Think mobile: How designers can truly embrace the smartphone creative opportunity

Mobile is everywhere and will be the dominant digital media platform for at least the rest of the decade. Rapid innovations in mobile tech, along with the vast quantities of data available, have generated a wealth of audience insights that marketers are looking to harness for their mobile strategies.

Multi-device tracking and GPS-enabled apps and m-web sites, provide terabytes of hashed, anonymised data on today’s consumers. This data not only enriches the sample demographic profiles, but often indicates how, and when to best contact consumers.

Taking audience intelligence from multiple platforms, marketers now have the opportunity to incorporate and expand the use of 'data' into their strategies, helping to enhance the value and relevance of the communications and advertising they are delivering. And with the dominance of smartphones used by consumers, location has become one of the most powerful pieces of data available.

So how should marketers be making the most of this data? A person's location and location history are powerful data signifiers. What places do they frequent? What journeys do they take? What are the habits and what are the exceptions? Where do they go during the day that should reflect what you message them in the evening? Thinking about people as people, rather than moving targets, is the most logical approach.

Here are my top tips for creating a high impact mobile creative: 

●      Visualise the user and their journey from the start to the end.

●      Consider creative first. Be dynamic for the specific audience profiles, taking advantage of browsing and location data, native formats and technology to create relevance.

●      Engage the senses - mobile offers alternative ways to interact - shake, swipe, rotate etc.

●      Use punchy taglines, bright colours and clear CTAs.

●      Video – shorter is better. Focus on visual impact where sound might not be played, use end cards with a CTA for user to act on the ad after the video has completed.

●      Remember that we move. Be conscious of this when thinking of the user journey and how creative can sync with this.

●      Use lighter creative in low dwell time environments and in locations where the internet connection is less reliable, such as an 3G/4G networks, and vice versa for heavier, more complex creatives.

●      Don’t be afraid to keep it simple.

●      Think mobile (hint: look at how you use your own device).

Mobile is an entirely new ecosystem that requires radically different data, tactics and creative to succeed. Moving to a mobile environment means more than just shrinking ads. What works well on desktop in terms of design and messaging often won't work at all on mobile, and vice versa.

Clients should consider how other data sources can add into the richness of this context. When you combine the abundance of demographic, purchase and psychographic data that is available from 3rd party providers and social platforms, with location, an incredibly powerful targeting tool emerges.