Trends and Truisms Day Six: Mobile Phones Are Merely Another Access Point and Widgets Are Nothing More Than Content Syndications Modules
Jeremy Beyda and Kirk Skodis are really heating things up over at post number five. While I am completely love their contributions, my questions is, where are all the other metaverse superstars? John Swords, Mark Wallace, Jerry Paffendorf, Tateru Nino, Nexeus Fatale, Rhiannon Chatnoir, Frans Charming…where are all you guys?
Now For Post #6
I am not going to spend a whole lot of time here, but there is something that I really need to get off my chest,
Marketers need to have a strategy before they have a mobile or widget strategy; we need to stop putting the technological cart before the horse!!!
I think people are spending too much time putting the technology before the marketing concept. Mobile phones and widgets provide new ways to access content. Sure, there are tons of cool things that can only be done with a mobile phone or a widget, but I guarantee failure for those that plan for a technology and not a marketing goal.
When it comes to thinking about each of these technologies, the questions should be centered around syndication and locations based delivery of content. Not every piece of content needs a widget, just as not ever piece of content belongs on a mobile phone (at least in it’s broadcast format).
For those of you that know me, you know I am a big geek when it comes to these technologies, so you know I really mean it when I say all of this. Sometimes I have to stop myself from suggesting a widget for widgets sake, but to be a responsible marketer, I make sure to do so.
There are a number of people that I am awaiting response from on this post; Ben Pashman of Gigya, Chris Cunningham of FreeWebs and Chris Arens of Ad Infuse, I would love to hear from you guys. I was especially provocative for you on this one, but I know you will provide some great insight 
Tags: widget, mobile, Ben Pashman, Gigya, Chris Cunningham, Free Webs, Chris Arens, Ad Infuse, John Swords, Mark Wallace, Jeffy Paffendorf, Tateru Nino, Nexeus Fatale, Rhiannon Chatnoir, Frans Charming
Jan 09, 2008
Umm. Where am I supposed to have been.
Note to self: Get producer to put star on trailer.
Jan 09, 2008
Adam — always happy to help stir the widget pot. I agree it is a must to identify goals before embarking on any campaign especially one with the an unfamiliar technology. When establishing goals for a campaign it is always helpful to know what the key metrics are at your disposal. Today the key metrics for a widget campaign are: Posts, impressions, interaction and grabs. Secondarily you can measure traffic back to you website and ultimately purchases. However I warn anyone that is looking for widgets to be the next great tool to drive trackable ROI you are likely headed for disappointment. (so far)
Now that we have established that your clients are running a widget campaign not for ROI but for reinforcement of brand attributes what should the goal of the widget be? Well my newly adopted litmus test for a widget is the one that Ari Paparo from Doubleclick mentions in his articulate widget article that appeared in i-media yesterday http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/17895.asp The Make-My-Day metric. Did this widget just make my day? If it did then it has a chance of succeeding on all of the other metrics that everyone else is going to be measuring. Successful widget campaigns depend on voluntary human interaction not the interruptive interaction that advertisers have come to rely so heavily on. That is where the challenge awaits the most creative minds in our industry. Crack the code and rewards will be great. Ignore this simple principle and risk driving widgets back into the “just another technology du jour” that we all talked about but no one quite got their arms around.
Challenge to the creatives who read this blog? You decide….
Jan 09, 2008
Some General thoughts:
Am I the only one that finds the mobile web experience on the blackberry browser nearly unusable, especially when compared to the iphone browser?
I do see some great promise with mobile webpages. I am a big fan of how google recently created an iphone ready webpage. And with facebook, I actually enjoy the iphone UI better than their regular browser UI (im likely the only one in America to say this. Im cool with that)
I general, I am a big fan of sites that allow me to easily contribute content through my blackberry or iphone by TM or email.
Jan 09, 2008
Adam
I’ll second what Ben contributed and add that we need to be analyzing the psychology and sociology of why people add widgets to their profiles and pages in the first place.
I think a widget needs to satisfy at least these four requirements, in order of importance, before anyone would think twice about grabbing it:
1) What does this brand/message say about me and my digital identity? Does it make me cooler to follow fantasy football or host a movie trailer for Cloverfield on my site?
2) What value does the dynamic (better be dynamic!) content give to me and visitors to my profile or page? Is the value entertaining? Useful?
3) How often will that content refresh?
4) If tied to a social network, how well does the widget integrate with the people in my network?
Widgets are a vital part of my “Provide A Station, Not A Destination” approach to reaching consumers where they live online instead of driving traffic to where YOU are online.
Jan 09, 2008
Wow!
I get busy during the day and we get a whole lot of amazing comments.
Ben,
as always your input rocks! I am glad to know that someone so heavily ingrained in the widget space is speaking about widgets as a manifestation of a marketing strategy first, and the fulfillment of a widget strategy second. I am also a fan of the Make My Day Metric
Jeremy
Agreed on all fronts, it is totally about usability, something that Apple raised the bar on this year!
Kirk
Welcome back
I love the “does it make me cooler” bit. I am a big fan of content as social currency and think it is a really viable model for the future (the Cloverfield campaign was great). Also, I am a HUGE FAN OF THIS:
“Provide A Station, Not A Destination”
Thanks for that awesome contribution!!!
Jan 10, 2008
I’d like to formally request we borrow “Location, location, location” and reuse as “strategize, strategize, strategize”
(I know it’s not a real word)
Widgets, mobile, search…everything, needs to have the strategy first. Strategy needs research first. Only then can initiatives be planning properly, executed with precision, and measured objectively.
Old agencies throw budgets on against the proverbial wall and hope that something sticks. The interactive branding industry has the innate ability to put money where our mouths are and PROVE our methods are working.
Form should always follow function and in this case “Form” is the delivery portals like widgets and mobile and “function” is the strategy behind them.
Joseph Szala
Principal of Vigor – an interactive branding strategy firm
Jan 13, 2008
I know I’m late, but had to put my two cents in as well. I’d have to agree with Ben (Happy New Years btw), that widgets are not necessarily shaping up to be HUGE conversion tools as much as they are tools to reinforce a branding message and perhaps gain key metrics that you could use for other aspects of the campaign.
Most importantly we have used “viral hub” ID’s in order to find those key online advocates that may be useful in a affinity group campaigns or simply to gain further market research about that top tier of fans that have tons of affinity for our brand. We’ve oftentimes used widgets to enhance other campaigns that may require offline “call-to-actions” and transactions that the widget itself can’t execute but can accelerate the process or increase chances of interaction.
Bottom line, widgets as one piece of a total strategy and not as the technological be-all-end-all! That is certainly going to be a much greater theme this year now that most marketers at least know what the word WIDGET means
Jan 14, 2008
Isn’t ’strategize’ essentially a synonym for ‘plan’?
Jan 14, 2008
Tateru
I would say so…I am trying to get at where you are taking this one. Having read your stuff, I know you are going somewhere with it!
Adam
Jan 14, 2008
Not *quite* sure yet. Musing out loud
Jan 17, 2008
Well, here’s one of them: http://www.massively.com/2008/01/17/practical-marketing-who-engages-whom/
Sep 15, 2008
[...] Clearly the way in which people access the web has changed (notice I did not say, “the mobile web”. It is the same web no matter where you access it) [...]