What to Do About the Mobile Flash Clash?
What are our options to reach users in their chosen mobile environments and still deliver rich and effective content with fluid animation?
What are our options to reach users in their chosen mobile environments and still deliver rich and effective content with fluid animation?
There are many strong trends in the world of digital marketing, and near the top of any such list would be: 1) the rise of mobile consumer devices, usage, and access; and 2) the use of social promotions for brand and other marketing goals. Unfortunately, the two trends collide for marketers at this point in time due to technology limitations in some tablets and smartphones that rule out Flash programming. The wildly popular Apple products and many Android devices don’t support Flash, and while that is not all of the tablet or smartphone universe, it is enough of it to force marketers and developers to consider and create workarounds to the effective Flash applications that have proven so popular with consumers in social media, chiefly Facebook.
Consumers are spending more time in social media and are interacting freely and often with the branded content that marketers deliver in the form of casual games, contests, quizzes, and other formats. Flash is not the only way to build those engaging, interactive elements that keep consumers coming back to learn, play, and share, but it is a proven and efficient development tool that is ruled out for many consumers in mobile, now an important environment. Or is the environment handicapped because it can’t use a proven technology? We’ll let the hardware and software manufacturers continue to figure that one out while we marketers and consumers deal with the fallout.
What are our options to reach users in their chosen mobile environments and still deliver rich and effective content with fluid animation?
Unfortunately, if your marketing goal is to reach consumers across platforms (including mobile) with interactive content, there is currently no good single solution to deliver engaging, animated, interactive content. Analyzing the mobile makeup of your current and desired audiences is a good place to ground your approach and to determine if a separate mobile experience is a justified budget item or if you should focus on building the best possible desktop experience and give consumers the information, a pathway, and a reason to visit you there.
How have you solved the mobile dilemma?
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