• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, March 14, 2015

Tom Bick, Senior Director, Marketing, Kraft; Jim Ensign, VP, Global Digital Marketing, Papa John's International; Zoe Levine, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company, converged at OMMA @SXSW Saturday to debate whether mobile ads suck. 

Most advertising sucks, so we have perpetuated it to mobile. "I think a lot of mobile marketers suck," said Tom Bick, senior director of marketing at Kraft. "Big creative ideas that have a human truth brilliant and engaging need to come first. You narrow down the canvas so small … that it becomes crap."

Giving the gift of bacon for Father's Day was a brand idea, but running it on a small screen and putting it in the hands of millions is mobile, he said trying to redeem himself from telling the audience Saturday at OMMA @SXSW that mobile marketers suck. His point: don't lead consumer down a road to give them nothing.

Brands can't create an Instagram ad the same way they create a television advertisement. Until marketers realize that strategy, mobile ads will suck," said Zoe Levine, senior manager of digital at Coca-Cola.