Only a few years ago, marketers and industry experts were waiting with baited breathe for the year of the mobile. But now it seems like a distant memory with mobile internet usage set to overtake desktop usage by 2013.
The only problem is, Australian brands have failed to turn up to the party – which shows that organisations still lack an emphasis on and investment in digital.
The mobile problem
According to a recent article featured on B&T, the single biggest challenge Google is facing over the next 12 months is the lack of Australian businesses with a mobile strategy.
“Australia is going mobile in a big way. In a recent study with Ipsos Research, Google found that Australia has the second highest Smartphone penetration in the world – ahead of the US, UK, and Japan. And the pace of change is revolutionary with over 20% of Australian internet searches now from mobile devices.”
The research also showed that;
• 49% of the people use their Smartphone to research and then call businesses
• 45% have visited a business they’ve found using their Smartphone.
• One in four had made a purchase using their mobile phone
• And one in five had searched for a house or apartment (although research we recently conducted at realestateVIEW.com.au revealed as many as 40% of home buyers use mobile as a primary or secondary device to search for property).
So whilst this seems like good news for the mobile marketing industry in Australia, only 20% of businesses have a mobile site – which shows the widening gap between consumer mobile usage and digital capability of organisations.
But if these statistics aren’t enough to convince you of the importance of a mobile strategy, then one only needs to look towards the future. By 2015, it is anticipated that Australia will exceed Asian countries in mobile data usage, with a projected 4038 MB (close to 4 GB) per mobile connection per month – surpassing even Japan which posted the highest data usage globally over recent years.
Defining the role of mobile
Whilst an m. site can improve accessibility of your brand on the move – mobile strategy must go well beyond the creation of mobile site. The key challenge now and even more so in the future, is for brands to adapt to the next level of consumer power provided through what I would term “pocket knowledge”. The internet revolutionised the collection and dissemination of knowledge which shifted power to consumers. The age of mobility heightens consumer power through the availability of knowledge on demand. Product comparison apps are just one example of how pocket knowledge provides consumers with information to negotiate a better deal on the spot. As a result brands must challenge the obvious (ie creating a mobile site) and identify how mobile tools like apps, augmented reality, near field communications and other innovations can transform customer interaction and engagement to maintain relevance in a mobile world.
I believe the mobile frontier will drive significant change within organisations to key functions (ie IT, marketing) and processes like social media has. Thus to successfully ride the next big thing in digital, brands need to start to think mobile first and gather internal mobile capability because mobile strategy is now no longer an option it’s a necessity.
References
http://www.bandt.com.au/news/challenges-in-2012–nick-leeder-md-google-austra
http://www.mobileyouth.asia/australia-will-surpass-japan-in-mobile-data-usage-in-2015/
