Weekly Furniture World Media Note #9 from Lance Hanish - Mobile First: Why Mobile Is The Might In Communication Today.

Recently, Stewart Pearson wrote an interesting article in Luxury Daily (102411) on mobile and how important it is and will be. He stated that over the next five years, the global explosion of smartphone and tablet usage will create a demand for content and utility that will outstrip the growth of the fixed Web 15 years ago.

It is now clear how mobile is accelerating the transformation of news and entertainment started by the fixed Web. Mobile will transform commerce, marketing and advertising with equal speed.

As this transformation happens, mobile will result in the most creative advertising ever.

Think about mobile as providing uniquely personal, always connected and location sensitive access to any content and communications, on any format.

Pearson points out that mobile enables us to:

• Point at passive print advertising and watch videos of the! personalities featured in the ads at the same time that we read them (Alfred Dunhill).
     
• Visualize and orient furniture for our homes at the same time that we walk through the furniture store (IKEA).
     
• Learn about product nutrition at the same time that we walk down the supermarket aisle (Sainsbury).
     
• Visualize products in 3D at the same time that we see them physically (Ford).
     
• Interact with billboards in New York’s Times Square at the same time that we walk by them in the city (Audi).
     
• Play games involving sporting icons at the same time that we consume the products that they endorse (Nike).
     
• Check in with brands and content at the same time that we! participate in live events (Southern Comfort at Mardi Gras in New Orleans).
     
• Mark physical spaces at the same time that we research products (North Face in China).
     
• Discover new content and buy related products from shows at the same time that we watch those shows (Entertainment Weekly).

The point is with mobile, every touch point with a consumer is an opportunity to access any content, any application, any game or entertainment that the advertiser has available.

With mobile, what was television advertising as mass media can become immersive video in short or long form as targeted direct marketing.

With mobile, print is no longer for passive readership but can be a portal into rich video.

With mobile, outdoor can become a deep interaction with the advertiser and all the other people at the location.

For some time now, augmented reality technology has held out the promise of an instantaneous real-to-virtual-to real-world connection on mobile devices that will make us look back on the fixed, PC-based Web with bewilderment about our excitement over the last decade.

With visual search on a mobile device, we will be able to link to an array of visual objects – in print, in real life – and related content in real time.

Of perhaps the greatest significance are the personalization opportunities. With mobile, access is customized by time (of day, week or season), by location and by individual.

With mobile, we can always recognize existing customers and leverage their history to provide distinctive and personalized content, experiences and offers. Pearson suggests mobile’s true significance lies in its ability to move us as individuals from traditional advertising to a rich suite of branded content, entertainment and value.

Mobile in short, is a tool for you to win with today. Think MOBILEFirst.