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News 2009-01-16 Mobile campaigns: Include mobile video? January 16, 2009 By Dave Sloan Fashion brand Stella McCartney recently pushed out a mobile marketing effort but decided that adding mobile video to the campaign was too risky. The concern was that rich video content would not be accessible by the majority of the target audience. Instead, mobile ad network Millennial Media did some research and recommended passing on video and sticking with the mobile Web (see story). It was agreed upon that a broad population of female shoppers don’t always have access to video, but do have access to the mobile Web. Obviously, adding video to a media campaign is always desirable. Video content can best display the brand and demonstrate the product in action, especially in the fashion industry. Video is powerful because it is the best way to tell the story. There is no argument that moving pictures with audio and music best engage the viewer. In recent years, video has become a crucial part of the Internet. According to comScore, 15 billion videos were watched on the Internet in November 2008. Internet video is powerful because it is easy to find and easy to watch from any computer with a broadband connection. The mobile Internet is not far behind. With the right formatting and delivery tools, video-enabled handsets and 2.5G networks, mobile video is poised to see the next wave of growth. So should mobile brands be ready to include their valuable video in their mobile campaigns? First, consider your audience. Do your target users have a data plan? Can they view the mobile Web? Can they view streaming video? Do their data plans and devices allow video streaming? Do people watch mobile video? Mobile video growth was 14 percent last quarter, making more than 10 million viewers nationwide, per Nielsen. Also, people who watch mobile video watch more minutes than desktop video. Thirty percent of iPhone users watch mobile video. Today, video makes up about 9 percent of wireless data traffic, and it is expected to grow to 23 percent in 2012. MobiTV claims to have 5 million subscribers. So yes, people are watching mobile video and usage is trending upwards. In general, data plan penetration in the United States is at about 56 percent and smartphones with larger screens are becoming more popular. Apple has sold more than 10 million iPhones and is doing surprisingly well among the under-30 crowd. The iPhone and other large-screen devices have been stealing sales from more common feature phones such as the Motorola Razr. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that 56 percent of your target audience will have a great mobile Web experience. There are lots of bad mobile browsers out there, so not everyone is going to get a good brand impression via a mobile Web page. The reality of the mobile landscape is that it is very fragmented. There are hundreds of device types nationwide. There are several operating systems, screen sizes and data connection speeds. Broad device support is critical in a mobile marketing campaign. You want to reach as many users as possible, not just the most advanced. With the right mobile streaming solution, mobile video can play on as many as 75 percent of handsets. There are hundreds of device types out in the market, but tests have proven that the majority of them can stream a video via the native media player. When the video is requested, it is formatted and delivered to the specific device type. The video stream is customized on-the-fly to match the available network speed. Users get a high quality, smooth, clear video playback as they would expect. The best mobile campaigns are designed to accommodate all phone environments. If video is not available on a specific device, users should be presented with an option to view the video on their desktop, or be given a choice to do something else that their phone does support. Smart campaign design is critical. In many ways, a mobile video is a better option than a mobile Web page. The mobile Web can be very awkward to navigate. Moving from page to page can be a clunky process, and ugly scrolling and too many features can muck up the screen quickly. Consider using mobile video to communicate the entire message. Unlike the desktop, video won’t play within a larger Web page. The best video solutions don’t play video within the browser, but they use the native media player so they can play the video in full-screen mode. On the go, mobile users are more likely to want to hear the message or view the product in action than navigate a tiny and awkward mobile Web site. Mobile video is surprisingly easy to deploy these days. Content owners who want to run a mobile campaign do not have to go through a complex video ingestion process. In the past, various copies of a video had to be created in various bit-rates and ingested into content management system. This was a slow process that quickly fills up servers and makes administration overly complicated. Today, a high performance video formatting and streaming solution can leverage the existing desktop video file and integrate into any content management system. In summary, yes, you should consider mobile video for your mobile marketing campaign. The majority of your users will be able to access your compelling video, and those that cannot will be gracefully presented with other options including the mobile Web. Yes, there is a risk that some users won’t be able to view videos that you include. But the return on investment in adding rich video to your campaign will be well worth it as you extend the reach of your video to thousands of target customers. Whether your goal is to offer branded video, increase brand awareness, insert advertising in video content or create a call to action from the mobile device, mobile video will enhance the user experience. Millions of your target users are carrying a capable multimedia device in their hands and are ready to be wowed by your engaging and powerful mobile marketing campaign. So, Stella McCartney, next time include mobile video and let your fans see your clothing line strut down the catwalk. Dave Sloan is director of marketing at Avot Media, Sunnyvale, CA. Reach him at dave @avotmedia.com. |
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