Mobile: Bundled not Bought

Over Christmas and New Year, GoMo News is posting articles written for us by leaders and innovators in the mobile space. Start-ups and established businesses from all over the industry have sent us piece looking back at the year that was, and ahead to 2010. This article is from Gary Schwartz, CEO and President Impact Mobile, Inc. – but this article was written under his role as the Chairman of Mobile for the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

With the Google Admob rumpus of 2009, we all are looking to the positive fallout in 2010. Maybe it would be over simplistic or apologetic to say that up until the $750M drop we were all just building network and waiting. Now, we need to drive up the CPMs.

How do we go about this? With many publishers bundling the mobile buy for “free” with a more robust online commitment, it is difficult to explain to the buyer the unique and powerful value of the mobile CPM.

Speak to any planner and they will tell you the following things about mobile inventory buying:
•    For a small wedge of the digital buy, it is “mighty hard to buy”
•    The CPM “seems too high for the value add”
•    To drive an integrated buy with post-click strategy, there are “too many moving parts.”

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has work hard to demystify the buy by publishing a Mobile Buyer Guide, which holds the media planner hand as they extend their digital buy to mobile. However, no guide will drive significant dollars into mobile until the mobile buy is not an also-ran to the online buy and commands a respectable CPM in its own right.

History repeats itself

The nice thing about any mobile debate is we have inevitably gone through the same issue historically with emerging media channels. Remember how mainstream television sold specialty channels? The value prop made sense:  programming focused on a single type or targeted at a specific demographic.  The inventory was simply bundled as a package deal for some unsuspecting brand.

When the online buy appeared in the mid-90s, sales teams grudgingly added it as a sweetener to the broadcast 30-second commitment.  It was free stuff – no one sold it – no one knew how – it was part of the bundle.

Rinse and repeat. The online sales team is now a mature powerhouse. Hell, is it the only team selling in this new economy. Finally, we have conceded that analogue dollars are moving to digital dimes. We now have a media that is targeted and measured. Apart from a dwindling generation of legacy 30-minute-spot executives golfing with big brands, the world has changed.

A few online sales people are now tasked with selling mobile impressions. Again, a generation gap. Mobile is bundled with the online buy. No one can explain the mobile value proposition well and it becomes more difficult that it is “worth” to become a resident expert.

The native mobile salesperson

For mobile to be sold effectively, two things have to happen:

•    It needs to be treated as business-as-usual with similar vernacular and measurement standards as other digital buys. The Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Mobile Marketing Association (with the guidance of George Ivy of the Media Rating Council) are making great strides in this direction. In 2010, the buyer will be able to compare online and mobile measurement guidelines and have comfort in consistency.

•    At the same time the industry needs to present the planner/buyer with creative ad units that drive engagement and post-click conversion that is unique to the mobile channel. Crisp and Medialets have worked hard to develop creative ad unites that are native to mobile. A recent example of native mobile ad units is Admob’s Interactive Video Ad Unit for iPhone. Admob is developing a click-flow to make mobile video interactive with customizable in-player action buttons to allow consumers to engage with web content in-player.

But the opportunity goes beyond these innovative units. Presently these creative ad units are helping mobile deliver contextual, targeting messaging (location, carrier profile, self-selection) they also help measure the quality and duration of engagement.

The industry needs to recognize the value of the mobile channel to connect the dots helping the customer conversion to last-mile ROI destinations like POS and mobile commerce. Consumer engagement and “impulse” conversion are the hallmark of mobile.

2010 needs to be the year of selling mobile. After a few years of chasing the mobile CPM to the floor, this has to be the year for an unbundled, value-rich mobile CPM.