Find out who is leading in mobile at Mobile Connect

With summer winding down and the dust from #Postback16 slowly settling, our Mobile Connect event series is back in action!

For those who may have missed it earlier this year — Mobile Connect is the Seattle event series for digital marketers, mobile strategists, builders of mobile, and the mobile obsessed who want to connect and talk about mobile. We’re planning events on a regular basis that offer you a ticket to leave work early, learn from experts in the industry, and connect with other guests over drinks.

Agencies Leading in Mobile Recap

In June, we hosted the second event in this series – Agencies Leading in Mobile. Aside from the beer tasting, we had a pretty awesome panel of leaders from local agencies that are making moves in mobile. Because of this, we knew there would be a crazy amount of knowledge dropped during this discussion, and so we took the liberty of recording the hourlong discussion. BUT, in the case you don’t have an hour to kill, or just want to bookmark the vid for later, we grabbed some highlights.

The panel of agency experts

James Mitchell is the Senior Associate Mobile Media Director @ Essence and focuses a lot on maintaining the mobile direct response expertise here in Seattle. If you’re a larger brand with a mobile piece then you should check out the subject matter experts at Essence.

Devin Owens is the Account Supervisor @ Razorfish. His team focuses on the branding side of the business in digital, with a target market of teens, who are obviously heavy users of mobile. Their approach is mobile to start – learn from the audience’s behavior, and put in a plan that fills in from there. In addition, they have talent in building app experience and experiences outside of the app that are mobile web.

Philip Bruno is the Client Strategy and Development Manager / Mobile Marketing Lead @ Add3. As a search agency turned digital marketing agency, it was a pretty easy transition into the world of mobile. His team is constantly digging into clients’ goals across digital channels, so when there’s an acquisition or an action that a client is looking to drive, they’re the guys to do it.

Kelly Mullins, our Director of Platform Partnerships @ TUNE, led this discussion as Moderator. Here’s some of the takeaways that unfolded in this discussion:

How do you think about segmenting your audience?

Devin spoke on behalf of the strategy Razorfish has in place with one of their largest clients – a familiar athletic retailer to all. Nike targets a very small community with their brand — “the moderate athlete.” Razorfish has to truly understand that core teen athlete’s behaviors, unpack them, and then further segment by the platforms they use. But that’s where social comes in, which offers the ability to go as granular as you’d like. Razorfish has found this very successful because ultimately, they’re trying to build a relationship with that teen, and then try to get the teen to have a relationship with Nike for the rest of their lives. That’s why Snapchat was a huge opportunity — coming out as the official launch partner, they were able to get a head start at building a relationships on a new segment.

What are some of the commonalities of focus across some of your clients?

For James and the rest of his Essence team, they deal with clients in gaming, real estate, and retail, but despite the diversity, the clients often follow similar paths. First it’s thinking about how they can get a large user base — getting the app on the phone. Then it comes down to the fact that quality users are the ones that will spend in your app, so you go after the quality users. It’s become evident in the industry that everyone’s focusing on retention and engagement. The trick with engagement, James mentioned, is that you have to think more about challenges with data and frequency capping. Rather than focusing on just finding that next big user, Essence has to make sure they’re sending safe and ongoing messages to existing users and trying to get them to reengage. That’s where TUNE’s solutions come in — a true help with dealing with this level of data.

What about the data being gathered – how are you putting process to all of it?

“It’s really all about data,” said Philip. It’s about how you aggregate it, analyze it, use it in way that actually makes an impact on your efforts. As TUNE clients, Add3 constantly is in the platform employing cohort analysis, understanding channel by channel comparisons and then determining what’s making a difference.

Have you seen clients start to think about things post install?

Each panelist said yes. Phillip gave an example of a real estate client selling houses from an app. After the install, there’s a number of pretty deep engagements you’re measuring and trying to determine what it is that will lead to the purchase of a home or condo from the app. Devin explained there are two types of clients: the first group, who are asking for a health app as early adopters, and realizing the services they can provide in the actual app can be extremely powerful. Then there’s the second group who are like, “Oh no, I haven’t built an app yet and need one ASAP.” So Razorfish is tasked with not only building the app, but taking the data and providing a better service for the consumer post download. And finally, James clarified that not every install is worth the same and that the people engaging with your app are much different. So the trick is trying to find new quality users and also creating quality users of people who have the app installed already. Recruiting the new ones is the tricky part — which is what Essence is trying to do now.

Where do you see things shifting in the mobile industry in 18 to 24 months?
Devin said he felt a lot of advertisers’ clients and agencies are going to push the big stalwarts like Google, Facebook, Twitter, to be better about sharing some of that data. Considering the consumer path is interacting on all of those platforms, there needs to be some sort of way to connect the dots.

Catch the full discussion below on YouTube and check out the photos from the event.

Want more? Join us at the October 6th Mobile Connect!

We’re highlighting some amazing women paving the way in mobile representing the advertising technology, agency and brand worlds to bring you a full perspective on the mobile industry and how they’re involved in its momentum.

Get the details and RSVP here:

https://womenpavingthewayinmobile.splashthat.com/