Mobile marketing is not new by any means, however in light of the current mobile application gold rush (iPhone, Android etc.), mobile marketing seems to have taken center stage. In celebration of the coming of age of mobile marketing, allow me to share the story of my first experience in mobile marketing;

It was about four years ago. I was an eager interactive agency guy testing various new platforms; some...well, let's say, not as successfully. Okay, I will be honest (it is, after all, the best policy) the firs mobile campaign I ran was an abysmal failure. Like any good marketer, I noted why it failed, then vowed never to make that type of mistake again (I have since made other marketing mistakes; but all of them were unique :) )

What did I learn?

Tactics driving strategy usually does not work
- The demographic I was trying to reach was simply not ready to behave in the manner needed to make this campaign a success.
  - A click to call mobile campaign did not serve our strategic objectives

Pre-planning can make successes out of failures
- The adoption rate, and awareness of many mobile technologies that are popular today, were not as popular at that time. What we failed to do was create a model whereby; the long term learnings were just as important as short term ROI. All we learned was not to run any other mobile campaigns for that brand for a while.
- Had created a framework for failure, the fact that my target demo was not a savvy mobile crowd could have diminished the degree to which this campaign failed

Communications should be consistent across platforms
- There are certainly exceptions to this rule, but when testing emerging platforms, the look and feel you present to consumers should remind them of other campaigns in the market. It makes activation in new media environments more palatable; and can diminish any skepticism someone may have

I have taken these lessons and applied them to everything I do. As someone who is both a marketer and a lover of shiny new tech toys, these were very important lessons.

Fast forward a few shorts years.

The world of mobile has changed (hell, the entire world of media has changed drastically in these few years, and so has my thinking about mobile marketing). I know some of you out there are still afraid of testing mobile marketing; it is time you get over your fears! I am not advocating you go out and start buying mobile media for it's own sake. I am saying that you should begin to seriously consider how to integrate mobile into your communications strategy.

I have been thinking about mobile marketing a lot lately, and began to construct a framework that reflects my thinking. It is still pretty rough, but I figured I would throw it out to the community and collect some thoughts. I don't plan on explaining the meaning of these diagrams for two reason;

I want to see if they resonate with you, and if so, how

I am just too darn busy (but I promise to revisit them; so stay tuned)

Let me know what you think. or better still; take these ideas and make your owns slides and send them over. I will be sure to post.

(note: since posting this, I have already begun to see holes in this model re:Search. Help me out here; I constructed this model quickly; knowing that the wisdom of crowds is greater than the wisdom of one)

Mobility

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