Mediaplus’ Jens Barczewski gives his five points for relevant mobile communication

The time has come: for the first time, mobile (49.7 percent)  has globally overtaken desktop traffic (45.2 percent). (Mobile traffic mainly refers to smartphones, since the traffic with tablets is just 5 percent.) In Germany, the situation looks somewhat different: desktop traffic (62.8 percent) still dominates in use and mobile here is “only” at about 30 percent. Mobile is, however, also “mass market-ready”. Only the advertising expenses for the mobile sector with a sum of approx. 518 million euro for the year 2016 (source: Nielsen) did by far not reach it at all.

How can it be that the rapid growth in mobile usage figures is still not reflected in the investment, as the strengths of Mobile have long been known? No other medium is so close to the consumer as the mobile phone. This can be seen, for example, in the Google “Mobile Moments Study”, which states that 68 percent of the smartphone owners already use their smartphone 15 minutes after getting up. Push functionality allows the advertisers to actively contact the user, and couponing location information or opening times, for example, provide consumers directly with additional information. Just to mention a few of the advantages.

But what is important also in the mobile area, is a well-made creation adapted to the medium. According to an analysis by GfK , creation is the strongest factor in the success of a campaign. This is the only way to convey relevant messages to the consumer.

Mobile is more likely to do this with large formats and less with 6: 1 advertising. It requires meaningful pictures as well as texts, which have to be briefly and clearly formulated. Videos should work with and without sound and are designed for mobile devices so that their main message is communicated in the first three to five seconds.

Unfortunately, in the mobile area much too often the same errors are made as at the beginning of the desktop communication: what used to be the pop-up in the past, is today the overlay on the smartphone. But an overlay can also work when it is innovative and well-made – if it brings a playful added value in the form of “shaking”, “vibrating” or “wiping”. However, this requires an intelligent implementation by frequency capping. The best creation fades very quickly when the consumer has to click it away several times a day.

The most important rule in all lean forward channels is to not interrupt the users during their active use of their contents. New, usability-compliant formats that are high-performance alternatives to overlays make this possible. The so-called “parallax ads” slowly build up in the background with the scrolling process to an advertising integrated into the content. The user can thus interact with his content and connect it to the advertising medium.

And last but not least: mix it! No media genre unfolds its optimal effect when it stands alone. Only when built in a sensible media mix, each individual channel unfolds to its full extent.

My 5 main issues are therefore:

• Relevance vs. Reactance: relevance in communication is good, avoidance of irrelevance is mandatory.
• Mix it! – Combine mobile campaigns with other local media such as Digital Out-of-Home to extend further the local reach.
• Think Big! – 6: 1 formats are not the future. Rather, the unique added value should be exploited and adapted to the device size.
• Less is more! – Creative advertising media have had a positive impact on the mobile advertising experience. Messages on mobile devices have to be even more reduced and adapted especially to the size of the advertising media.
• Don’t disturb! –The user’s behaviour should not be severely interrupted by the advertising. Advertising media should be preferably integrated in the content.

Article by Deputy General Manager of Mediaplus Group, Jens Barczewski

Source: Serviceplan 

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