Have we lost our focus by placing Mobile First?
After all, Mobile is just a channel, a means to an end, and by placing it first we lose sight of the “real end” – the Users…People. Perhaps, before we aggregate our workforce into Mobile Specialists, Video Specialists, and Display Specialists, we should focus on making our offer Special. And doing so requires keeping the End User First.
It’s easy to think in terms of what exists now and how to improve it by “going Mobile”. The hard problem is to think through what happens when people, brands, and technology work together. When we breach the walls of each specific platform and start to see the broader picture.
So what is the best way to deploy Mobile? As a standalone medium or as part of a bigger campaign- one that sees mobile, video and display working together to achieve a common end goal? I see it as Value First Mobile Second. See without a deep understanding of the real value you can offer to the consumer, the Mobile medium will stay just that- Medium never reaching its High potential.
Advertising is changing. It’s no longer a pushing game. For a long time we have been focused on push push push, but the only thing we really pushed were the consumers, and we have pushed them away. A significant consolidation in the industry is inevitable. There are too many players in this field with a very narrow focus on subsets of the problems. The stage is set for players that act and think in borderless ways – from their strategic insights to creative campaigns, to how they plan and buy media… to lead the pack and win. Mobile Friendly will soon give way to just plain friendly and Mobile First, I hope, will revert to People First.
The reality is that the future of advertising will not look like Mobile. Nor will it look like today’s advertising. It will be, as it was a long time ago, just the best way to connect to your potential customers – People.
