John Gauntt is a respected expert with respect to the intersection of media, marketing and mobile technologies. The focus of his talk was largely focused on the challenges and opportunities afforded to advertisers, content producers, and distribution mechanisms. Gauntt started off with a video that pokes fun at the rapidly changing relationship with advertisers and consumers:
In essence: the one-way love affair / monologue between advertisers and marketers is over.
Consumers are increasingly in command of where and how they consume media and marketing communications whether it is watching CNN in an elevator or reading newspaper articles in mobile web browsers. Location is becoming simultaneously less relevant and increasingly more important to maintain relevance between consumer behavior and advertisers and the communications used to connect the two.
To illustrate the importance of mobile phones in our lives, Gauntt polled the audience about the recent prolonged power outage from the remnants of Hurricane Ike: What did you charge up first, your phone or your laptop? The audience's raised arms seemed to favor the prioritization of the phone, and probably for a variety of important reasons as Gauntt enumerated. This behavior has become very indicative of the changing flow of information around the 'necessities' of location-agnostic people.
Gauntt asserts that traditionally information and media have always been lashed together: one obtained medical information from doctor; new car information from a sales lot, product descriptions and testimonials on TV, by radio, or at the point of purchase. Mobile media, however, may be the first native digital media platform that accommodates location-independent consumption and dissemination of information. Therefore, he asserts, Media and Marketing are now adapting to the more fluid flow of people and their lives, and as a result other communications mechanisms become subordinate.
Concerns about privacy were discussed briefly as companies like Google obtain increasingly more detailed information about consumers' consumption habits, interests, and proximity to anything. With smart phones like the iPhone proliferating throughout the world - 324,000,000 expected shipments by 2013 - increasingly more data will be stored and accessed by marketers with a desire not only to get into your pocket but in finding new ways to drain the wallet that resides there.
In that vein, I might suggest changing the title of the presentation to "How the World's Marketers Will Drain Your Pocktes" but I digress. This talk focused largely on the implications of marketing and advertising to consumers rather than the increasingly amazing things consumers can do on mobile devices without being interrupted or annoyed, so that left me slightly disappointed.
Despite the absence of consumer applications and technology, Gauntt leaves us with an important thought with respect to the world in your pocket: advertising works better when it solves the hassle of choice. Mobile marketing can bring more context to decisions, research and problem-solving by consumers.
Interesting aside: 40% of the world's population occupies an area commonly called BRIC, or Brasil, Russia, India and China. This group of rapidly-growing nations will soon offer the marketplace one billion new middle-class consumers. The mobile revolution may take hold in places other than the U.S. Example: India has more mobile subscribers today than we have people in the U.S.
If Gauntt returns next year, I think it'd be great to update the slide deck with some more examples of consumer applications and whiz-bang hacks rather than a 'state of the mobile ad industry' sort of presentation since I'd guess most of the audience are consumers rather than advertisers or content creators. I'll reach out to Gauntt at Bellarmine's Institute for Media, Culture and Ethics to convey this and other feedback I have.
All in all it was great to benefit from his observations and insights as a top mobile marketing guru. John Gauntt was certainly on top of his game and demonstrated his technical and philosophical expertise by allowing the audience to pick his brain during the Q&A. I hope this speaker returns next year and brings us up to speed on the rapidly changing world of mobile communications and the ideas and opportunities afforded by being a consumer and content creator on this burgeoning platform.
Nick
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