The Importance of Bridging Placed Based Media & Mobile Phones, and 7 Ways To Do It

The following is a guest post by Dan Trigub, VP Business Development at Blue Bite.

As we all know, over the course of the last few years media consumption has been in the midst of a fundamental shift from traditional channels (i.e. TV, Print and Radio) to channels outside of the home. Without question, this trend will only continue in the coming years.

Just recently JCDecaux’s Jeremy Male, Chairman of the Outdoor Media Centre, opened a conference by stating, “OOH [Out-of-Home] is showing a growth of 12.5%, only bettered by TV. Digital now represents 12% of all outdoors advertising…” Garry McGuire, CEO of Reach Media Group (one of the largest digital-out-of-home (DOOH) media networks in the U.S.) recently proclaimed in an article that DOOH advertising in public venues reaches more Americans each month than online videos delivered by Facebook, Hulu, and YouTube combined. Please take a moment to digest that – this is simply staggering. In an age of digital media and DVR technology where viewers fast-forward through commercials and glance over advertisements – the power of utilizing place-based media (whether traditional OOH or DOOH) is immensely more impactful.

The next step and one that I believe is already underway, is the bridging of place based media with the mobile device. In the world today, the mobile phone has become the single most influential decision making device. Thus, the key to reaching people out of their home is going to be through their mobile phone and one of the most important objectives of place-based media will be to trigger the decision-making device at the moment of maximum influence. This will be achieved through the use of varying forms of mobile content delivery technologies and a call-to-action message embedded on the OOH media. The “big” screens around us (whether digital or static) will primarily be responsible for getting us to do something on our “small” screens – our mobile devices (the most personal screens of all).

Just recently Forrester predicted that in 2011 marketers will take the training wheels off mobile programs and start investing in cohesive mobile marketing strategies – setting the stage for the convergence of mobile and place based media. With the stage set, what technologies should marketers and brands deploy to bridge place based media with the mobile phone? Today there are 7 critical mobile platforms and each serve their own underlying function. Let us now take a look at each and evaluate their pros and cons as well as how they should be implemented with place based media:

1. Short Message Service (SMS) – THE MOST UBIQUITOUS FORM OF MOBILE MARKETING

Pros:

Mass adoption and understanding by consumers
User initiated interaction
Ability to activate other forms of media

Cons:

Mass adoption has created a “spam” image
Need own shortcode – can be expensive to implement at scale
Lower level of accountability

Optimal Usage with Place Based Media:

Implement for large scale campaigns looking to reach a general audience
Perfect to integrate with other forms of mobile (i.e. send SMS to receive mobile app)
Works well for localized information (i.e. text shortcode “12345” to receive driving directions to nearest XYZ Movie Theatre)

2. Proximity Marketing (Bluetooth & Internal WiFi Network) – ABILITY TO PUSH CONTENT TO BROAD RANGE OF MOBILE DEVICES

Pros:

Content is pushed and always free to consumers
Historically high opt-in rates
Consumer information is anonymous
Can reach all types of phones (both traditional and smartphones)

Cons:

Early unsuccessful campaigns tarnished image of medium
Blackberry experience is not optimal (Bluetooth)
Not gateway to internet (closed WiFi network)
Hardware needs to be deployed at location

Optimal Usage with Place Based Media:

Works best for campaigns looking to deliver branded content to individuals within a certain location
Works best when delivering offers that can be redeemed at point of interaction

3. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) – WEB BROWSING OPTIMIZED FOR MOBILE PHONE

Pros:

No hardware integration
Works across multiple mobile phone platforms
User can access content anywhere / anytime

Cons:

Does not generate as much buzz (nobody talks about the great website they just saw)
Not as personal of an interaction
Requires data service

Optimal Usage with Place Based Media:

Works very well when objective of campaign is to drive downloads of a mobile application or to obtain user data through form fields and send additional information later
Can provide a great extension of placed based media experience on mobile device

4. Social Media – PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL SCREEN AND COMMUNITY

Pros:

Tremendous amount of social media users among all age groups
Becoming major sources for the acquisition of content
Provides ability to monitor, listen, react and measure

Cons:

Timely to build out DOOH network that is linked to all major social media streams
Some concerns around privacy and “big brother” image limit full adoption

Optimal Usage with Place Based Media:

Optimal for brand looking to stir reaction from a community and allow for consumers to influence DOOH content
Works very well when integrated with SMS and even mobile apps

5. Mobile Applications – FULL BRAND EXPERIENCE AT OOH LOCATION AND BEYOND

Pros:

Can generate great buzz – viral effect can increase adoption
Allows you to build a richer experience
Allows you to take full advantage of native phone features (i.e. camera)

Cons:

Difficult to obtain the initial download
Most consumers will not use an app more than once – must offer true utility
Can be expensive and timely to create and bring to market

Optimal Usage with Place Based Media:

Optimal for brand looking to extend the OOH experience beyond single location
Works best when content can be designed to be location-centric – assigned and accessed via specific geographic coordinates and activated when consumer is near OOH location

6. Quick Response (QR) Codes – RICH CONTENT THROUGH “FUN” AND RECOGNIZABLE MEDIUM

Pros:

Can link consumers to all types of rich media
Beginning to gain major awareness from consumers
Easy to deploy and implement across large OOH network

Cons:

Requires a smartphone with camera and special reader
Need to be in close vicinity / line-of-sight of QR Code

Optimal Usage with Place Based Media:

Works great for campaigns looking to drive downloads of mobile application
Ideal for campaigns that need to be implemented quickly and at low cost
Great for campaigns looking to drive traffic to a specific mobile webpage

7. Near Field Communication (NFC) – EASY & HYPER-LOCAL EXPERIENCE DELIVERING RICH CONTENT

Pros:

Very personal interaction with consumer (~4inches from reader)
Not necessary to pair the device – instantly works
Many big players (i.e. Google / Apple) adopting technology

Cons:

Few phones have NFC capability
Must be extremely close to the display
Will first be used more for mobile payment than content delivery

Optimal Usage with Place Based Media:

Display can be tagged with chip that will deliver specific offers / content to targeted customer base

As one can see, the options for bridging place based media and the mobile device can become quickly overwhelming. Unfortunately, where we stand today there is not much that can be done about this as there are a number of underlying factors. These include the large diversity of mobile phones and operating systems available today, varying ease of use across platforms, consumer acceptance, and various content delivery capability among other variables. However, what is clear is that there is no one silver bullet to bridge place based media and the mobile phone.

Marketers need to listen to their brands to determine the objectives of each campaign. With clear objectives, it is imperative that they work hand-in-hand with their OOH and mobile teams to figure out the right solution or combination of solutions for their clients. From there they should find a vendor who can offer a majority if not all forms of convergence since a cohesive and fully integrated campaign will ultimately yield the best results.

About the Author

Dan joined Blue Bite as VP of Business Development in March 2009. Dan is responsible for business development, marketing, operations, finance, and corporate strategy. Dan joins Blue Bite with over 6 years of early stage startup, finance and marketing experience. Most recently Dan held the title of investment banking Associate at GCA Savvian, a firm principally focused on providing M&A advisory and capital markets services globally in the digital media space among others. Previously he worked at Analysis Group, a leading financial, economic and strategy consulting firm in Washington, D.C. Dan has a B.S. in Economics from Vassar College.

Company Website: www.BlueBite.com

Company Media Kit: Blue Bite Media Kit (January 2011)

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: www.twitter.com/datrigub (@datrigub)