This year's Mobile World Congress is bigger than ever. This presentation is a recap of the third day and outlines key takeaways for brand marketers from the many talks & technologies on show.
Image credit – Mental Floss
There are problems with the current ad ecosystem on mobile, largely centered on a poor user experience and challenges to ad effectiveness. The disagreements come around what to do to improve the mobile ad experience. Now that the industry is acutely aware of how frustrating many mobile ad formats are for consumers, and willing to admit it, one issue is how to go about fixing advertising so people won't feel compelled to download ad blockers. Another is that there are already multiple ad blockers available on mobile, so the clock is ticking.
We must strive to find the right balance when it comes to how we are engaging with and promoting to the consumer on a mobile device. We must continue to ask as the space evolves, what the types of ad models that work for consumers? What is the overall consumer experience on a mobile device? As marketers, we must be very passionate about the user experience on mobile.
Creative spans all mediums -
Software engineers, tech platforms, analysts can also be creative. Don’t limit creative to a few.
Changes in an operating system can bring immense creativity, Android portraits at MWC
Mobile is more than an extension of digital, it is a way to change business and behaviors
Photo credit – Gawker
Mobile storytelling
Be sure to tell a story, make experiences participatory and sharable. Think about the content. This is a new generation of storytelling. Embrace the unique opportunity that is arising from the inflection point between the explosion of video, the service and utility that mobile phones bring, and the promise of VR.
Creative spans all mediums -
Software engineers, tech platforms, analysts can also be creative. Don’t limit creative to a few.
Changes in an operating system can bring immense creativity, Android portraits at MWC
Mobile is more than an extension of digital, it is a way to change business and behaviors
Photo credits: @gominuke, @ssuuuuuuuu Instagram feed
Imagery is the number one language in the world – everyone wants to share images, the images we take define us and do not need any translation.
Everywhere at MWC that was very apparent with all the devices on show being able to capture ever more powerful images. Getty Images talked about their shift from a purely B2B player to focusing on using mobile to capture and share the images that are powering the real time moments in the world, and using social channels to as their new casting call – their teams mine Flickr & Instagram to find their new photojournalists.
Focus on the story the images you are using, and think about how mobile can be used to capture and share imagery.
Image – taken at the Android Playground at MWC.
Creative spans all mediums – from software to tech platforms to data and analytics. Don’t limit creative to a few.
Changes in an operating system can bring immense creativity, such as these Android portraits shown at Mobile World Congress. Google invented a device that turns smartphone photos into portrait – a new tool from their Creative Lab and built through tweaks to their operating system.
By co-creating with technology partners, app developers, mobile thinkers and data scientists we will continue to make beautiful things that fit the power of the devices we all own, and integrate with the ways in which we use them.
Social, mobile and digital have converged. This convergence unlocks new ways of creating content that reaches audiences on a massive scale.
BuzzFeed is the poster child of this convergence, all of BuzzFeed’s growth is being driven by mobile. CEO Jonah Peretti talked about how mobile has transformed BuzzFeed’s business. The media company focuses on creating content, using data to assess its performance then massively scaling distribution across multiple channels. Buzzfeed was behind #TheDress, the story that had us all talking last year.