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The London Games are are in full swing and the television ratings alone stagger the mind, but that’s just a small part of the overall picture. Broadcasters are limited to just one country or region, but digital viewership – and mobile advertising - has no such restrictions. This year, YouTube will live stream the year’s biggest sporting competition throughout the world. And, since so many viewers will watch the London Games on mobile, HTML5 mobile rich media ads are a great way to engage that huge audience.
The Games provide a fantastic opportunity for integrated, branded mobile advertising, and not just for sports advertisers or official sponsors of the Games. HTML5 mobile rich media ads can focus on specific parts of the Games’ audience – like fans of a particular sport – and appeal to them directly. For example, check out the Sports Timeline, a concept we created specifically for the Games:
The mobile ad presents users with a fully interactive timeline that they can easily navigate by touch. It can appear within an app or a mobile site, or it could be a stand-alone microsite. Either way, the mobile ad shows key moments in the history of a sport – like inventions, innovations, major new records, and the year the sport entered the Games. One or more of the points on the timeline ties in directly with the advertiser’s message.
A mobile ad like this presents information that viewers won’t get from the Games themselves. The broadcast of the cycling competition doesn’t talk about the history of cycling; it talks about who’s winning the race. The mobile advertising timeline concept fills in that gap and complements the experience of watching the Games, for experts and new fans alike. It can even reach fans who are actually at the Games in person – something television ads can never do. And, since users specifically choose to look at the timeline for each sport, we know they’re particularly engaged: no need to worry about wasting impressions on fencing fans when you only want to reach cyclists.
The Sports Timeline concept is not limited to sports drink or equipment manufacturers. The mobile ad is an exercise in branding. It aligns a company with a particular concept and with the Games as a whole. i For example, a digital camera maker could mention the role of the “photo finish” in equestrian events to show off its history of innovation. Or an automobile manufacturer could demonstrate its commitment to sustainability by showing how energy-efficient cars with advanced GPS track cyclists along their route. Or the U.S. Marines might align themselves with fencing events, because Marines in uniform still wear swords! And who doesn’t love swords? You get the idea – the Games are a treasure trove of demographic data, regardless of industry.
Don’t be shy of large events with worldwide audiences. Hundreds of millions are excited for the London Games. Mobile advertising provides opportunities to get in front of small slices of a very, very large pie, and it offers a more interactive and engaging experience than traditional television advertising. The timeline ad concept is just one example; it taps into the audience’s excitement and need for new information, and it offers genuine value.
This is the second in a series of excerpts from a new white paper on How to Create Successful Mobile Apps: Strategies and Tactics for Brands, Advertisers, Agencies, & Marketers.
Marketing Benefits of Mobile Apps
Provide Instant Gratification
Since an app is installed on a consumer’s device, all your functionality as well as the bulk of your graphics and content will reside on the device. This allows your app to always be available for immediate use; the consumer doesn’t have to wait for long downloads every time he wants to access your content. Today’s media-oriented consumers are accustomed to having instant access to rich media on their television sets, DVD players, video game systems, tablets, and mobile phones. Apps uphold this expectation while providing rich, customized content.
If you can imagine it, you can probably create it.
Rich Media Increases Engagement
Mobile apps allow you to develop highly customized, rich media experiences that engage mobile users. Building audio, video, photos, graphics, and text that effectively communicate your brand and marketing message is sometimes not possible on a mobile site. A custom mobile app is designed to incorporate all of these types of media to offer the richest experience possible.
Enables Deep Customization
Creating your own app lets you customize both content as well as look and feel. If you can imagine it, you can probably create it. Apps offer many options for designing custom screens, functionality, and experiences. Custom apps provide the same high-quality delivery of a television commercial, video game, or a very rich online experience. Since you know your audience’s demographics, psychographics, and other characteristics, you can create apps that match your users’ preferences.
Maximize Device Capabilities for Exciting Interactions
Since the release of the iPhone in 2007, Apple and its competitors have added sophisticated new device functions that are now considered standard. Examples: GPS, high-resolution camera lenses, accelerometers, high-resolution touch screens, and faster processors. Brands, marketers, and advertisers can take advantage of these phone capabilities as they develop high-quality, sophisticated apps that perform like computer programs.
These technical improvements provide significant marketing benefits by allowing companies to create interactive messaging that persuades the viewer to take action. Touch screens, in particular, heighten user engagement as mobile app users move their fingers across the screen. Likewise, higher-resolution displays increase user satisfaction with photo and movie media. GPS creates the potential to lead viewers right to the nearest store.
Communicate a brand’s message quickly and effectively while dazzling them with richness.
Visually Represents Brand Well
Due to rich media and technical advances in smartphones, brands can take advantage of high-quality graphics, photos, videos, and audio that display well on high-resolution mobile screens. Gone are the days when apps from different industries typically looked the same due to device constraints. For example, a serious financial app might have appeared similar to an entertainment app. Now, the creative possibilities are staggering.
Use Rich Experiences to Target and Attract People
With the technical bar having been raised by Apple and other smartphone manufacturers and software developers, people now expect visually stunning mobile apps. The multimedia components in an app need to communicate a brand’s message quickly and effectively while dazzling them with richness. It’s the potential for interaction and the great content that keeps them coming back for more.
Excerpts from this white paper are being published on Omega Mobile’s Mobile Experience Blog. You can download a full copy of the white paper here: