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  • July 22

Mobile Is Calling for Better Creative

The creative revolution is among us. Every time “they” say creativity and journalism is dead, it comes roaring back bigger than before. For instance, AOL has recently changed their business model to reflect a large shift toward the creative market. However, one area that has lagged behind the others is the mobile market. The mobile market is in dire need of more than a creative revolution. It needs a creative ignition.

Mobile Industry Does a Great Job of Recycling

Typically the mobile industry looks through the creative outlets of the rest of the world, and cherry picks what it likes best. Usually this content is a dollar short and a day late. The mobile market takes the “path of least resistance” strategy.

This is because the initial objective amongst the mobile markets was to grow audiences to critical mass, get brands to buy mobile advertising inventory, and build mobile sites so ads have someplace to drive to. This has forced us we have rely on re-purposed creative content as the supply for ad units and site design assets. This was just the cheapest way to maximize outreach.

After all, the less money that goes into producing original content the more that can go into paid media and site production. This worked for a while, but the mobile market has grown too much in recent years to continue making this a viable option. The quality of original content simply has to step up.

Banners don’t bring home the bacon

It’s unlikely a consumer ever thought to themselves “Wow. I really can’t get that amazing banner ad out of my head.” The riches and prestigious trophies don’t go to text ads and clever expandable mouse-overs. Not to downgrade the importance of that kind of thing. They are typically worker bees in a successful campaign. They, however, cannot be the linchpin of said campaign.

Case in point, the winners at the yearly Effie awards hardly ever represent mobile content. This is because the content just isn’t there yet. It has not matched the level of quality present in the rest of the Internet. One day we’ll see a campaign led by a brilliant idea and execution on mobile that’s supported with other wise choices of channels and integrated messages. Hopefully this day will come soon.

The mobile platform has so many exciting new toys to play with. There’s accelerometers, GPS, mapping, user-initiated still and video images, click-to-call, and the ability to wake other applications along with old standards like interstitials, embedded video, animations, and audio. It’s enough to give you a headache, but assuredly they can all help your business thrive.

Budget is king

One of the main reasons creatives are slow to get involved in the mobile game is the limited budgets usually reserved for those campaigns. Mobile efforts simply need more funding so we can reverse this trend.

There is also a common misconception that the mobile platform is limited and thus would act as a “crux” of sorts for creative content. These people obviously have not seen a fully-enabled mobile campaign in the past few years. As us mobile-heads know, the sky truly is the limit here.

Marketing strategies, budget processes, measurement schemas, and account leadership must consider the mobile platform when planning out their campaign budgets. The demand is there for quality content. Now let’s fulfill it.

Build the momentum

Sure, there are already some really talented creatives working in mobile. That fact cannot be disputed. We are certainly on the right track. But why not speed that track up a little bit? The momentum has started. Baby steps have been taken. But it’s time for that baby to grow up.




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