Johannes' Burg: "The Days of Dumb Advertising Are Over."

For many consumers, smartphone and tablet become part of life today. They spend a lot of time on these mobile tools for checking email, browsing websites, and utilizing apps. Perceived by brands, more and more consumers spend their money through the apps on their mobile devices. Therefore, we may think if there will be any influence on digital marketing industry. This topic was discussed in the article, "Will mobile kill digital advertising?", from CNN Tech on Spe 24, 2012. http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/24/tech/mobile/keen-mobile-advertising/

According to this article, mobile will not destroy digital marketing but impacts it absolutely. Randall Rothenberg, the President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAM), said, "The days of dumb advertising are over." The commercial messages must be interesting enough to attract engaged consumers' attention. Therefore, advertising messages are packaged in apps and the communications are created by interactive manners. Mostly, brands deliver their marketing messages in 3 ways by apps: 1) advantages, offering discounts or promotions to consumers; 2) usages, providing convenience and useful information; 3) entertainments, bringing fun.

However, I prefer not to say mobile impacts digital marketing. I would like to say digital marketing works in a better format today. Because the screen becomes smaller, it is difficult for impatient consumers to check all the information thoroughly. They download useful apps, which are actually a kind of "saved webpages" but only listing the most important information, what is it (creating brand image) and how to get it (facilitate the transaction). When consumers love the apps, they will be fond of the brands. The apps decrease consumers "defensive mechanism", which is the most tough barrier traditional media always want to avoid. The other good thing for marketers is that consumers cannot compare the offers easily since most of the apps are offered by specific brands, excluding the accessibility to other competitors.

Recently, I am following 3 fine chocolate brands to see how they promote their products through digital marketing. They are Lindt, Godiva and Mast brothers, and they are defined as larger, medium and smaller corporations in turns by their annual sales. Not surprisingly, they are all very active on their own social media. However, Lindt and Godiva keep launching their apps for different holidays and seasonal campaigns to fulfill consumers' needs of advantages (special offers), usages (store locators) and entertainments (Lindt Bear). On the contrary, Mast Brothers, the smallest seller among them, does not have any app. This phenomenon can be a downside for consumers' alternatives. Because some small brands may not be able to afford the cost to launch and manage apps, strong brands will be stronger in mobile market. Another question we can think about is, even some small brands can have their own apps, are consumers willing to download an app from a nameless brand on their mobile devices, which have limited space?