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Weve CEO David Sear: Why mobile is our first screen

By David Sear

July 9, 2013 | 4 min read

Brand Loyalty. A traditional and solid concept that rightly sits at the heart of the advertising industry and of every major company in the UK, largely built through TV. Now in the 21st century it seems that a word like loyalty is a little out of step with our times, consumers are fundamentally disloyal.

Mobile. Now that is a 21st century word. With mobile, we are a multichannel, always on, price sensitive population with limited attention span. We constantly receive information, we consume media across multiple screens, which we are encouraged to share and we do all this instantly.

So spending time on mobile to engage a consumer and create traction with your brand? The normal answer is no, put it on TV or online. Actually, the answer is yes, certainly for a demographic of between the ages of 18-34 mobile is completely and overwhelmingly their first and most important screen. The one they care about and use every hour of their day. So why not talk to them on it?

The market is beginning to understand that mobile is more than people just searching for things, but what if we looked at mobile in a different way. What if we looked at mobile as a broadcast channel but with one essential difference? When you broadcast, you know exactly the kind of person you are broadcasting to and indeed if it was welcome and acted upon.

The partnership announced with Heineken UK pioneered by Starcom MediaVest with Weve illustrates that the thinking is changing and many brands working with their agencies are thinking about the potential of mobile. Not only just in terms of location by putting their brands centre stage, for example, by messaging certain demographics around entertainment venues, as in the case of Heineken.

Others are thinking about moving their brand to what we call ‘always on’ engaging and talking to a consumer regularly through their smartphone. Brands want to market to a highly targeted consumer base, secure in the knowledge that their engagement is welcome, they want to encourage repeat purchase, build long-term trust and loyalty among new and existing customers, understand customer needs across differing channels and ultimately create broad and deep awareness of their brand.

This opportunity is not going unnoticed and gradually the big players are lining up to see how they can address this space. It is inconceivable that this market will not develop and grow at an exponential rate and companies such as Google and Facebook will make it so.

Weve has an alternative vision that marketing on a mobile will ultimately deliver advertising that the consumer only really wants to see, that it is served in a place that is useful and relevant to them and if it includes promotional and vouchers that it can be redeemed easily and then rewarded. Simple.

Mobile is our first screen. We, consumers are already there; the advertising and media industry just has to catch up. In our belief, the massive market shift to smartphone usage - and to targeted advertising in users’ hands - is every bit as important for our industry as the original shift to the internet. The future of advertising depends on campaigns that highly feature mobile ads and that make the most of proper insight.

It is up to companies and the advertising community to think again about how they create and engage and reward; and how such a powerful platform can be invigorated and the implications for brands in the future. We believe that within three years, if you are a brand and are not able to make the most of mobile, if mobile isn’t your first and most important screen then you not only won’t have loyalty, but you may not have a brand.

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