Mobile! Wherefore Art Thou, Mobile!

Shar VanBoskirk over on the Forrester Marketing Blog has an interesting assessment of mobile marketing up on the site today. Frankly, I can't disagree with a single point she makes.

There is little doubt that mobile marketing is the future. But it certainly ain't today. Further, there are not even any definitive proposals on the table for how it will work or what it will look like.

At the moment, the best play in mobile is the creation of iPhone apps. I believe that if anything will work in mobile advertising, it will be content-base and functionality-based plays that provide lasting value to the target audience. For instance, I don't have my Travelocity app because I love Travelocity, but because it is the best free app for flight and hotel information. It makes me consider the brand and may even get me to book travel through the app, since it is so useful and so convenient. So this is a tremendous marketing tool for them and their brand.

Trouble is, these apps are on a single platform. Which means unless the iPhone becomes the only phone people have (sorry, Mr. Jobs, but that isn't going to happen) companies pursuing an app strategy have to redevelop for every conceivable platform. And even then adoption rates will be limited. Pretty daunting!

I still believe in content strategies and think companies should pursue applications to achieve this, but even I can see that applications are not the holy grail. The tipping point will come when a strategy can effectively insert itself into the lives of a majority of the mobile users that are desirable to a given marketer. Right now that means intrusive marketing, such as unsolicited MMS — which, by the way is THE WORST POSSIBLE THING YOU COULD DO!

(Did I emphasize that last point enough?)

The thing that boggles my imagination is whether the solution is strategic or technological. Can the mobile marketing be solved by a creative person coming up with the right play? Or does it take some quantum shift in the functionality of all handsets to allow for a common communication avenue across all platforms?

It will certainly be interesting to see which is the case. And I sincerely hope that when a person finally does figure things out, that he or she will announce it on a certain marketing podcast called The BeanCast. ;-)

Bob