• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 13, 2012

Rosetta was named among a group of “strong performers” in a Forrester report on agency mobile practices earlier this year. That put it just behind better-known names like AKQA, Ogilvy and SapientNitro, ranked highest for their mobile capabilities.

Acquired by Publicis Groupe last year for $575 million, Rosetta has its roots in consulting, which it believes gives it an edge over other digital shops. Its clients include OfficeMax, Lenovo, Allergan, Helzberg Diamonds, and hhgregg. MediaPost recently caught up with Daniel Blackburn, who leads the firm’s mobile strategy practice.
 
MP: Can you give a brief overview of how Rosetta's mobile practice is organized?
 
DB: Our job is to help institutionalize mobile across our entire agency. We do have a small group of dedicated mobile specialists, but really the practice was built with the intent of distributing much of that expertise across creative and user experience. Some of the particular areas we’re focusing in on are around mobile commerce and integrated marketing in financial services. In addition, we’re doing a lot of work around healthcare, mostly around sales force automation and enablement.
 
MP: How big is the dedicated mobile group?
 
DB: About 10 -- but the virtual group, who wear multiple hats and sit in the different departments, is up to 10. So we have 20 people who have somewhat of a charter of ensuring that mobile best practices are created and standardized and pushed through the organization.
 
MP: Are there any particular trends in mobile you’ve been struck by this year?
 
DB: Mobile is getting more complicated, not less complicated. You might have all your pieces on the board -- your application, mobile Web site, some sort of SMS programs in place, but then the next challenge is really understanding where we need to invest to achieve business impact. This has exceeded mobile -- now it’s requiring more of a consulting view of where opportunities are for growth.
 
MP: What changes are you seeing in terms of mobile budgets?
 
DB: We definitely see that separate mobile line item, and that’s going to things like maintenance of an evergreen property like a mobile site. But what we’re actually seeing trump that from a spend perspective is mobile being baked into larger projects -- everything from a CRM platform to a commerce implementation to a product launch. The overall mobile spend is exponentially larger than what a mobile budget is. That’s the way it should be -- that mobile becomes something you do across owned, earned and paid media.
 
MP: Mobile measurement is often cited as a stumbling block to higher spending in the medium. What’s your take on that?
 
DB: It’s getting better. The tagging and technical aspects are starting to become more standardized. We’re looking at analytics at a level of depth, so we use ClearSaleing as our attribution partner to be able to attribute a sale or a click or some sort of acquisition…on the path to purchase. As consumers are hopping from one device to another, the connections start to loosen up a little, and we have to make some assumptions based on the impact of increased mobile traffic during a given campaign.
 
MP: Are QR codes just a passing fad?
 
DB: We never fully jumped on the QR code bandwagon. We typically have the conversation around does (direct response mechanism) have to be a QR code or does text work just as well. QR codes have been successful in other parts of the world because they’ve been standardized. Based on the fragmentation here, I don’t know if you’re ever going to see a great resurgence for barcodes.
 
What I think is absolutely game-changing is the Apple Passbook…from a loyalty card perspective. For Apple to be able to get that ecosystem together and really drive that new behavior as far as couponing. Apple has a really good track record of changing those consumer behaviors. Having a centralized place for all your coupons and loyalty cards, that's always carried with you and most importantly, is digital -- is a game-changer.
 
MP: Rosetta was cited by Forrester among top mobile practices, but it also said the agency was among those on the pricier side. Fair assessment?
 
DB: We’ve got a long line of satisfied customers that continue to work with us, and increase their budgets with us. The market in general understands that you get what you pay for.