The New Mobile Mindset: Four Rules of Engagement

Four Rules of Mobile Engagement

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ThE NEw MobilE MiNdsETintroductionSmartphones are the most powerful data-collection tools ever created. They don’t just tell you what consumers want. They tell you where consumers are. Sometimes they even tell you what consumers are doing at different times as they move through their days.

Location + Activity + Time: it’s a powerful formula. Never before have consumers provided such subtle information about their actual behavior. Many companies, though, in a rush to seize a toehold in the exploding mobile market, mistakenly focus on the technology instead of the people using it. As a result, their messages are not relevant enough, and consumers filter out the messages as static, the mobile equivalent of telemarketing.

To be relevant to consumers, and to slip past the filter, companies need to shift their approach to mobile marketing. Consumers no longer passively participate in campaigns. Instead, they respond in real time, influencing both the scope and direction of promotions. It’s a two-way conversation. Brands have to know how to listen and adapt, instantly.

It’s not enough to release a sparkly new mobile app. Innovative applications are important, of course, but brands have to do more. They have to motivate people to act by designing campaigns as dynamic and flexible as the mobile market, which now includes search, social, video, music, gaming, payments, retail transactions, location-based services and augmented reality. They’ll need a deep understanding of how mobile apps can drive views, downloads and check-ins, and how to schedule specific calls-to-action around release dates, product trials and related campaigns, both on and offline. They’ll need real-time monitoring of the flood of information streaming in from mobile apps and social media in order to assemble a view from 50,000 feet, and they’ll also need to zoom down to ground level, tailoring the user experience on an individual level.

And, crucially, brands will need to build these new mobile capabilities atop a solid strategic foundation. Rather than developing a series of one-offs, brands should consider how their mobile applications integrate with mobile web, location-based partnerships and SMS campaigns. Engauge knows how to get brands noticed in this brave new world.

In 2011, mobile will contribute an additional $1.1 billion to the digital ad market, which will top $28.5 billion this year. Source: eMarketer

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RUlE No. 1: send Useful signals, Not Meaningless static

According to Gartner, the mobile advertising market is expected to double to $3.3 billion in 2011 and swell to $20.6 billion by 2015. Yet many of these mobile ads will never be seen. Bombarded by emails, Facebook status updates and tweets, consumers are overwhelmed by noise – and this is before marketers even enter the picture. The more noise floods in, the more adept consumers become at filtering it out. This dynamic isn’t going to change. A wise brand strategy, then, swims with the current instead of against it, presenting itself as a useful component of the filtering process.

Case Study: Ruth’s Chris Steak HouseRuth’s Chris Steak House wanted its business clientele to be able to make reservations easily, quickly and on the go. Engauge designed an iPhone app that not only allows users to find the nearest steakhouse location and peruse the menu, but also to make, view and cancel reservations in real time. Diners are able to instantly adjust their plans, while the wait staff is alerted immediately if the status of an existing reservation changes or a new party is coming in to dine. Engauge also leveraged preferred partner status with OpenTable to sync the application with computer systems at each individual restaurant, allowing each restaurant’s staff a new level of control and flexibility over the seating chart.

The desire to filter out noise on the part of consumers will only grow. To make sure you’re not the one being clicked off, you have to present your brand as useful to the filtering process.

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RUlE No. 2: Create Two-way Conversations between brand and Consumer

From a messaging standpoint, the great novelty and power of a mobile device is obviously context; a mobile phone is the only consumer appliance that knows where it is at all times. Companies can unlock that power by sending hyper-targeted messages based on narrow windows of opportunity or location.

But the process shouldn’t end there. Brands and their agency partners need to know how to get consumers to talk back, to register their preferences in low-key, frictionless ways. Multi-billion-dollar companies have been built atop algorithms tied to small clickable buttons – think about the “Like This” button on Facebook, or the “Was this review helpful to you?” radio button on Amazon. (By simply adding this question to each product page, Amazon brought in $2.7 billion of additional yearly revenue.) When people see that their input actually does have some effect, changing their personal experience of a brand, they appreciate it and come back. The more they register preferences, the more trust brands builds and the easier it becomes to access even richer information about consumer preferences. Case Study: NGK Spark Plugs USAThe do-it-yourself movement is often wrongly interpreted as anti-consumerism. It’s not. DIY warriors will spend lavishly to buy supplies for home projects; they just want to be the ones wielding the hammer and opening the lid. The spread of DIY pride, sometimes referred to as the Maker Movement, represents an opportunity for brands that offer the tools that make home projects possible. NGK Spark Plugs USA has two established constituencies of gearheads – a younger, brasher class of fearless hackers and a more conservative group of garage-tinkering boomers. The challenge for the auto parts manufacturer was how to attract less car-savvy consumers to their brand without losing their core customers. Engauge crafted an iPhone app that was fully video-savvy, allowing users to access tutorials and upload their own videos to NGK’s YouTube channel and also featured a searchable, interactive database of spark plugs. The edgy graphic design of the app is designed to mesh with the aesthetic of The Art of Fast, a microsite created by Engauge for NGK. With the iPhone app, expert garage warriors can easily tailor their own experience, drilling down to access information specific to their vehicle’s make and model and comparing the virtues of, say, the platinum-tipped spark plug versus the iridium-tipped spark plug. At the same time, more novice consumers can ease their way into the same database of information by using a built-in search function. Also, once customers tell the app about their vehicle, the app remembers which parts will be compatible. The item and stock number of each compatible item is always at the ready, instantly, anywhere.

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Brands that adapt their mobile strategies based on direct feedback from fans will find that they are pre-qualified for a deeper discussion. And the conversation that stems from those interactions forms the foundation of a lasting relationship. Effectively integrating this feedback is critical for a mature mobile marketing strategy.

RUlE No. 3: socialize the Content and the Campaign

As social networks become more seamlessly integrated into the rituals of daily life – at this point, especially for young people, checking Facebook is as natural and subconscious as, say, snacking – it’s not surprising to see that the social-network market has become saturated. Overall growth is slowing; in 2010, 134.6 million people used social networks across all technology platforms, and in 2011, that number will rise by a little more than 3 percent, according to eMarketer. But the mobile-phone share of that pie is expanding rapidly. In fact, social networking is now the fastest-growing mobile activity. Brands need to take this shift into account as consumers get in the habit of checking Facebook on the run and learn to react with boredom (or worse, outright suspicion) to any brand that doesn’t respect the coin of the Facebook realm, which is direct interaction. Facebook is a tool for conversations. Ad campaigns are conversations too. This is a nice coincidence and a useful one to any brand that knows how to effectively integrate the sometimes chaotic feedback that comes streaming in from this new class of smartphone-liberated consumers, jabbing at their smartphones in stores, schools, trains and homes.

Case Study: Food Lion Retail customer service now starts somewhere in the parking lot, at the moment when a potential customer “checks in” on a smartphone. Food Lion was refreshing several stores in Greenville, North Carolina and wanted to increase awareness of the renewal effort. As part of a mobile geolocation marketing campaign, Engauge selected and monitored 20 “hot spots” using a loyalty-promotion software tool called PlacePunch, which integrates seamlessly with Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. The hot spots were clustered around East Carolina University, where lots of young people live and adoption rates for social media are higher. Whenever potential customers used Foursquare to check into one of the 20 hot spots, they received a tweet encouraging them to visit a nearby street team. Customers also received a message on their mobile telling them about prizes they could win. For Food Lion, this was a chance to outpace its competition in the mobile arena and demonstrate that it was monitoring all channels of consumer feedback.

Case Study: Chick-fil-AIt used to be that a great road sign could entice a driver to pull off the road for a burger or a chicken sandwich, but that’s not enough anymore. The brand has to be inside the car. Chick-fil-A created a series of comic books that featured its mascots, those sly, EAT MOR CHIKIN cows, as superheroes. The comic books, which promoted literacy, were given away in kids’ meals and Engauge adapted the printed books for the iPad. In the iPad app, the static cover of the comic is a puzzle; the first thing that a user sees is something dynamic and fun, and the app builds on that commitment to interaction with built-in links to social media and email, allowing kids and their parents to tell friends about the comics with a couple of clicks. It’s a flexible framework that leaves room to add new content down the line, allowing Chick-fil-A to leverage the educational component of its brand to create new sorts of experiences for customers.

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RUlE No. 4: Understand and Apply Usage data

By combining three types of mobile data – Location + Activity + Time – it’s now possible for marketers to assemble an unprecedentedly subtle and detailed picture of consumer behavior, one that takes into account the shifting personas of consumers. A mom, for instance, is a different person at 7 a.m. when she’s getting the kids ready for school than she is at 7:30 after she has dropped them off. Can a savvy marketer shift its message to stay relevant to that mom within that half-hour space? Relevancy – driving the right message at the right time in the right medium – is the challenge and the opportunity of the revolutionary data-collection capabilities of smartphones. Whether it’s SMS messages, push notifications, mobile advertisements or dynamic content, Engauge leverages precision marketing tactics to drive relevancy.

Case Study: AutoTrader.com In the candy-colored glare of a large car show, it’s easy for a brand to get lost. If the booth happens to be in an out-of-the-way corner, grabbing the attention of a potential customer can be nearly impossible. AutoTrader.com and Engauge figured out a way to skip the line. When Facebook or Foursquare users checked into an auto show, they received a tweet from AutoTrader.com with a promotional offer that directed the potential customer to the AutoTrader.com booth. This way, AutoTrader.com was able to reach out to car enthusiasts in a consistent manner with a relevant message, even as their space and location differed at various auto shows across the country.

Case Study: InterContinental Hotels GroupWhen you were a kid, you told your mom when you got somewhere. These days, you tell the entire Internet. But the Internet wasn’t thanking you for checking in, until now. InterContinental Hotels Group was looking to utilize social media to drive awareness of its summer stay and earn program, Hit It Big. Engauge partnered with the location-based program Gowalla to design a custom stamp for each of the eight distinct IHG properties. Customers were then given the option to check in on Gowalla or ask for more information to be emailed to their mobile when they arrived at the hotel. Over a six-week time frame, guests received messages on their first, second and fifth stays to create incentives that encouraged return visits. While initially focused on awareness, Engauge created a second layer for the latter portion of the promotion as a loyalty play. Foursquare check-ins at domestic properties were monitored via PlacePunch. If a customer’s Twitter handle was public, they received one of several iterations of a goodwill or promotional greeting. By asking what else they could do while a customer was still at their hotel, IHG received praise for marketing in the mobile space and one request to refill the ice machine down the hall.

Mobile devices offer an unprecedented amount of information about customers. Consumers often willingly share that information. Companies must extend the dialogue well beyond the point of sale to stay connected to dialed-in consumers.

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Carla PaschkeCarla leads the mobile arm of Engauge’s Digital Innovation Group, where she is focused on providing clients with best-in-class mobile strategies, growing the company’s mobile portfolio and managing day-to-day activities within the team. As a founding member of the Digital Innovation Group, Carla has been instrumental in propelling Engauge into the mobile space and sharing best practices and strategic insights across the internal organization. Prior to her current role, she held several positions in project and team management and has worked with clients such as The Coca-Cola Company, The Hershey Company and Chick-fil-A.

Richard GuyRichard has been developing software for over 13 years and has spent the last two years focused solely on mobile development. He has helped build a mobile presence for a number of companies including Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Chick-fil-A, Valassis RedPlum and NGK Spark Plugs. He currently leads up Engauge’s mobile development team, which has released applications for the iPhone, Android and iPad.

About EngaugeOne of the nation’s largest independent agencies, Engauge leverages creativity and technology to connect brands and people. The agency’s client roster includes Nationwide Insurance, Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, Coca-Cola, Best Buy For Business, Chick-fil-A, Brown-Forman, Food Lion, The State of Georgia, Donatos, NGK Spark Plugs and more. Engauge, which has offices in Atlanta, Austin, Columbus, Orlando and Pittsburgh, is a portfolio company of Halyard Capital.

Image Credits:

p1: Nesster, http://flic.kr/p/545kBap2: Jason Kuffer, http://flic.kr/p/4jKGQ2p4: Stewart Butterfield, http://flic.kr/p/fUUDzp5: Quinn Dombrowski, http://flic.kr/p/4vRUEL

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