The wisdom of the collective mind... or not!

I was involved in the preparation & release of some market research data earlier this week and whilst the overall results were positive, I was a little surprised to read the backlash that it generated from some posters on social sites.

First of all some context - the report focused on how women use the internet on their mobile phone and what they want from it in the future. Sensing the potential risk for multiple faux pas, the language was checked beforehand by a (female) diversity expert to ensure that our Neanderthal writing skills had not inadvertently offended more than half the population. Despite this, once the info was published we still found quite a few comments appearing slating the report as being sexist because it (a) only considered women and (b) happened to mention their views on shopping.

So, help me out here. The research data was gathered from visitors to a shopping service whose content is targeted at women; this seemed sensible given that the end client was interested in women's views on mobile shopping. If we'd claimed that the results in any way reflected the opinions of men, or even of a balanced audience, then I would expect to be justifiably shot down by the first person to note that 92% of responses came from women! Did we say that men don't shop or that women shop too much? No, we just asked people about the activity that they had already chosen to engage in. Perhaps we should have diluted it down to a report that found that an unspecified percentage of indeterminate people have an opinion on something - is that better?

I'm sure there's a closer here about the challenges of pleasing all of the people, all of the time, but right now a more apt simile would be something that noted how the collective mind is as mad as a sackful of badgers that you poke at your peril!

Rant over.

Mobile marketing goes multi-channel?

It's grey, overcast & raining (which should come as no big surprise given it is a bank holiday) but the smiley lady on the telly box assures me that summer is on the way so my thoughts can't help but drift hopefully in the direction of barbecues & cold beers at the riverside. This got me wondering whether with the advent of a World Cup summer (where every brand and his dog will be promoting something), we'll start to see more joined-up thinking from our favourite brands when it comes to bringing mobile into the marketing mix.

Too many brands still seem to view the world as black & white, where:

• we're either web-surfing or watching TV or using a mobile, but never two things at the same time;
• we're "mobile" so our info needs are streamlined and we'll accept shoddy content so long as its fast, or we're at home and will invest more time and expect a richer experience;
• we're out-and-about so all we could possibly be interested in is our nearest x or the supplier of the cheapest y, whereas when we're at home we suddenly become willing to use the web to transact.

In reality the latest research shows that more & more of us are surfing the web on our phones at home, often whilst watching TV - throw an ad break at us and we'll tune out whilst we check the latest sports news on our iPhone. Its time to put some effort into getting the small screen and the big screen working together if you want to keep us engaged.

I remember working on a project about 15 years ago for a forward-thinking (at least back then) broadcaster who was looking at ways to capture interest in ads through a set-top box. Imagine it if you will: you see an ad on TV, you press a button and lo & behold you get a personalised call or mailshot from the supplier; it's like something out of Tomorrow's World!

Sadly the logistics involved meant that it never got off the ground, but today these logistical challenges are solved by the kind of comms technology that's jucommonplace in every mobile phone. See an ad; press a button; get a mobile coupon to buy that 24 pack of Carlsberg half price! Throw in an "internet of things" and before you know it my TV will know when I'm surfing for the footie results instead of watching that chick flick and will text my wife to land me right in it. Perhaps the future's not so bright after all...

I've been spending lots of time lately researching ARG's which has been great fun, but has also led to far too many sleepless nights as I wake up with weird ideas & scenarios flying around my mind - how can you fail to get excited at the prospect of a game that merges with the real world?! I'm curious to see how far some of the developments in mobile technology such as smart phones with GPS and augmented reality can be used to enhance the experience so we've started dabbling in some basic mobile "treasure trails" here. Next step is to try to add in more funky layers without limiting the potential audience too much (iPhone/Android only anyone?)...

Still not sure how this stuff can be commercialised outside of product/brand-specific viral marketing campaigns but it's going to be fun learning.