THE ADNEWS NGEN BLOG: 'If our site isn’t mobile optimised, take mobile off the plan'

I’m going to start by asking you all a question…

How far away are you from your mobile right now?

Pretty close? I thought so.

How long since you last checked your phone for an email, Facebook or for a quick LOL or OMG?

With nearly everyone constantly within arms distance of their mobile phones, why did mobile media receive less than 1% of media investment last year?

Now, I understand this spend is a huge 220% increase from the year before that, but why are advertisers only starting to clue on and only starting to realise that mobile, as a communications channel, is actually quite important? Despite its importance in people’s lives, getting mobile onto a communications plan is still quite difficult. How often do you hear the following questions about mobile…

Will the creative work on a small screen?
Are we driving people to a website on a mobile?
Is the site optimised?
Do people actually click on mobile banners?
Why don’t we just make an app?

It seems that mobile is often thrown into the “too hard basket” a bit too quickly. Is it because of this attitude towards mobile that Australia got bad reception in Cannes this year and didn’t win a single Mobile Lion?

I believe that one of the challenges with trying to get mobile on a communications plan is starting the conversation. There is currently no media agency, media owner, creative agency, advertiser or publisher is really “owning” mobile. This could be due to the fact that there are a lot of blurred lines when it comes to mobile because it’s one of the few communication channels (like social media) that nearly every agency can execute – media, PR, creative and digital agencies can all have an opinion of mobile and its role in communications, however, all these different conversations about mobile can be confusing for our clients who are relying on us, as their partners, to navigate through the digital landscape. It’s a communications grey area.

With an anticipated 70% penetration for smartphones forecast by the end of the year, with 4G fast becoming mainstream, with smartphone manufacturers trying to ‘out do’ each other with the quality of their screens (which means our communications will be seen on a quality screen) and with mobile being one of few communications channels linked so closely with e-commerce, it seems like we’re missing out by not putting mobile on every communications plan in one form or another.

I believe mobile is a conversation that any communications company can all start, but its success relies on the cooperation and integration of all partners involved to make it work well on a communications plan. The conversation can start anywhere, but requires a combined effort more than any other communications channel to make it work.

So, who starts the conversation about mobile? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a forum to help us all start the conversation about getting mobile onto a communications plan?

I think there may be something on its way. Watch this space…

Andrew Da Silva
Client Communications Planning Manager
ngen Chairman