Have brand managers and marketers completely forgotten the reasoning behind communicating with their audience, and the fundamentals of marketing?

I get furious when I see pointless applications hit the market from short sighted brands, with no consideration for market segmentation or consumer base, and the latest is no exception.

The Conservative party has just launched its iPhone application which will supposedly “help both existing supporters and floating voters learn more about their policies, connect with them on social networks and share political news with their friends.”

So the dramatic insinuation is that all (or a large proportion of) their existing supporters and the supposed ‘floating voters’ have iPhones. Utter morons.

As Paul Lomax, CTO at Dennis Publishing kindly argued “The Conservatives *are* a short sighted brand”.

With an increasing number of emerging and established mobile operating systems and app platforms now available, the invalidity of this application becomes even more apparent.

I am not just angry that they have done what so many brands have done and just jump at the chance of exhibiting on the platform; the anger is more directed at the complete disregard for the people they are trying to win over in order to ensure that they can run this country.

As far as I am concerned, if they can waste valuable donations on an app that segregates and isolates their voters, what will they do when it’s our/your money they are using?

So if anyone from the Conservative team in charge of this application should read this, I would love you to share all your research which showed that you needed to develop an iPhone application, and ignore the other platforms.

Don’t get me wrong, by even looking at mobile I agree it’s a step in the right direction, but this is without a doubt a box-ticker, and no real thought has gone into the parties objectives and how they can harness mobile to achieve those goals.

Any alternative views gratefully received.

After a complete anti-climax of a press event from Nokia, their faces were well and truly rubbed in the dirt by Steve Ballmer and the Microsoft team. A technical hitch at the beginning of the presentation was the only speed bump in a smooth ride for the Microsoft team, whose presentation has been greeted with great aplomb. Windows Phone 7 is a completely new product from Microsoft that encapsulates a vast range of services and offerings focussed on the consumer (which Windows Mobile before it never seemed to grasp). Where did that come from?!

For me, there were several key USPs that make Windows Phone a very promising inclusion in the smartphone operating system wars.

• UI designed with UX – The UI behind Windows Phone is so heavily user experienced focussed, it goes above and beyond any other produced by Microsoft. Designed for the fast paced ‘at a glance’ lifestyle, it has gone lengths to redesign traditional and even the latest UIs to create a functional and enjoyable experience for its users. OK, so the UX market is dominated by the Apple iPhone OS, but until it embraces widgets and multitasking, it will fall behind.
• Multitasking – Multitasking is the main advantage that Android has had over the iPhone OS, and it seems with a decent UX, it could really challenge the market. Lets just hope it is glitch free as running multiple apps could create some headaches.
• Office for mobile – The Microsoft Office package is the worlds most common utilities packages for personal and business use, and it has received an overhaul for Windows Phone that promises to offer a whole new experience for its users, as well as ensuring a smooth cohesion between itself and the desktop counterpart
• Current service offering extensions – Windows phone will support Xbox Live and Zune in the entertainment arena, offering an opportunity for customer retention, as well as attracting new users with connected purchase decisions.

Microsoft has created a product to support the personal nature of the mobile phone. By taking into account the user experience, they have developed a UI that appeals to a users preference, offering relevant information that can be personalised to a seemingly ‘nTH’ degree. Only time will tell whether this is Microsoft’s fight back onto the mobile scene; all I know is that it is a major step back in the right direction.

For a good summary of the keynote, check out a break down here. Or for the official press release, click here.

For those of you that don’t know who Tomi Ahonen is, get out from under your rock!

Tomi T Ahonen is an author and independent consultant focusing on the mobile industry and digital convergence, at tomiahonen.com. Tomi is the father or co-inventor of several theories and management tools used by the industry which are referenced in 50 books by his peers. Previously employed as an executive with Nokia and three operators in Finland and the USA, today Tomi’s reference client list includes HP the biggest computer maker, Vodafone the biggest mobile operator group, Nokia the biggest handset maker, Intel the biggest chip maker, Ericsson the biggest telecoms network vendor and NTT DoCoMo the biggest mobile internet service provider. He is widely considered the ‘Godfather of Mobile’.

And Tomi has been ever so kind as to answer a few questions for Mobsessed.

• What has been the single greatest technological development in mobile in the past year?

For me, Augmented Reality on phones – the Layar AR browser in particular. Its opening a radical new opportunity to the mobile content and media space.

• What major development in mobile technology do you think will further revolutionise the industry in the next ten years?

Oh, I wish I knew. I can imagine some things that I know are in development, like 3D for example, and the general trends like miniaturization. What the phones really need more than anything else, is far more battery power – battery development has not kept at all pace with the rate of processing power and memory ability. I think the whole mobile industry will go through a gigantic ‘acceleration’ in innovation when we get relatively widespread acceptance of the mobile wallet. This is not a new idea and very advanced mobile payment and mobile wallet solutions already exist, such as in Japan and South Korea – but when it becomes commonplace for example in America that your pay check goes directly to your phone account and your car keys and home keys and loyalty cards and credit cards are all part of the phone – that will open a whole new range of services, where money can converge with media, with advertising etc. This is a trend we’ll see evolving this decade but its not really a new technical invention now, as its been around for decade already in some countries. Like in Kenya already today, 46% of all banking accounts are on mobile phones.

• What are your thoughts on the network infrastructure in the UK ? Which markets should we aspire to challenge for network speed and security?

The UK is a peculiar place. It has had competition for very long and most technologies have been deployed there usually at a very early stage. Yet it has strange deficiencies in the network. For example the London Tube – why on earth cannot we have full mobile coverage in the Tube? In far more difficult underground metro systems - like in Helsinki in Finland where the metro is dug 100 meters underground into solid granite bedrock (the subway system is also a bomb shelter for citizens of Helsinki, built to survive nuclear attacks) we have perfect cellular coverage. Consider the typical London underground situation. The train is so often delayed, or is so full during rush hour that several go by that you cannot even board the train, or it gets stuck on the tracks between stations. These are normal situations in London and the passengers would have a very compelling need to communicate that they are delayed. Yet they have no coverage. It is silly. In Finland the metro is so new and modest in scale and has so few problems with the transport system, and is not particularly congested, so there are very rarely delays-related reasons to communicate. But total, perfect cellular coverage everywhere.

Similarly broadband internet is quite disappointing in many parts of Britain. I live in Hong Kong and we are spoiled with 100 Mbit/s speeds. In South Korea every home gets 100 Mbit/s and their ‘high speed’ is now Gigabit speed broadband. But in Britain it seems (by recent advertisements that I’ve seen) that 20 megabits is somehow ‘fast’?? I think there is plenty the UK can do to gain more speed and connectivity. Did you notice Finland already made it every citizen’s legal right to have broadband…

• Being a man who has had many handsets, what has been the one you will always look back on with great fondness, and why?

Oh, my first Nokia Communicator and the N93. With both, when they were launched, there was a great deal of James Bond-esque mystique, where it looked like a normal phone on the outside – but pay attention 007, when you open up this phone like this…  The original Communicator was magnificent most of all because of its QWERTY keyboard – I was already addicted to SMS at the time over a decade ago. And the N93 – that was the ‘contortionist’ form factor, flip phone one way, video camera shooting phone another way and palmtop form factor the third way. I loved its optical zoom (I used to be an amateur photographer when young, so all this digital zoom nonsense annoys me, but real optical zoom, that was awesome on a phone back in 2006). And it also had very powerful video graphics acceleration for excellent video playback; obviously it shot VGA ‘near DVD’ quality video, so what a super super phone. Such a shame that Nokia has discontinued that form factor.

• Why would you consider yourself mobsessed?

Ah yes, I am most certainly mobsessed. I am soooo mobsessed that I find reason to send an SMS text message from one of my phones to another of my phones – while carrying both – at least once per day! Mobsessed? I think I’m mobideranged

The brilliant and also entertaining Tomi Ahonen ladies and gentlemen. You can get his very latest Almanac here with every stat you will need to formulate your mobile strategy in 2010 – I highly recommend it.

The GSMA yesterday announced its first batch of Mobile Media Metrics, in association with all of the major UK MNO’s. 2 years in development, these statistics not only mark early signs of the mobile industry working together towards a common goal, but it also signals what we hope is the start of a swift adoption of mobile as a platform on which brands and businesses can target their varying audiences.

‘But mobile is common place in marketing already!’ I hear you cry.

Yes it is being employed, but is the quality and targeting of said work demonstrating not just ROI and all the other buzzword bullshit, but true engagement with its users?

O2 conducted a survey amongst senior marketers, which revealed that 58% said they would invest more of their marketing budgets in the medium once there was a better measurement of effectiveness, while 47% stated that better targeting would make them invest more in mobile.

What these stats offer is the opportunity to perform a detailed segmentation of the market, and create data that will allow marketers to produce effective, targeted mobile content that the consumer can engage with. And hell if they become more aware of the brand or it produces a conversion in the process, everyone is happy.

What we do not want to forget is true engagement induces trust in the consumer/brand relationship which can reinforce and even grow brand loyalty (a powerful tool in any marketer’s handbook). You don’t have to make your audience laugh! Try giving them something that will improve their lives!

So, let’s take a step back. Forget about augmented reality, apps using accelerometers and beautiful mobile websites with no bloody function. What is best for the user?

SMS is an immensely powerful advertising medium when used in the correct fashion, and provides universal access to any of the worlds 4Billion odd mobiles (if you can afford the data!). Yet we as agencies, brands and businesses are far too keen to jump ahead and utilise the very latest tech that 90% of the consumer base don’t even know exists.

Slow down mobile industry! Return to the core values of marketing and when formulating a strategy, take your time!

• Consider current marketing performance, the consumer, competitors and the core business objectives before setting marketing objectives.
• Define a customer value proposition using correctly defined channels (mobile may not even be applicable!) before defining the marketing strategy.
• And only when you have considered the consumer experience, can you even begin to consider implementing a mobile channel into the mix.

Mobile will continue to grow and develop as platform, so you need your finger on the pulse. Just because some CEO with a ghost writer has told you ‘2010 is the Year of Mobile’, cut through the crap and understand that mobile is already the world’s most powerful marketing medium.

You just need to know how to bloody use it.

Its been a long period of silence I know (*slaps wrist*) but the past few months have not just been incredibly hectic, but I have also been looking into the future of Mobsessed and the way I want my readers and the industry to digest its content. I have some substantial ideas in the pipeline which I hope will make this a staple of your blog reading diet! So for now, please wait with baited breath, as I promise it will be worth it. In the mean time, if you haven’t already seen it, take the time to digest the information in this superb presentation from Rudy De Waele and some of the most brilliant minds in mobile.

The survey, conducted amongst a panel of over 100 senior-level UK agency representatives, investigated their knowledge and understanding of mobile advertising, as well as general attitudes towards the medium.   The research also revealed that currently some 95% of digital budgets include spend on mobile, with only 5% of UK marketers not yet investing in the medium.

Familiarity and understanding of mobile increases

The results show that familiarity of many areas of mobile activity has grown significantly over the past 12 months, requiring respondents to ‘score’ their knowledge and understanding of the mobile medium. This has increased significantly over a 12-month period, with 42% of those surveyed rating themselves 6 out of 10 or above, rising from just 24% in 2008.

Awareness and understanding of areas such as MMS, voice and video shortcodes has grown, with just 20% of marketers having no experience in this area in 2009 compared to 66% in 2008.  Knowledge of mobile search is on the rise, with the amount of marketers with no experience of the discipline declining from 57% to 29% over the last 12 months.  Similarly familiarity of ads in and around mobile gaming has increased from 62% having no experience in 2008 yet only 35% had no experience in 2009.

Mobile specialism grows

The research also found that compared to 2008, the majority of employees responsible for planning a mobile campaign within the agencies surveyed are mobile specialists, with the number of dedicated mobile experts increasing year-on-year.  In 2008, around 37% of those responsible for planning mobile campaigns within agencies were dedicated specialists with this figure rising to just over half (52%) in 2009.

Bigger mobile budgets

Agencies that took part in the survey were also asked what percentage of their digital spend is for mobile, and the results reveal that some 95% of respondents included mobile in their overall digital budget.  Within this, 30% spent between 0 and 1%, 46% spent between 1 and 5%, 13% spent between 6 and 10% with a further 6% spending more than 11%.

Looking to the future, some 40% of agency respondents predicted they would be spending between 1 and 5% of their digital budgets on mobile in 2011.  A further 29% believed they would be spending between 6 – 10% and 13% stated they would be spending between 11 and 20% and just 1% of agencies stated that they will not be allocating any budget to mobile in the next 2 years.

Mobile to see the biggest growth

73% of those surveyed agreed that mobile will be the fastest growing media for the next 5 years, with a further 73% also believing that most media agencies will have a mobile specialist by 2010.  In terms of using the medium to communicate with specific audiences, some 55% of respondents agreed that in the future mobile will be the primary medium for communicating with 12 – 24 age group.

Jon Mew, head of mobile for the Internet Advertising Bureau said: “With the industry putting education at the very top of its agenda and driving growth more than ever this year, mobile advertising is less of a choice for brands, more of a necessity if they want to reach today’s consumer.  It’s extremely encouraging to see that agencies in the UK are adapting to the changing landscape allocating bigger budgets to mobile and hiring more specialists to plan mobile campaigns.

The IAB, alongside its expert members, will be continuing its efforts to put mobile at the forefront of the marketer’s agenda, familiarising them with the tools available and raising levels of understanding even further.”

Some smart alec Apple fan boy has replied with their very own take on the Droid Does viral.

The iPhone/Android battle is heating up, and with analysts predicting the open source OS to overtake Apples 2nd place slot behind Symbian on OS market share, its going to get very interesting over the next few months!