Commentary
Is mobile and app platform? An advertising platform? Neither?
- by John Capone , March 17, 2010
Apps can be cool but they're gimmicky, he says.
"It's hard to vote against Apple as the winner in this space," says Tom Bedecarre, CEO, AKQA. It's been instrumental in having clients see what marketing can do beyond just placing an ad.
But it's too early for Apple to run a victory lap, he says.
Speed of impact and scale is what clients are looking for. Less than one percent of budgets are put into mobile. It's only when people see the power of integrating mobile into campaigns that scale and speed of impact are generated.
Mobile is more than just a nice little ad-on. There's still a long way to go.
"panelists discussing the mobile "Platform
Wars" agreed, mobile apps are little more than fancy HTML. "Apps can be cool, but they're gimmicky," Mars says. Many of these are the proverbial two guys in a garage, says James Min, managing partner, Montgomery and Company. "Let's be honest: You smoked a lot of
weed and you came ...up with some great app."
APP GUI, API intergration, functionality, and IP licensing and integrating into the advertising and promotional mix is a little more than HTML. If this is the advertising industry's view of the mobile APP's position in the marketing mix, I would start looking for a new interactive agency. www.retailpromotions.com