Weve CEO, David Sear, discusses the mobile landscape in light of its recent research and why the TV industry can't get "defensive" about it
The CEO of Weve, the m-commerce venture between EE, O2 and Vodafone UK, has revealed that even he was surprised at the results of its research into consumer behaviour on mobile, but was equally shocked at the "defensive" response of the Thinkbox managing director who said that despite an increasing number of people turning to their mobile devices first for content, it "is not an equivalent of TV".
Weve's research into consumer behaviour on mobile found that nearly half of 18-34 year olds now turn to a mobile device first when going online while nearly a tenth of consumers make online purchases through their mobile devices.
“Things are moving so quickly it isn’t surprising brands are not catching up with consumer behaviour. We wanted to highlight the fact that consumer behaviour and attitude is rapidly changing. These results surprised us. We didn’t think there would be this much shift in consumer attitude,” David Sear told The Drum.
When the results of the survey were released, Sear suggested that mobile, while “disruptive to the status quo of traditional media”, had yet to be recognised in the same category as TV, radio and print media channels.
He explained that this comment echoed a statement made just days earlier from the chief marketing officer of Univeler, a client of Weve’s, who declared that “mobile is going to have a bigger impact than the internet.”
“That’s a massive statement and it’s simply that,” said Sear. “I’m not expecting the whole world to adopt as fast as Keith [Weed] is thinking, but if you look at what’s going on out there, people are using mobile devices in ways that really have transformed their lives. They’re part of our interaction with the world.
“So our point is simple – consumer behaviour is massively changing and it’s going to change more. What you’re going to see is a shift with people becoming ultra-connected on the move and where they’re using this medium in new and amazing ways.”
Weve's survey also found that 28 per cent of respondents said mobile was the most important screen to them, ahead of only 27 per cent of respondents who cited TV.
In response to the findings, Thinkbox managing director, Lindsey Clay stated that “the mobile industry seems obsessed with hierarchy and comparing itself to TV.”
“Mobile is not an equivalent of TV or its rival; mobile is technology, TV is content and lots of TV is watched on mobile screens,” said Clay. “It is time to stop pretending there is a competition and focus on the budding relationship.”
To that, Sear said he finds it surprising that someone is being so “defensive” about it.
“It’s just the nature of the way the market is shifting. Going back to Keith’s comments on what the significance of mobile is going to be over the course of the next few years – this is a shift as big as us all going online in the first place. So to say that it’s not an equivalent to TV, well what is it then? It’s actually a really significant medium for the future and I think most people believe that,” he said.
Looking toward the future, The Drum asked Sear how he expects the mobile landscape to change.
“I’ve seen stats as high as 70 per cent for pre-purchase research, so really this is where is become critical for advertisers and this is really going to change people’s buying habits. We’re not sitting at a PC doing all of the research being tracked through a cookie and then purchasing, the ability of the advertising industry to be able to influence people at the point of purchase is reducing.
“The whole wold is shifting to pre-purchase research on their mobile and it’s not just going to be a demographic of 18-34 year olds. If you remember the history of surfing, it went from PC usage or the young to significant adoption for silver surfer. It will take a little bit longer for the older generation to embrace it but it’s going to happen. And everybody needs to think very hard about mobile at the centre of their strategy to deal with that.”