Google UK boss: Mobile web ‘is going to change the world over next 3 years’
- Added:
- Jun 17, 2010
Mobile as a marketing and communications medium is currently in ‘take-off mode’ and at the start of a ‘real revolution’ according to UK and Ireland managing director for Google, Matt Brittin.
peaking at the Internet Advertising Bureau’s first Engage for Mobile conference, Brittin told the audience that we are at the very start of “a revolution where the internet and mobile devices collide and it’s going to change the world over the next three years.”
Talking to the 350-strong audience of UK brands, agencies and mobile specialists, Brittin urged them all to act as ‘mobile pioneers’. Adding that ‘Google is taking mobile very seriously’ he stressed the importance of evangelising about the medium at this very critical stage.
Brittin credited the growth and strength of mobile media to 5 key drivers:
1. The power of computing getting faster, better access and greater speeds.
2. Connected people and device, using the example that the current Nexus phone has 1000 times more memory at 50th of the weight of his first ever computer in 1995.
3. Clever devices with sharper senses.
4. Costs of using mobile internet becoming less relevant as prices drop significantly and “value is accelerating”.
5. The cloud, which gives you the internet in your pocket, adding “the collision of the cloud and the phone changes everything”.
“If you want to get headlines, get an iPhone app”
Brittin also advised the brands in the room to be clear about their mobile strategy and know exactly what they need to do with the medium before they enter the space. “Be clear about what you are trying to do” he said. “Are you trying to generate press headlines? If so, get an iPhone app.”
He recommended that brands be ‘ready’ for the mobile consumer, thinking about what they’re going to find when they reach a website on a mobile phone, and to consider how the user is able to find them in the space, for example via a search engine or app lists. Brittin also encouraged the audience to ‘be smart’ about mobile data and analyse what it tells you about who is visiting your site and what they’re doing there.
IAB Engage for Mobile
Brittin was speaking alongside Steve Ricketts and Spencer McHugh from Orange from Orange UK who outlined the current mobile landscape and how Orange the brand has used mobile to drive an emotional response from consumers, as well as driving sales.
They followed IAB CEO Guy Phillipson, who compared mobile to the early days of online and how brands are often sceptical of any emerging medium. Phillipson outlined the ways in which we should be turning these marketers into “converts and experts” by educating them about consumer behaviour and the power of search and mobile commerce to raise the medium up the agenda. Believing that mobile will soon become ‘a digital Swiss army knife’ he believed the medium will have a strong future as consumers use it for “a myriad of entertainment, communication and transactional activities.”
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