Moving beyond mobile experimentation in 2012

By Simon van Wyk

In October 2011, Mary Meeker, the feted venture capitalist at KPCB, released her highly-regarded Internet Trends 2011 report. The report captured 11 key trend s and what she labelled as the Mega-Trend of the 21st Century: The empowerment of people via connected, mobile devices.

Of course, this trend is a reality everywhere. More and more of us are armed with our mobile devices of choice and use them more or less non-stop, 24×7. Just walk down any busy street and take a look around - almost everyone, regardless of their demographic, is interacting with their mobile devices.

And the more we interact with our mobile devices, the more we will want to explore the mobile web. We’re already hovering tantalizingly close to the point where more people access the Web using their mobile devices than they do using a PC. To me, it’s clear that 2012 will be the year the mobile web comes to the fore.

And so, brands will start to realise that their mobile strategy can no longer be treated in isolation. From now on, every digital experience will need to be built with mobile devices as the starting point and brands will have to develop digital experiences for three screens: the smartphone, tablet, and personal computer.

Beyond mobile experimentation

This will be a huge shift for most brands that have to date manifested their mobile strategy in the creation of native apps. In 2012 it will be clear that a strategy anchored in native app creation is costly and too limited to have wide appeal.

In 2012 marketers will realise that mobile needs to be deeply integrated into the overall marketing strategy. A mobile strategy has to be orchestrated and in sync with all other marketing efforts. It’s simply a matter of adjusting to and exploiting the places that consumers now inhabit.

In fact Forrester predicts success in 2012 will mean moving beyond mobile experimentation. The research firm says that good multiscreen marketing will depend on two factors: your ability to understand when, where, and how you can reach your customers, and your ability to engage with them appropriately across channels and platforms.

You see, one channel does not necessarily take over from another. It’s another touch point that’s more personal, always-on, social, and location-aware. And for consumers, expectations around mobile will continue to soar.  If you’re not optimised in this space in 2012 - you’ll be missing out on a large chunk of your market.

Indeed, I think that one of the biggest disappointments this year is how few brands have demonstrated that they really understand the mobile space. The investment in optimised mobile experiences has been sorely lacking. Despite the growth in penetration of smartphones and tablets and consumers using mobile in a variety of ways to interact with brands, as many as 80% of Australian businesses don’t have mobile-optimised websites. This obviously represents a massive opportunity and I think we’ll see this is a big focus in 2012.

And as consumers’ expectations rise, they’ll be seeking out more personal, relevant, and convenient content on the go. Without doubt, there will be more varieties of smartphones and tablets in your consumers’ hands, making it critical to deliver optimised user experiences across all devices.

But as marketers recognise the huge and urgent need to mobilise their content - the ongoing fragmentation of the mobile landscape will create more than a few headaches.

Marketers need to find a mobile solution that will allow them to connect with their customers or reach their audience across all browsers on all devices. And at this stage, for all its hype, HTLM5 is still a long way off delivering on such a promise.

In the meantime, I advocate using proven technologies that will afford you the luxury of writing once and running everywhere with optimised user experiences within the browser across all mobile operating systems. More than simply Apple iOS or Google Android, as important as they are, but  Nokia Symbian, MS Windows Phone 7, Samsung bada, HP WebOS, and RIM BlackBerry as well.

In 2012, successful marketers will place a sophisticated understanding of the mobile customer at the centre of planning and execution to manage across multiple screens.

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