Super Bowl Ads Miss The Mobile Mark
We’ve experienced unprecedented growth in the mobile marketing industry since the Steelers hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XLIII. In the past year, all the major carriers have introduced smartphones with access to an application store, unlimited data plans, and connectivity into existing social networks like Twitter and Facebook. More importantly, every major mobile metric has experienced growth in the past year: smartphones sold, mobile web usage, text messages sent, applications downloaded, etc.
Now, pair this mobile explosion with the largest single advertising opportunity in the world and what do you get? Marketing Heaven? Advertising Bliss? Well, apparently not.
We did see the introduction of Qualcomm’s FLO TV which will bring live television to mobile devices. We eyed Megan Fox introducing Motorola’s new Devour phone, and we squirmed watching KGB’s latest sumo-infused spot. What we didn’t see was a traditional television spot capped with a mobile call to action.
Despite the advances of mobile marketing in the past year, no single advertiser was willing to utilize their precious Super Bowl ad time to focus on mobile. Where was my iPhone application download? Why couldn’t I use my phone to text-in to receive more information? Why wasn’t I prodded to vote on something using my phone? Why didn’t I get a mobile coupon from Denny’s?
Although disappointed in the lack of “mobility”, there are some clear reasons why we didn’t see more mobile involvement in this year’s Super Bowl ads:
1. Hard costs associated with SMS campaigns are difficult to project: Imagine budgeting for a campaign where the response rate could not be predicted within +/- 25% points. Now imagine deploying this message to hundreds of millions of people. The Super Bowl is not the best place to test your new mobile strategy as it should be done on a smaller scale with targeted audiences. Since SMS campaigns incur hard costs which are usually passed along to the client, I imagine most Super Bowl advertisers were hesitant to deploy their SMS strategy this year.
2. Limitations and fragmentation among devices: We’ve got iPhones, Android devices, Blackberries, and other feature phones. With an audience in the hundreds of millions, advertisers cannot risk ostracizing certain phone owners through their messaging. Essentially, this kills the notion of promoting any particular application or mobile web feature focused on a particular device.
3. Lack of vision to develop a business case for mobile: According to a recent eMarketer sutdy in January 2010, 32% of marketing professionals in North America do not know how to develop a business case for mobile advertising. This staggering figure cannot go unnoticed. The medium has established itself – it is the marketers falling behind.
4. The Super Bowl has historically worked best as a branding tool: If a brand is willing to invest millions in a single television ad, the return is usually measured in terms of brand awareness and not on a direct response. Since application downloads and SMS responses are the two biggest DR opportunities at a mobile marketer’s disposal, we’ve already discussed why these were not put into play in 2010.
As smartphone sales continue to surge and the mobile web becomes ubiquitous, I believe that 2011 will be THE year of Super Bowl Mobile Advertising. As a Saints fan would ask, “Who dat gonna agree with me?”
-Michael Lentz
@mjlentz
