In a recent post, I covered what took place on Google’s press call for the Nexus One and how the device sizes up against the iPhone.  There has been plenty of talk around many smartphone releases and whether each one would be the iPhone killer.  This brings us to the natural question of what does great competition for Apple’s smartphone and smartphone wars at large mean for advertisers?  As marketers, we need to get that discussion going.

But before I jump into the implications of the smartphone war, let’s quickly recap life before the iPhone. 

The chart below shows us that search access from the mobile browser was pretty flat until the inception of the iPhone in June of 2007. And for the most part, it has been on a steady incline since.

Before the iPhone, there were plenty of smartphones available on the market from Palm, Blackberry and Windows Mobile; however, they were primarily used on an enterprise level.  Smartphones possessed web browsers, but the devices had slow processors and the networks lacked the speeds of 3G we see today.  To put things into perspective, the Palm Treo 750 (Cingular, Sprint and Verizon) touted a WAP browser with a 300 mHZ processor and 60 MB of internal memory; the newly released Nexus One from Google touts a 1 GHZ processor and a much powerful web browser.

At the time, one could have assumed that the big names in smartphones were somewhat complacent. We saw new devices every year, but they only seemed to be a slightly upgraded operating system in a different shell.  To the defense of manufacturers, smartphones did meet the needs of the enterprise user by providing access to email, text and basic web browsing, and there were some useful, but hard to find apps.  Consumers as a whole were either oblivious to these features or simply were not impressed enough to covert to smartphone users until the ads below:

At this point, consumers were shown the possibilities of a device they had historically only beckoned for the basic phone conversation or text message.

And this brings to us today. Consumers today are excessively interested in doing more with their ”cell phones,” as illustrated in the chart above.  Consumer demand for high-end smartphones has forced the enterprise phone kings to satisfy the desires of consumers created by iPhone frenzy.  This also created choice to those hesitant to switch carriers for the iPhone. 

A recent study from ChangeWave Research shows the steady increase in smartphone adoption since Oct 2006 below:

 

This remarkable shift in the history of innovation and human behavior cannot go ignored by advertisers, especially those seeking to capture relevant engagement and put their brands literally in the hands of consumers.

So why is it important to advertisers that consumers are using better quality phones today?

1.  Phones/network speeds have, and continue to increase, allowing faster and easier access to information online while away from the PC. Imagine the impact this has on the ability to interact with your content and brand asset, further becoming a part of your consumer’s lifestyle.

2.  *Currently 40% of smartphone users access search, compared to the 7% of non-smartphone users accessing search. There’s a 33% jump in channel activity, and with this audience bears one question – what are you doing to capitalize on that?

3.  The growth of the mobile space is greatly dependant on smartphone adoption.  Do you know anyone that searches for recipes on their flip phone? Smartphones make it simple and possible to search, access and browse the web (mobile and non-mobile) which is the first step required for consumers to reach and engage with your brand on their device.

Smartphones and their related apps and tools are becoming a natural part of the consumer’s lifestyle and this creates the opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on this behavior.  Companies in the top verticals accessed through mobile browsers – including Finance, Weather, Entertainment and Business Directories, are missing opportunities if they’re not in the space or exploring how to get their brands there. It’s no longer about what the top, quick-find, quick-answer needs are. Smartphone capabilities and usage have created a pathway for brand engagement to happen anywhere with virtually any experience. And this puts a new responsibility on marketers and media planners to factor this channel in when addressing content development, targeting and media buys.

One sector out there doing it right is Automotive. Our mobile practice is also seeing a lot of activity and positive performance from advertisers in the Auto space – a vertical which normally is not on the list of top verticals accessed through mobile.  Many brands in the Auto vertical have developed mobile optimized sites to showcase new models, provide dealer locators and general information pages that are being used in successful campaigns that include mobile search, display and more. 

Making your brand “mobile” doesn’t take a major overhaul, but does take strategy and, when done best, some creativity. (And who doesn’t welcome the opportunity to add creativity to our day to day tasks.) A simple first step is optimizing your website with compelling content for the iPhone or other smartphones. You can then take your reach further and deliver the best possible experience to mobile users through well-built search, display, or SMS campaigns. These few steps of adoption help you to learn the space with regards to your vertical, reach consumers at a sometimes lower cost than traditional interactive media, test and trial, and ultimately, give you an early competitive advantage in this growing space.

A powerful thing coming from all the buzz around the smartphone war is smartphone adoption. And adoption equals increased opportunity. The time has come for advertisers and media planners to leap beyond testing the waters as we did when they first hit the market, and dive in for the full experience with a mobile strategy as smart as the phone.

*Source – M:Metrics Browser Access Report, 11/2009

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