#mwc13

Exhibitors like Qualcomm have come to appreciate the power of the consumer’s demand for computing power in phones. These technology companies are showcasing marketing friendly solutions like the new Vuforia AR platform from Qualcomm. And marketers as attendees were actively looking for new opportunities, business models, and revenue streams. The packed house for Keith Weed’s keynote entitled “Marketing: Brands Go Mobile,” attests to the intense interest in marketing’s role going forward. We expect to see more active and tangible roles for marketers – beyond the technology companies – in future iterations of MWC.

The trends we forecasted (solutions, services, content, data and connectivity) were all present some extent or another:

Mobile Kung-Fu – Powerful solutions in a small package.

Speakers and exhibitors alike argued for (and even showed sometimes) solution platforms for marketers that set up bridges between individual operators, publishing networks, or operating systems. “OTT” (over-the-top or “services that sit across operators”) became a buzzword and was a favorite term used.

A loud ring in a quiet theater – Mobile services that disrupt status quo marketing - to the benefit of brands.

Successful mobile services for consumers in the future will have to be both contextual (time, location) and intelligent (personalized, predictive). This may not be surprising, but to hear it emphasized was reaffirming. Some services showed either commitment (Groupon, Metro Group, NTT Docomo) or positive consumer response (like AT&T’s alerts).

Too much of a good thing? – Learning to swim and not drown in the flood of mobile data.

Data underpins intelligent context services. And while speakers and attendees agreed, that it largely depends on the value in exchange for personal information (i.e. location), the topic of privacy for data in personalized CRM solutions went largely undiscussed. We, as the mobile marketing industry, have not found the golden key to this kingdom yet.

Brave old world – Content, coming soon to a device very near you. 

Content itself was not at the heart of the debate of the MWC. While we learned some best practices from the Olympic Games in London as well as high ranking representatives from publishing houses, the conference focused more on distribution solutions, than the content itself. This is where we think marketers will have an impact in the future.

The unconnected life is not worth living – Connection is breaking free from communication.

Connectivity was the big news (whether in cities, homes or cars). It dominated many exhibits and conference sessions just as it will pervade our cities, homes, and cars. The commitment from Ford and GM to launch fully connected cars, including open software platforms for developers is an appealing frontier for digital marketers.

We saw developments beyond these trends and the highlight was the burgeoning consumer adoption of services in a relevant cultural context in developing countries. Claro presented culturally adopted ideas that address very specific solutions for Kenyan citizens who travel bus and taxi. Firefox launched its first mobile OS targeted at a generation in developing countries that is transitioning from feature phones to low-end smartphones running HTML 5. On the other hand, NFC still seems technical and lacking in true use cases outside of payment pilots.

NFC is being sold as an effortless solution for a lot of mundane, and not so mundane, tasks. From mobile payments to tracking medical patients, downloading or sharing any kind of information, even social networking or opening doors can be done with an NFC-abled phone and some programmable tags you can buy. They are very much like stickers that can be placed virtually anywhere. They are quite similar to QR codes (there goes another murderous look) although, and that’s a check in the Pros column for NFC, tags allow two-way communication so you can establish a dialogue with the consumer, for instance. When you wave your phone in front of an NFC tag, you can automatically turn on the TV, get information on the painting you’re looking at, transfer pictures, and even listen to music on an NFC sound deck as Sony was demonstrating in Barcelona.

It is clear the industry (wireless carriers, banks, credit card companies) is waiting with baited breath for NFC to take off. What’s not so clear is whether it will or will not make it as is it.

NFC is touted to reduce lines and wait times, and generally, lower the level of irritation daily tasks put into our lives. Help us optimize our time. However, it remains to be seen that’s really the case.

Lines for NFC holders at the MWC were indeed shorter or nonexistent, but that was mainly because most of the people there did not have an NFC-equipped phone or had not bothered to download the necessary app to use it on premises.

Even when you own the right handset,you still need to tap your phone to the receiver and that will take a second assuming you know where the NFC chip is in your phone, longer if you don’t. There is a reason for such close contact (NFC only has a 4-inch range of communication), but while that makes it very secure (unlike Bluetooth) it also renders the experience not as smooth as it could be when standing in line.

What if your handset dies on you as you’re about to pay for your subway ride? Supposedly, you’d still be able to make it to your train. NFC does not require for the phone to be on for payment or access control because it benefits from the SIM card, however, a SIM is not mandatory for implementing NFC (think tablets) and some of its implementations use interactive authentication and network connectivity which means you do need battery life.

Arguably there are uses, mostly annoying tasks that require some tinkering and battery life, that can be made easy with NFC (think about connecting to a Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth pairing), but if we still have to carry our wallets and keys when we go out just in case, or if we still have to walk up to the TV remote or tap a tag in order for us to turn that same TV set on (okay, we can turn on the TV and the lights in the same move with NFC), I’m not so convinced it’s going to make that much of a difference.

Still its biggest issues remain adoption and retail penetration, especially the latter. The most optimistic research indicates that 51% of US cellphone owners will use an NFC-equipped handset by 2015. The same numbers seem to hold true for other mature markets like Germany, but who cares if you have an NFC smartphone if you cannot tap, pardon the pun, into its benefits? POS technology for NFC is expensive. ROI remains to be proven. Retailers are not convinced and without market presence there’s no way to test it.