• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 5, 2012

Brands like Dove, Wrigley and Energizer are increasingly building mobile into integrated campaigns. Helping to power that capability for these and other clients is Ryan Partnership. Best known for its shopper-marketing expertise, the agency also provides a wide range of digital and direct marketing services extending to mobile.

In that vein, the Hyper Marketing-owned firm just won a 2012 OMMA Award for Mobile Marketing: Best Integration Cross Platform for the Dove+ Men Care – NCAA Journey to Comfort campaign. MediaPost recently spoke with Chris Harris, SVP, group director at Ryan Partnership, about the agency’s mobile practice.

MP: Can you briefly describe the types of mobile work that Ryan Partnership handles?

CH: More and more we’re working with clients to help them develop a mobile strategy. Marketers are coming to us and looking at how we put in place a more holistic strategy -- from actual development of a brand mobile site to media and measurement. We also have a consumer insights team that leads work in both primary and secondary research.

MP: Given Ryan Partnership’s historic focus on digital shopping, how does mobile fit into the retail landscape?

CH: We look at it from the standpoint of consumers in-aisle -- what is the role the brand is going to play? We know from our research how digital tools are being used more in the shopping environment. What’s the role a brand can play to educate customers at the point of transaction? The other side of the equation is how do we integrate with retailers’ existing mobile footprints? What is the content our clients can provide to a retail customer so we can help drive a sale to our client, but also potentially, drive sales into other areas of the store.

MP: Given the increased focus on mobile, are clients creating separate budgets yet for mobile or is it part of overall digital spend?

CH: It’s been the latter to this point. From a media standpoint, it’s a percentage of overall digital budget. From a marketing standpoint, it’s an element within the activation budget. It’s an increased priority. For those brands that aren’t as mature in the mobile marketing space, they’re very open to it.

MP: But brands are still reluctant to dedicate budget specifically for mobile?

CH: Everyone’s cost-conscious. Sometimes a barrier becomes moving money from something tried-and-true to something that they don’t have a lot of experience with.

MP: What’s the emphasis for Ryan’s CPG clients in mobile? Is it more on the branding side or trying to drive transactions?

CH: To this point it’s been more about brand education and awareness, brand engagement. And those engagements ultimately will lead to a transaction. Now there are cases where we’ve done more specific mobile couponing programs. Until the user experience and the technology are there at retail, a lot of the work we’re doing is to focus on awareness, education and engagement.

MP: What’s the challenge on the retail side?

CH: The [mobile-related] technology isn’t consistent from retailer to retailer and isn’t widely available from retailer to retailer. So it becomes a partnership with one key retailer.

MP: What about something like Passbook? Do you see that helping to boost mobile payments among retailers and brands?

CH: Clients of ours -- mobile partners -- have a presence in Passbook. Target, for example. The extent to which that’s going to grow and expand is going to without a doubt help brands and clients of ours drive a transaction using a mobile device. That’s obviously what everyone is going for. That’s the next step. So if we can continue to educate and engage and ultimately close the loop on purchase, that’s what we're focused on, and already talking with clients about the implications for Passbook.