Ad Week has this interesting article on how many brands are striving to create a different experience on the mobile. The challenges are very different from the traditional 30 sec spots, as brands need customers to "seek out" their messages rather than "pump-in" the message as they are used to in other mediums.
The screen is small. The audience's attention span is even shorter. And the environment—as likely a quiet park bench as a rumbling subway car—is variable. Mobile marketing is riding a high tide of hype and promise, thanks in part to media darling Apple's video iPod, and big-ticket advertisers like Burger King, Unilever and Samsung are looking for ways to hitch a ride in consumers' pockets.
To do so, advertisers and agencies are being forced to abandon the "we interrupt this program" delivery method used since Old Gold brought you a dancing cigarette pack, and create content that mobile users will not just sit through, but seek out. Creating for a small screen also comes with a new set of visual concerns. It has to be more graphical, less detailed...
And, just like with TV spots, time is a factor. For a mobile audience, the appropriate length of a bumper is still open for debate. Text messaging, however, doesn't provide much in the way of traditional brand messaging—a point that some clients stumble over. This is a very simple media and it can't convey emotion easily, and for some brand marketers, it doesn't grab an audience as much as they'd like it to...
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