ThinkMobile Conference: Some Reflections

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photo: Francisco Collazo
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Earlier this week, I attended two days of keynote speeches and panel presentations at the ThinkMobile Conference in New York City.

The purpose of the conference was to talk shop about mobile technologies and, especially, to discuss ideas about how to monetize ads and content delivered by mobile devices.

To be honest, it wasn’t a topic that interested me all that much. I’m certain I owned the oldest cell phone in the room (see photo). I don’t text, I don’t have a catchy ring tone, I don’t know (or care) what games are on my mobile, and I’m not interested in spending money on doodads to attach to my phone or “wallpaper” to make my phone look cuter. Really, I just want a phone to… um… make phone calls.

But I wanted to attend the conference to learn what mobile gurus are saying about their favored technology and to think about how their insights might be applied to online platforms.

I did come away with some of those insights, but mostly, I came away with some reflections about what mobile folks may be doing wrong… or, at the very least, could do a lot better.

1. Mobile users (especially those with a Blackberry, and ESPECIALLY those with an iPhone) frequently make the mistake of turning their personal anecdotes into universal generalizations.

A CEO who gave a keynote speech noted how mobile devices have transformed from phones to all-purpose life companions. As an example she cited a statistic: 38% of people have interrupted sex to check their mobiles. It’s a frightening number, I think, but it doesn’t represent the majority.

Another panelist reflected about print ads and wondered why these rarely include “calls to action” to text. “Everyone texts,” he said. “People want to text in response to ads.” I know plenty of people who don’t text and plenty more who do but who would never respond to an ad’s call to text.

An audience member talked about his willingness to spend money on iPhone app downloads, hyperbolizing his own habits to the entire population. His input was received enthusiastically, but I had to wonder if that was because all of the audience members are already convinced of the benefits and reach of mobile because of THEIR own habits.

2. Mobile media and online media aren’t collaborating in critical contexts.

Jeffrey Litvack, General Manager of Mobile and Emerging Products at the Associated Press, and Jason Fulmines, his counterpart at Gannett, the parent company of USA Today, talked about the mobile initiatives being developed at their respective media outlets. Both companies are operating under the reasonable assumption that more people, both in the US and abroad, will be consuming their news via mobile devices rather than conventional sources. The other focus of the companies’ mobile development implies that end consumers will also become producers of news. In other words, they’ll send in photos and breaking news, having become citizen journalists.

Yet both men acknowledged some of the challenges of developing mobile interfaces for their target clients. Litvack talked about the fact that those users most enthusiastically embracing the mobile platforms the AP has developed are also sending in material that’s specious, wrong, or totally irrelevant.

When I asked the panelists if they’re collaborating with their online media departments (they could, after all, learn a great deal from one another, harness one another’s expertise, and develop cross-functional applications), both men admitted that the two departments are not interacting.

That’s too bad– though this article isn’t exactly about online/mobile collaboration, it alludes to some of the exciting possibilities that are generated when news outlets’ departments collaborate.

3. The double-edged sword of mobile advertising may be its hyperlocalism.

One presenter clicked through a presentation that included a case study about Virgin’s creative campaign that integrated print-based poster ads on bus shelters around New York City with “calls to action” for viewers to text… leading them to pubs where they could enter for a chance to win round-trip tickets to London.

The ad was brilliant. It effectively captured and channeled the New York vibe. But it was also clearly a huge investment of effort and money for Virgin and its marketing/PR teams. It was also not replicable in other markets. Virgin could take the idea of the campaign and design a similar one in other US markets; however, doing so would require almost the equivalent investment of effort and money to craft a campaign that was customized to Chicago or Boston or San Francisco.

And here’s the huge, looming question: Did that brilliant campaign produces brilliant results in the form of a profitable return on Virgin’s investment?

It was a question that wasn’t answered.

4. Mobile is not yet truly universal.

I can take my laptop almost anywhere I travel–even Cuba–and be sure I’ll be able to connect. I won’t have to buy an adapter or SIM card or any other gear that I may never need again in order to get online.

Yet the same isn’t always true of mobile devices. Admittedly, my cell phone is terribly outdated. But even when I took the Samsung Blackjack–a phone marketed as usable to, from, and in more than 200 countries– around the US, Mexico, and Colombia for a review, I learned that mobile devices far more modern than mine are pretty uneven and unreliable. Phone calls were dropped frequently calling to the US from Mexico. It was nearly impossible to get a consistent Internet connection in Colombia.

The take-away? Mobile as a platform has a long way to go before it will be able to realize some of the goals and opportunities that industry insiders have for it.