Chat with Thomas Curwen Chief Planner Publicis Dialog

by: Bena Roberts Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

After the panel discussion at the Mobile Advertising Conference in Belgium, Thomas Curwen came up to me. He obviously saw my jaw drop during his panel discussion (see earlier post).

But anyway, we spoke candidly about the panel and what interaction means to mobile. We both mentioned O2 as a leader in the mobile barcode and advertising space and how well The O2 has been embraced as a venue.

Then I went for the throat and said, Thomas so why is interaction scary for advertisers. He laughed and said, “Bena. I was trying to provoke a reaction – the crowd was extremely passive”.

I agreed and pushed, “does that mean you were exaggerating”.

How Thomas replied was a step short of brilliant. Spoken like a true advertiser he mentioned how most TV adverts are not interactive. But they are delivered with focus.

The way in which we monitor mobile is where the “interaction” falls short.
Basic measurement of CTR or response is what is measured in mobile and that is interactive. It moves the attention away from the simple visibility of the brand.

He said, operators command respect and trust and having a brand on the portal is already a great visible advantage for mobile advertisers.

This is very interesting as Jonathan MacDonald now from OgilvyOne said, “that mobile operators could not be trusted and were seen as thieves – because data rates were confusing and often caused distressfully high bills”.

I can see both sides of the argument. But what I find very interesting is that advertising is an old media not a new one. Mobile is a new market for advertising and the way in which both spaces combine will be tricky. All the campaigns and adverts on show during the conference were nice. But after watching Saatchi & Saatchi pitch for the Sony campaign back in 1998 in Germany – mobile just doesn’t have the “wow factor”. It is a limited medium that I think advertisers are going to find tough to sell.

SMS remains king in the advertising space and how boring is that?