Seizing the Mobile Moment
With people spending the majority of their time on their phones, experiences and services that invest in mobile technology are engaging consumers more than ever. To highlight the impact mobile technology is having on the marketing sector and brand experiences, George P. Johnson’s VP, digital strategy, Nick Riggall, unveiled the findings of GPJ’s research into the use of mobile marketing, at the recent The Power of Mobile event. You can download the whitepaper PDF here.
The results showed that 93% of C-suite decision makers believe that mobile-first businesses have raised consumer expectations of brands. Take Uber as an example; its users now expect a ride within minutes or seconds of ordering a taxi via the app. This begs the question of how and to what extent mobile is both changing habits and creating new ones, and what influence this has on engagement and new business models.
Mobile tech is driving change ...
Ben Ient, chief customer officer and founder of Seatfrog, where travellers bid via an app for a last-minute upgrade to a first-class train seat, said that just because people travel every day, does not a habit make. The business instead looked at its customers’ needs, wants and pain points, using mobile technology to essentially create a habit, and from this, the business model.
"By testing and working closer to the day of travel, we became more relevant to the customer; their initial spend was behind them and they started thinking more about experiences, what they might spend on the day of travel itself," said Ben. "An upgrade became a logical decision, even if they weren’t thinking about it."
For Seatfrog, mobile technology is a form of delivery - it’s in people’s pockets, making the decision to upgrade an easy process, thereby becoming a seamless part of the customer’s journey.
For the likes of bigger brands such as Diageo and RBS/Natwest, pinpointing customer habits and the role mobile tech plays, comes down to the simple act of listening. For Jake Morris, programme lead, mobile, commercial banking at RBS, harnessing mobile’s potential is about focusing on one area, perfecting it as much as possible and then building on this. But it’s vital to listen to the consumer to identify which areas to focus on.
"There is a tendency to overdesign [with mobile] - we are now seeing value because we ask people what they want," he said. "We thought the most important element for our app was around payment authorisation but we found that our customers wanted to check their balance and log in using biometrics."
...and real-time behaviour
With a rise in the number of people ‘second screening’ sports - using their mobiles while watching the action unfold, Will Harvey, digital innovation manager at Diageo, highlighted how Guinness and the Six Nations has explored the impact this has on existing consumer behaviour and fan engagement. By tapping into fans’ ‘second screen’ behaviour at live games and understanding the conversations taking place around the game and the sport, Diageo looked at how these interactions can be leveraged to make people feel even more a part of the action. "We looked at how to tap into that engagement [of the second screen], not as a distraction but as an enabler," he said.
Time is of the essence
Speed to ROI was identified in the research as one of the main barriers to introducing technology, including mobile, cited by 21% of respondents. While the convergence of technology is resulting in more robust prototypes being delivered in a faster time frame, delivering real value with mobile requires customer buy-in, which often takes time.
In one sense, realising the power of mobile for brand experiences is about going back to basics and keeping things simple.
