FUTURE OF...mobile

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As the UK approaches smartphone penetration of 50%, the old joke of every year being billed as the ‘year of mobile’ is starting to fade away. Although mobile internet usage is still relatively low at around 20% of total time online and so talk of a ‘post PC’ era is probably a little premature, there can be little doubt we are entering a new phase of the digital revolution.

From a marketing perspective, perhaps one of the most significant characteristics of smartphones is their constant presence with consumers when out of home and, crucially, while shopping. The consumer desire for connectivity on the move presents marketers with a huge opportunity for location specific communications.

The future is now

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Mindshare’s Future of... programme challenges conventional thinking through consumer-centric insights. To investigate the location based opportunity, we have employed a number of different research techniques - qualitative groups, accompanied shops, and our very own online co-creation community of 300 digital natives.

We have specifically sought to understand:

• How do smartphone users feel about location-based services (LBS), and how should brands best utilise them?

• Can mobile offer advertisers the opportunity to deliver more brand focussed communications at point-of-sale?

From our research we have developed five core principles for brands to apply when considering using LBS.

Location, location, location

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details

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As smartphone usage begins to mature, users are employing stricter criteria when choosing to adopt mobile services than they were in the early days of smartphone adoption. With over 500,000 apps available on the iPhone alone, branded mobile services need to offer users a strong value proposition if they are to gain traction.

01 Consumers look to mobile to solve everyday problems – think how your brand can provide this functional utility

For most users, value lies in the solution of a small everyday problem – guidance around a store, a petrol station location finder or a bank balance notification tool – rather than pure branded entertainment. Services which provide an on-going utility, no matter how small, are much more likely to achieve repeat usage than more entertainment focused mobile services.

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In this space, brands are not only competing with their traditional competitive set, but with a myriad of companies outside of this set and any number of app developers. When a brand provides a branded app which focuses on a utility, consumers voice concerns about the objectivity of the solutions the application provides. In a cluttered market, consumers will often choose an app from a more objective source. In a point-of-sale setting the retailer is often seen as more objective than the brand.

02 Consider how you can overcome perceptions of bias when providing a mobile service

To overcome this problem, brands need to:

• Make sure that the application returns information on all brands within the category. For example, a Flora low-cholesterol app must return results across the entire category.

• Think about providing an application for a complementary category. For example, a cheese manufacturer could provide a wine tasting app.

• Ensure that the branding is subtle and discrete; remember the brand is the facilitator rather than the star.

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Location based apps have the ability to provide a service which utilises other personal data besides a person’s location. We found that a major barrier to consumers adopting location based services is privacy - consumers are increasingly nervous about how their personal data is being used. For some, the privacy concern went beyond the use of personal data and (somewhat overblown) fears were raised about being followed via the GPS in your phone.

03 Be transparent about how you’re using consumer data

In this climate, brands need to be as transparent as possible:

• Reassure that no data will be shared with any third parties, as people have concerns about spam.

• When explaining what data is collected and how it will be used, do so within the App Store rather than within the actual app as this will slow down its performance.

• Provide users with a way to get in touch and ask questions, as this builds trust and allays fear of data privacy breaches.

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A common theme emerging from our research was the need to make location based services seamlessly and intuitively accessible. Consumers spoke of the perceived hassle of finding, downloading and then repeat using bespoke apps as a significant barrier to initial adoption. To that end, brands need to consider whether it is worth building their own app or integrating their utility into a pre-existing platform.

04 Building on existing platforms often makes more sense than building your own

So for example, a BP fuel location finder service may be more successful if built into Google maps than as a standalone app. Similarly it may be more advisable to build a service that provides extra augmented reality information on a physical product through a platform such as Blippar or Layar than as an independent brand delivered service.

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Mobile, and in particular location based apps, should be viewed as the ‘glue’ that holds different strands of a communications campaign together. Mobile apps allow for enhanced brand interaction for media consumed out of home, as well as leveraging the ever increasing trend of dual-screening. Here are a few things to consider when integrating mobile apps into traditional media:

• Placing a QR code in the corner of your standard outdoor or print execution is not integration. Think about how your creative execution can stimulate further interaction.

• Think about the principles of gamification and how you can use the interaction of location based apps with traditional media as a gaming mechanic.

• Think about how you could use augmented reality on a second screen to enhance the viewing experience of a traditional AV advert.

05 Consider the potential of Location Based Services for amplifying traditional communication channels

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stance

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At Mindshare we believe that it is important to be grounded – there needs to be a reality check. How far along the adoption curve are your consumers? Just because the technology exists, doesn’t mean that your consumers are using it – just because a brand can do it, doesn’t mean a brand should.

We believe that the smartphone revolution provides brands with fantastic opportunities and that as this space is relatively under-developed, you can get a headstart on many of your competitors. A mobile strategy is now an imperative part of any media mix; however to truly maximise the benefits, a considered approach, based on insight, must be adopted.

Our Stance

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what’s Next?

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In 2012, Mindshare’s Future of... programme includes anaylsis of Television, Social, Connected TV and Consumer Choice.

To receive these reports on their publication - or to request a place at one of our breakfast briefings on each subject - please email rsvp.london@mindshareworld.com with your details. Alternatively, you can contact Jeremy Pounder or Louise Richardson via firstname.surname@mindshareworld.com.

2012 Mindshare Media UK Limited. These materials remain the intellectual property of Mindshare and no licence or permission given to use or adapt these materials, the underlying ideas expressed therein, or any part thereof.

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