Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 183

I Got You vs. I Keep You - The Mobile Brand Crisis

Brands are going to confront a huge challenge as their consumers become more and more mobile.

In the past, I have written about the massive chasm that is developing between consumers and brands, as our consumers become more mobile and smartphone enabled. Please read: Mobile Breaks Search... And Your Brand (from March 2016). Yes, brands will continue to struggle with a mobile web experience vs./plus a native mobile application for iOS and Android. Which is the better venture (or both) are tough, expensive and timely decisions that should have been made a few years back, but are being battled over in the boardrooms and budgets today. There is no choice, but to move forward as mobile has evolved from another channel to the primary way that consumers interact with information, one another and, of course, your brand. Search is a problem because discoverability of these mobile applications is a real chore for brands. The user experience is not like the desktop web experience of search and click. Consumers now have to go to the app store, and look for your brand. In short, discoverability, serendipity and more is all but lost for most brands today.

Let's say a consumer did find your app... are they sticking with you?

It turns out that discoverability, getting a consumer to download your app and use it isn't even half of the challenge. Churn is going to be the bane of a brand's existence for the next long while. In fact, the assumption would be, that as consumers get more adept at mobile, the easier this hill would be to climb. That would be wrong. When it comes to apps, the data is frightening. Back in September 2015, MarketingCharts reported on something many of us marketing professionals knew: smartphone users spend the bulk of their time with a few of their favourite apps (Smartphone App Users Spend Half of Their Total App Time With Their Favorite One). From the article...

"Exactly half of all time spent on smartphone applications occurs on an adult's single most-used app, says comScore in a new report that contains a host of intriguing data points about mobile app reach and engagement. The study shows that app time is even more concentrated on tablets: fully 87% of tablet app time is spent with users' top 3 apps. This demonstrates that app discovery isn't the only challenge faced by marketers... As is well known by now, time spent with mobile apps is growing quickly, up 90% between June 2013 and June 2015. As previously noted, this growth isn't coming at the expense of web access, as mobile browser use is up 53% over the same timeframe, and desktop use is up 16%. Still, smartphone (65%) and tablet (12%) apps have combined to contribute almost 80% of the growth in total digital time spent over that 2-year period."

Guess which apps?

By pure data, we know that it is probably mostly happening on Facebook/a Facebook owned app as well. This should be sobering to brands today. Now, let's assume that you were so good as to overcome all of this. Your got them. You got the consumer to find you, download your app and engage. Have you kept them? Back to the churn problem. Two days ago, MarketingCharts published another important article titled, Uh Oh. Mobile App User Retention Rates May Be Worsening. From the article...

"...preventing churn is a whole new ball game. And it's not getting easier... In fact, fully 63% of app users will become inactive within 30 days after downloading an app... That churn rate is up from 58% in last year's analysis... the figures are also slightly down from Q4 2015 rates, so it may well be that retention is indeed becoming more difficult to achieve. Perhaps these high churn rates are to be expected, given comScore research showing that half of smartphone users' app time is spent with their single favorite app. (Which could well be a Facebook property.) Nevertheless, what Localytics has called a 'Mobile Engagement Crisis' seems to be getting worse, rather than better, over time. By the third month post-download, 80% of users have abandoned an app, per this latest research, up from 75% in the earlier analysis."

The solutions may be more challenging than the problem.

How does a brand overcome this discoverability and churn problem? A simple platitude like, "be awesome" or "provide utility" may not be enough. The MarketingCharts article suggests in-app messaging, creating more things that hook users in earlier in the process, and great deals as possible solutions. Candidly, this may not be enough. What we do know is this: mobile, apps and this space were not created as a media platform for a brand play. This is not like television that was created with advertising in mind. In fact, looking at mobile experiences and usage, it would be fair to say that we have never seen a media platform so anti-brand and advertising before. Finding the solution in an article like this would be amazing. Realistically, brands need to think about their mobile planning now in two (very large) perspectives:

What are we doing to get consumers? What is the app/mobile experience really going to bring to them in terms of value, utility, information, entertainment, etc... that will help them embrace it?
What are we going to do to keep them? What will the app/mobile experience have that will always make it relevant/important for them to have over a lifecycle?

No solution. Just two very tough questions that all brands should be working on.

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All Ads Are Not Created Equal

It's not really about whether or not advertising is inherently good or bad.

Advertising is a paid channel to distribute information about a business. How that business conducts itself (quality of the products/services, customer service, uniqueness, innovation, etc...) is its own creation. How that business sells those products/services is also its own creation. The general population tends to throw the saying, "advertising sucks and we hate it," around a lot. This is because a lot of advertising is not done well. The other side of this equation is that when advertising is done well, it is somewhat invisible (it generates interest and sales) or it is heightened to the point of entertainment (the kind of content that people love to share and talk about... it becomes a part of the cultural zeitgeist). In fact, when advertising is done well, it almost doesn't feel like advertising at all.

Talk about a can of worms.

There are countless channels to get a brand's information across. Text, images, audio, video, short form, longform, print, air, television, digital and on. This marketing mix is a complex and fluid media challenge for most brands to face. How much of the advertising should be about branding and awareness, versus performance and conversion? Is the creative appropriate for both the channel that it's on, and the audience of that channel? Are we targeting appropriately? Are we understanding, optimizing and tweaking as we go? Do we even know what success looks like?

It can all get thrown out when there's no budget and no time. 

That's the other big challenge. Limited budget. Not a lot of time. It's the constant gripe of the marketing department and their supporting agencies. The counter to this, of course, is that great creativity isn't always about the budget and the time, but the idea and the execution. We've seen some of the best creative advertising done with little means (champagne on a beer budget, as it were). This week, were were exposed to this, once again. Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you FiberFix and their Redneck Drives A Duct Tape Car Off A Cliff!

What do you think?

I watched this commercial. All five minutes of it. Not thirty seconds. Five minutes. A commercial. For five minutes. As of this writing, 23,700+ people have liked their Facebook page. The video has over 5 million views on Facebook and over 500,000 on YouTube. It's still going. Just wait until the mainstream media runs with it. Many are saying how closely it resembles the work of the famed Dollar Shave Club video that came out four years ago, and is currently clocking in at 23 million+ views on YouTube alone (btw, Dollar Shave Club was bought by Unilever for $1 billion earlier this year). How does FiberFix (or Dollar Shave Club) do it? There are some key learnings...

A unique product.
A live demo that demonstrates the differentiation.
A simple demo on how to use the product.
A product that is easy to use.
A plethora of examples as to how to use the product.
A funny story, where the brand is not taking itself too seriously.
A strong script, casting and production direction.
A story that can be told even without the sound.
A strong story (not just a funny one).
A bit of edge in the humour (not trying to be everything to everyone).
A brand that was willing to take a chance.
A video - that if a consumer shares it - will make that consumer look good.

Yes, this is funny, but it doesn't always have to be funny.

The misnomer is to think that this works because it's funny. It is a core component for this brand, but all brands can use these other forms of expression (laughter, surprise, shock, sadness, etc...). If this were shocking (just the stunt with the car), this might have been as effective. If you can layer in a multiple of these edgier emotions (more extreme feelings), all the better. This ad does that. There is not just laughter, but there is surprise and shock as well. It's all pulled together very effectively. Ultimately, this isn't about this one ad, it's about the greater misconception that people hate advertising. They don't. People hate bad advertising.

Don't make bad ads. 

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storytelling

unilever

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youtube

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #322

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another: 

Meet The California Couple Who Uses More Water Than Every Home In Los Angeles Combined - Mother Jones . "I first learned about Lynda Resnick in the documentary, POM Wonderful Presents - The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Pom Wonderful became the big sponsor that made the Morgan Spurlock vehicle possible. I didn't know the extent of their agricultural empire, or the amount of water it consumes. But despite the alarmist headline and Mother Jones imprint, it's a nuanced article that comes across more as rich people trying to bridge the gulf to poverty, with motives that are less self-service than somewhat uninformed altruism." (Alistair for Hugh).
Brexit - How design made the difference - Creative Review . "Good teardown of how the 'exit' campaign's strong design message swayed the historic EU vote, with lessons for US campaigners as well. '... the idea of leaving was already baked into the vote's name. It wasn't a 'Breferendum'. This wasn't 'Brecision Time'. It was 'Brexit', and it was already on the way to being brecided.'" (Alistair for Mitch).
'Hot' Sex & Young Girls - Zoe Heller - The New York Review of Books . "The lives of girls and young women with ubiquitous digital connection ain't all that pretty." (Hugh for Alistair).
The Week Democracy Died - Slate . "The world sure seems to be coming apart at the seams. Slate walks us through what looks to be chaos." (Hugh for Mitch).
20 Big Questions about the Future of Humanity - Scientific American . "Normally, these roundups tend to be kind of bland. Obvious questions. Vague answers. This is not that. Some great questions that pushed me forward with answers that made me beg for more. It also made me realize something very important: ask great questions. Ask better questions. These questions will provoke those being asked to think deeper, and do more work to deliver a better answer. So, does humanity have a future?..." (Mitch for Alistair).
Why can't we see that we're living in a golden age? - The Spectator . "Sorry, Hugh... I'm not buying into your link for this week ;) It's classic. You can watch the news and begin wonder if we're doomed. Environmental disasters, flooding, lack of fresh water, wars, countries colliding and separating, presidential craziness, terrorism, viruses, lions, tigers and bears, oh my! Or, you can choose to be an optimist. Well, what if the data was clear? What if we knew - for a fact - that there has never been a better time to be alive? What would you do differently?" (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Tags:

alistair croll

amazon

bit current

bit north

book a futurists manifesto

brexit

complete web monitoring

creative review

democracy

design

documentary

facebook

gigot

hugh mcguire

human 20

humanity

iambic

j walter thompson

jwt

lean analytics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

lynda resnick

managing bandwidth

mirum

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mother jones

pom wonderful

press books

scientific american

slate

social media

solve for interesting

the greatest movie ever sold

the spectator

water

wpp

year one labs

zoe heller. the new york review of books

Marketing Automation Must Die

It's been one of those weeks (and, it's only Tuesday), so here's a rant...

Marketers... There's a whole lot of you who are using marketing automation in a really bad and evil way. You're making me hate you. You're making me hate marketing automation. You're making potential clients hate you too. Please don't do this. I love marketing automation. Can't we have anything nice? Here's the pitch: I am being inundated by "marketing professionals" trying to sell me a myriad of marketing platforms, products or services that will - without question - turn me and our agency, Mirum, into rock stars. It's all so flattering. It's such a compelling offer. But... 

How cold calls just became everyone's worst nightmare (thanks, marketing automation!).

It's one thing when someone calls you with an offer, and you either drive them to voicemail, or politely lie to them that you just purchased their competitor's product. It's another when you get unsolicited email requests or a note sent via LinkedIn. We've all come to accept that we're going to get hit up whenever there is an opportunity. It's the cost of doing business, right? Still, it makes you wonder where these people get the nerve to do this, or where they got/bought your email from? Now, these "professionals" are taking it to a whole other level. They are using marketing automation software and tools, setting up a unique and customized "Customer Journey," map and simply dumping my email (and yours) into the machine. I don't just get one email from these people, but multiple emails that almost feel like a human wrote them just for me ("Hey Mitch, can we grab 15 minutes... I didn't hear back from you based on the email I sent you the other day."). All of these businesses have, literally, dumped my email address (and yours) into their marketing automation machines, and are blasting us insensately with emails. Yes, set it and forget engines of marketing automation spam. Some of them have the nerve to even get rude to the non-response ("can't you just find five minutes to respond to me?"). Wow... 

Is this what we're really going to do with this sophisticated and powerful technology?

What ever happened to Permission Marketing (hat tip, Seth Godin)? What ever happened to building an ethical list of potential clients, and actually nurturing those relationships? What ever happened to caring about the work that you do and your name, as a business person? Call it Pollyanna, but these types of actions (and they're coming from very legitimate businesses) is soul crushingly brutal for me to receive. It's weakening my will to appreciate the true power of marketing automation.

Hit. Delete. Move on.

Sure, anyone can do that. It's easy to hit delete, forget about the scammers and spammers and simply utter, "it is, what it is," under one's breath, but we can do better. We should do better. We should hold ourselves, and our peers, to a much higher standard. I love this business. I love marketing. I love technology. The prospect and opportunity of marketing automation is not something that I take lightly. I am heavily vested in it (as is our agency). Still, much like terrible retargeting campaigns, the more consumers are exposed to poor instances of marketing automation, the harder it is going to be to convert them over to the cause. I want all brands to use marketing automation. I believe it will change the dynamics of customer acquisition and retention. I believe it will lower the overall cost of marketing, and increase sales in an attributable manner. I mean it... this isn't just a bunch of buzzwords. Still, we need to do it right.

Marketing automation. Do it right... Or kill it, before it kills all of us.

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wpp

Say Goodbye To Clicking And Swiping

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed: 

I was not able to make it to the studio this week, but figured that I would share the stories that I wanted to discuss with Pierre Landry, who sat in for Terry and Heather B. I'll be back on air next Monday at 7:10 am with Terry and Heather B.
Is you car about to become KITT from Knight Rider? While Amazon Echo's amazing voice-activated assistant, Alexa, is still not available in Canada, the technology is going to change how we interact with technology. Say goodbye to clicking, swiping and those greasy fingers you use on your iPhone. It's all going to be voice. BMW just announced that they are soon going to open up control of its cars to Alexa, as it looks to increase the tech in their vehicles (and compete against Tesla). You'll soon be able to speak to your car, and find out how much fuel is left, to unlock the doors and much more. Voice will be the way we navigate our technology in the not-to-distant future. So, imagine yourself as Captain Kirk hailing your computers for everything. 
If using your voice to control your tech ("Hello, Siri") still seems too weird, how about a smart tattoo? A group of PhD students from the MIT Media Lab and researchers from Microsoft Research have come up with a new kind of wearable: a temporary tattoo, that can turn into a touchpad, remotely control your smartphone, or share data. The technology, which will be presented at a wearables conference next month, is called DuoSkin. The researchers say you can design a circuit, using any graphic software, stamp out the tattoo in gold leaf (which is conductive to electricity), and then apply other commodity materials and components that would make the tattoo interactive. Who doesn't like to touch themselves? 
Posting almost anything to Facebook can make you look like a narcissist in this day and age. Well, check this out: Researchers from the Brunel University in London have conducted a study on why so many people share every workout on social media. While your body may look great, the results of this study are less flattering. "People who are always keen on documenting their gym activities (or every time you simply go for a good, old-fashioned run) tend to be narcissists. According to the researchers, the primary goal is to boast about how much time you invest in your looks. Apparently these status updates also earn more Facebook likes than other kinds of posts." So, if you post about it your a narcissist. If I like it, I'm just fuelling your deep-seeded issues. 
App of the week: Fender Tune.

We will have the regular audio feed back for you next Monday.

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Fiercely You With Jackie Huba - This Week's Six Pixels Of Separation Podcast

Episode #527 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Jackie Huba had it all (and still does). She had three bestselling books on marketing and customer loyalty (please tell me that you own Monster Loyatly - her book on Lady Gaga, Citizen Marketers and Creating Customer Evangelists), while becoming one of the more popular public speakers on the subjects. Then, her personal live changed, and she began questioning the work that she was doing. She needed to find another level of confidence. She found that in the drag queen movement. Through research and personal interest, she uncovered something truly fascinating: drag queens are incredibly adept at transforming into, bold personas for performance. There is a direct lineage between that skill and our personal/professional life. Enter: Fiercely You - Be Fabulous and Confident by Thinking Like a Drag Queen. It's her latest book, and a shift in how she wants to think about her personal brand and her business model. Tons of interesting insights, from my good friend, Jackie (whose drag persona is Lady Trinity - awesome name). Enjoy the conversation...   

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast #527.

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public speaking

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #321

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another: 

'We Value Experience': Can a Secret Society Becomes a Business? - Longreads . "I'm currently obsessed with treasure hunts, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs, not to be confused with Augmented Reality) and more. [As a sidenote, check out Elsa Maxwell, who as a young girl was told she'd never be invited to parties, and made it her business to create treasure and scavenger hunts for social elites in the early 1900s. She was so notorious the Waldorf Astoria gave her a free room whenever she wanted.] One of the more remarkable experiments in ARGs was The Jejune Institute, which also became a documentary. Its inventors created The Latitude Society as a subsequent game/experience, and tried to make it a sustainable business. But, can mystery and experience scale? Warning: This is a rathole to explore." (Alistair for Hugh).
Emotive Modeller - An Emotive Form Design CAD Tool . "Shapes convey emotions. This MIT project tries to figure out how they're linked, letting a designer use words like 'happy' or 'strong' and generate physical objects that people associate with those emotions. Pretty cool for packaging designers; pretty creepy, too." (Alistair for Mitch).
The Drone Presidency - The New York Review of Books . "Imagine, says David Cole wryly, how much drone killing will happen once we get a President who doesn't think of him/herself as anti-war?" (Hugh for Alistair).
The Murky History of the Butterfly Stroke - The New Yorker . "I'm not a huge fan of the Olympics, and I've never been able to do the butterfly stroke, but I was fascinated to learn how that strange swimming technique might have come to be." (Hugh for Mitch).
Acorn to Mighty Oak - Developing Material - Carney Magic . "This article was recently brought to my attention by the brilliant, Tom Webster. I know how much Alistar can appreciate the power of magic, performance and manipulation, so it's a match! This wizard at sleight of hand reflects on what it takes to create, develop, nurture and perform new material. If you think this is just about how to make coins disappear, or figure out how to name the card your buddy chose, then the jokes on you. Want to create something new? Figure out how to tell a better story? Understand the skill of performance? Study magic and magicians." (Mitch for Alistair).
Sex, lies and YouTube: The predatory side of internet fame - Mashable . "This should be mandatory reading for everyone. Youtubers think that they are above the law because they have a lot of subscribes, fans and followers. Fan girls will do anything to meet some of them. Some of these Youtubers are allowing them to do it and the results are... terrifying... 'Over the last few years, dozens have come forward to share stories of creators who have had inappropriate relationships with those who see them as bona fide celebrities. It's become an open wound for Team Internet: the fact that the intimate interactions that define the community is also its darkest danger.'" (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Tags:

alistair croll

alternate reality games

amazon

bit current

bit north

book a futurists manifesto

cad

carney magic

complete web monitoring

david cole

drones

elsa maxwell

emotive modeller

facebook

gigot

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambic

j walter thompson

jwt

lean analytics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

longreads

magic

managing bandwidth

mashable

mirum

mirum agency

mit

olympics

press books

social media

solve for interesting

the jejune institute

the latitude society

the new york review of books

the new yorker

tom webster

waldorf astoria

wpp

year one labs

youtube

How Ideas Bounce From One Person's Head To Another.

How do ideas get shared? How does that change in a digital economy?

Evan Williams has done more than you. He's done more than me. In fact, he's currently doing more than most people will do in a lifetime. Here's the TL;DR on Ev Williams: he created Blogger, Twitter and Medium. You could look at those three startups, and easily lull yourself into that prototypical Silicon Valley startup mindset of someone who's hit unicorn-plus status on three occasions. It would be the wrong headspace. Instead think about the role of publishing in today's economy. How do we get ideas from one person's brain to another? In that context, Williams looks more like a modern day Johannes Gutenberg than anything else. It's hard to imagine our world without those three platforms. It's also interesting to note that Medium continues to improve and become an ever-more important place for those who wish to publish, share and create ideas.

Technology closes the gaps to make things more efficient and seamless.

In this fascinating 25 minute conversation, you will watch Evan Williams drop many pearls of wisdom, like the one above. This is another conversation courtesy of NewCo and John Battelle (you can see the other conversation with Tim O'Reilly over here: The Next Economy Company), focusing on the next economy, publishing, media, and much, much more. 

Here it is: Understanding Medium: Evan Williams On His Past, Future, and Current Obsessions.

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blogger

brand

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creativity

digital economy

digital marketing

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ev williams

evan williams

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j walter thompson

johannes gutenberg

john battelle

jwt

marketing

marketing blog

media

medium

mirum

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mirum agency blog

mirum blog

mitch joel

mitchjoel

newco

newco shift

publishing

publishing platform

silicon valley

startup

technology

tim oreilly

twitter

unicorn

 

 wpp

Is Your Brand Story Documentary-Worthy (Like Shopify)?

Tell your brand story!

How often have you heard someone (usually in marketing) say this in a meeting? Brands have been trying forever to tell a unique, powerful and emotive story. The reason for doing this is simple: connection. A brand that can connect its story (attributes, values, benefits, etc...) to a consumer (and keep it) will win. It's tough out there. There's no denying that legacy doesn't ensure your future (just ask the folks at Macy's this week). Plus, every day more and more people are looking to grow their business... and it's all happening online.

It's hard to deny the power of Shopify.

Most people know Shopify as the company that just reported a 93% year on year growth. They have more than 300,000 merchants using their platform, generated over $86 million this year, with a market cap of close to $3 billion. I know Shopify since they were this scruffy little startup that my buddy, Harley Finkelstein, got involved with many years back, after trying to sell t-shirts online with their platform. He loved it so much, and saw the potential that he got in on the ground floor of Shopify. Now, Harley is the Chief Operating Officer, and he (along with Tobi Lutke - the CEO and founder - and an amazing leadership team) is trying to redefine retail... and it's working.

It's not just what you do, it's how you tell the story. 

This week, Shopify released their Shopify Roadshow Documentary. It was created and presented to investors in May 2015, prior to their IPO. It's awesome. Take a look. As a brand, it's important to watch for the storyboard, the production quality, the arc of how they break up the separate components of the business and everything in between. Ultimately, what makes this work so well, is that it's a real story. It's not a PowerPoint deck. For me, it was emotional. I wanted to get on board. Not just to invest. I wanted to become a part of their community. I wanted to sell something on Shopify. I wanted to figure out a business model that I could bolt on to become a valuable partner (and build my own successful business). That's what every brand narrative should do. It's amazing how powerfully it speaks to both their B2C and B2B models at the exact same time. It's a real documentary. It feels like it.

If you're not motivated by this to tell a better brand story, I'm not sure what will motivate you: Shopify Roadshow Documentary. 

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 wpp

What The Brand Is... And What It Has Become

The inventor hardly knows what the invention will really be used for.

It's a known turn of phrase, but when it comes to mobile, technology, social media and consumers of today, it's a whole other story. It's also a narrative that we, as business leaders, often forget. A very senior marketing professional quipped to me the other day that mobile is a very expensive platform, and it's only getting harder and harder to justify the costs. For brands, there exists a massive chasm between the development of native apps and the usage of the mobile version of their respective websites. That, coupled with mobile advertising, and there is a sentiment of "what really works?" when you layer in the marketing opportunities that exist in places like Snapchat, Instagram and, yes, even Tinder.  

What choice do you have?

For years, I have been writing, talking and more about the "mobile-first posture." In short: your brand experience needs to match the current customer expectation. They have been exposed. They are swiping, buying, learning, messaging, and sharing more than ever on their mobile devices. Your mobile brand experience can no longer afford to simply be a watered-down version of your desktop website. Think about it like this: they can get a car (Uber) with a simple flick, and the same motion for a mate (Tinder), with little complication. They're not going to stand for cumbersome Web user experiences that were halfway adapted for mobile (pinch, click, enter data, etc.)... Don't believe me? Read this: 85% Of Shoppers Unlikely To Go Back After A Bad Mobile Experience; 95% Want Issues Resolved On First Try.

From the MediaPost article: "...a company gets one shot for resolving issues with a mobile shopper. To add icing to that, a large majority (85%) of consumers said they are unlikely to do business with the same organization following a bad mobile experience. On the other side, 72% say they are likely to do business with a company in the future following a good mobile experience."

Beyond current consumer's usage, expectations and experience (which is massive), consider this...

Things are changing. Things will always change when it comes to technology. The concept of a mobile phone was created as a way for people to speak on the phone and be reachable outside of their office and home (untethered). When it was first commercialized, many wondered what the point was, many laughed/made fun of those who used them, it all seemed so absurd the time. Now, not only has that hurdle been jumped over (and, in the blink of an eye), but hardly anybody uses these devices to talk on at all. Voice/call usage is dropping, as messaging, streaming and mobile data explodes. Think about the timeframe between the creation of mobile devices to now. Amazing. The main reason that the technology was created and adopted, has become the least important functionality that people care about. The problem, of course, is that businesses are the ones left having to build on that infrastructure... and deal with it.

Simply complaining that it's expensive doesn't solve for the consumer or future-proof your brand today.

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