Note to all Considered-Purchase Brands: you need to implement your mobile strategy now if you want to get future customers “right in the palm of your hands.”
To understand how powerful the connection is between mobile video and your future consumer, all you really need is a 16-year old nephew. Fortunately, I have one. Walter.
Walter is all things “e”. When asked what he saw as the important new trends, he gave me two big words.
1: MOBILE
I showed Walter my new iPad, just months after it was released and at first he was thrilled. He sat with it on his lap for two undisturbed hours. Then he handed it back to me with an indifferent, “Cool, thanks.”
Cool? That’s it. Don’t you want one?
“Hmmm, it’s nice,” he said heading toward the door and looking back with his iPhone in hand. “But us kids are on the go. If it doesn’t fit in our pocket …..”
Clearly, it doesn’t fit in their world. And that’s the first part.
2: MOBILE VIDEO
Later that same day I asked Walter, So what else do you see coming on big?
He didn’t hesitate. “ Video is big. Anything I want to know, I get on YouTube. I don’t even use Google anymore, unless I have to. I hate search. You just get a whole page of words. I can find almost anything I need on YouTube. “
Needless to say, he watches a lot of videos on his iPhone.
In Support of Walter’s Prescience: The Latest Mobile Video Facts.
According to a new report by video traffic management company Bytemobile, the use of mobile video is escalating rapidly.
Here are a few of the report highlights:
- 48% of the total network video traffic is user-generated content on YouTube and Google Videos.
- iPhone users generate more video traffic than Android device users. (Proof once again that Apple’s brand is loved by Creatives?)
- Mobile data consumption is greater in the evening, clearly showing the transition from business usage to home-based usage .
- On networks with higher available throughput, video traffic is nearly 60%, compared to 39% on wireless networks with slower end-to-end speeds.
- Cisco forecasts that mobile video will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 131% from 2009 to 2014
According to the report, while a shocking 90 percent of the videos are being consumed by only 10 percent of the users, we’re experiencing the very beginning of video’s impact on wireless networks. Imagine the impact this explosive growth is going to have on the affluent consumer who is often a first adopter and often on the go – right along with all their own Walters.
If you want to use mobile video to expedite brand fans and actual sales, here are some tips from the good folks at Hubspot who also inspired this post:
1. Mobile Internet users are looking to be entertained on the go. So deliver quality, entertaining content. Do not disappoint.
2. Since indications point to a rising cost in mobile bandwidth, deliver “lightweight” ways to engage your audience.
3. Don’t ask them to stream a 10-minute video. Instead, give them a clean text summary if the video.
4. Help mobile users to conserve their bandwidth by allowing them to access your video whenever they are at a WiFi connection.
5. Do not use Adobe Flash – instead share your video on a mobile-friendly player that uses HTML5.
As brands and companies, we need to understand our customers’ increasing expectation for entertainment in the palm of their hands – wherever they go and whenever they want. And it is up to us marketers to respond with mobile video marketing that is experiential, engaging and memorable.
This could be marketing at its best – your message in the hand of your on-the-go customers.
Are you using mobile video in your marketing yet? If so, what kind of are you generating – leads or excitement or brand love?
SOURCES:
http://www.bytemobile.com/news-events/2010/archive_201010_02.html