Strengths and weaknesses of mobile marketing platforms

Audiences are talking about your organisation using a range of social media, but perhaps their most intimate contact with your brand happens through their personal mobile devices.

Calendar, address book, photo album, camera, media player and even wallet: our mobile phones have become an extension of ourselves and, as Jonathan Finkelstein has remarked, mobile audio is akin to 'letting someone whisper in our ear'.

How can arts organisations engage the unique proximity that mobile devices afford to our community members, both ethically and effectively, in our marketing efforts?

Fundamentally, the challenges of mobile marketing are the same as that of any other marketing project: creating connections between the 'target audience' and the organisation's mission and ability to deliver.

Know thyself

• What is your institution's mission?
• What is the key message, tied to the mission, that you want to communicate? (if the message/project does not support your institution's mission, it should be abandoned)
• What resources - people, time, money, support - can the organisation put at the disposal of this project?

Know thy interlocutors

• Who are you trying to reach and also hear from or even collaborate with?
• What do they need or want? How is your mission/message critical for them?
• Where are they, both in the 'real' and virtual worlds, and how do they communicate when there?
• What tools and platforms, including mobile, do they favour and how and when do they use them?

The answers to these questions will also have revealed that:

• Mobile cannot be thought of in isolation from any other platform the arts organisation uses and an effective campaign links and leverages the strengths of analogue, digital and mobile platforms.
• Not all platforms will be appropriate for all projects. Choose the ones that will best carry your message to your constituents and work with those.
• And 'remember 80% is strategy, only 20% is technology... success is dependent on understanding customers, defining an objective and assembling the right strategy.'

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