (predecessor to both Verizon in the US and Vodafone in Europe), a $3.5 Billion revenue mobile operator. As CMO, Ujjal led the creation and development of the AirTouch Cellular brand from inception/IPO in 1992 to sale to Vodafone for over $60Bn in 1999. He's just done a lot of cool work.

Most recently, Ujjal founded Rhythm -- whose total focus is premium video, with a mobile core focus.

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