This week we chatted with mobile expert Max Pepe and his gravity-defying quiff about the "Uberisation of everything", growing security threats and capturing valuable information to bring you everything you need to know about mobile in 2015.
This week we chatted with mobile expert Max Pepe and his gravity-defying quiff to find out everything that you need to know about mobile and its direction in 2015. Max is the Head of Clickwork7, a Global Performance Marketing company. He has worked in the digital marketing industry for almost a decade and specialises in mobile.
1. Tell us what’s exciting about mobile in 2015?In a less than serendipitous manner, 2015 see’s the significant coming together of numerous components that finally allow publishers to genuinely demystify the manner in which content is consumed on a mobile.
One of the most important elements being the recent beta release of Facebook’s highly advanced suite of publisher tools, that allow content providers to serve, track, optimise, schedule, analyse, re-analysie and re-optimise their distribution. The depth of tracking metrics and granularity of serving options provide publishers with a coveted solution that enables them to lift the smoke screen and use actionable data points to reach their audiences like never before.
The importance of this release goes far beyond its immediate utilisation by large media owners through social platforms; it’s instead a monumental bar-setter for mobile media tracking, ad-serving and content distribution technology in general.
Mobile security is, without a shadow of a doubt, an issue of utmost importance. From financial sensitivity to cyberterrorism, it cannot be ignored. But the biggest threat of all is that of consumer scepticism combined with corporate resistance to change. This is an agonisingly slow burner, that despite its inevitably positive outcome, has to play out a somewhat natural course. Technology is already more than adequately advanced, allowing us to use our phones as credit cards, house keys, or train tickets – but to make this work properly the corporate world needs to develop, innovate and adopt relevantly compatible solutions to give consumers the opportunity to use such services in the real world, embedding them in to everyday life and increasing confidence in our mobile future. This vicious circle needs to be disrupted for the industry to advance at the rate it should (and could) be. The speed of this however, is thankfully being pro-actively dictated by pioneering companies (many of which are still embryonic in both age and size) who are seeing this not as a threat, instead as a massive opportunity.
Have Uber solved a problem and brought the solution to market via mobile, or have they created a market of mobile consumers and forced them to believe there was a problem? In truth it doesn’t matter.
They have eliminated wait times, improved the mini cab experience, and utilised mobile as their primary delivery mechanism – this is undoubtedly very smart. Dominos Pizza have used mobile in a very similar way with huge success. What both have done, is greatly enhance the user journey from order to supply. They have leveraged both the novel and the practical value in mobile – it’s quirky enough to tell a friend about, and it’s useful enough to use again (and again, and again). In marketing terms this is about captivating your audience with a mobile solution that truly adds value (genuine or perceived), and then turning this in to a core USP. Nonetheless, when such practice becomes common place (and it will), Uber-esque mobile platforms will no longer be a unique selling point, but an expected requirement. After all, it already seems ludicrously out-of-date to order something (anything) online and be told that the most accurate delivery time that can be specified is somewhere between 8am – 5pm on a specific day. Really!?
They key here is simple – partnerships and analytics. A consumer accesses a brand across numerous mobile touch points and across any number of devices. They are referred through organic search, paid search, affiliates, social, DR, advocate recommendations, word of mouth… the variables are humanly incomprehensible. But the data required to capture profitable information does exist, and can be harvested to great effect. It is important to form strategic and commercial partnerships with social platforms and specific tracking providers, and combine this with either propitiatory and/or third party analytics expertise.
I’ve already mentioned Facebook’s new hyper-granular analytics suite, so this is a good place to start, but by no means exhaustive. It’s also 
specifically worth looking at the power in Device Finger Printing, which allows you to follow a single consumer across any number of devices, without them having to be logged in to an account. It’s completely cookie-less and can even work out if a consumer has a new phone and is accessing the internet via an unfamiliar IP. First and foremost, it’s important to understand exactly what data can be collected, and how that information can be used to drive profitable engagements.
Millennials were born with a mobile in their hand. Millennials are the ones who have stopped brands ‘telling’ their audience what they are and what they stand for, and instead forced them to ‘be’ what they are and what they stand for – and they will take no prisoners.
Millennials are mobile mad, social savvy and far from foolish. They are also the largest generation by population size. How powerful is the Millennial for mobile? Very powerful! The Millennial will only listen to a brand if the message is, in some way, sincere. This doesn’t necessarily mean softly-softly middle of the road, often far from it in fact. For this reason Native (in all its guises) acts as a powerful mobile marketing channel when 
considering the Millennial. Native advertising engages with consumers on an emotional level. It enables advertisers and brands to demonstrate personality within a relevant and familiar consumer framework – be that a social platform, a mobile app or a favourite blog. Native by definition, doesn’t interrupt or disturb user experience, this makes it a very powerful mechanism for both advertisers and publishers a like.
In a recent Millward Brown Digital study, it was determined that 88% of marketers (from 300 Fortune 5,000 companies surveyed) say that making an emotional connection would encourage them to spend more money on digital ad formats. Yes programmatic is big business, and winning the lions share digital spend for big brands like American Express – but the power of scientific algorithmic optimisation will never be able to quantify the human connection brands strive to make with consumers. In fact, 30% of marketers think ads bought through programmatic methods have a negative impact on customer experiences, brand loyalty and branding objectives. The funny thing is, the Millennial probably already knows this anyway, and is currently on her way to becoming your next CMO.
