Mobile World Congress: what advertisers need to know
More than 100,000 delegates from 204 countries attended Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, while 2,200 companies exhibited their wares.
So what were the important announcements from MWC 2016? In the lead up to the event, virtual reality (VR) was expected to make a splash, while many were hoping for insight on hot topics such as adblocking, internet of things and data security. We spoke to four MWC delegates on what they thought of the event and and what the innovations might mean for the future of the advertising industry:
Oculus Rift and HTC Vive: virtual reality remains so near and yet so far
Jerry Daykin
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Oisin Lunny, senior market development manager at OpenMarket
The key announcement was Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announcing the Telecom Infra project, a consortium including telecom service providers and vendors that will work together with Facebook to open source wireless technologies outside of the data centre. This could be a game changer for the global rollout of the mobile web and connected devices. The key trend was the number of companies acknowledging the importance of a better customer experience for mobile first world.
The recent announcement of network carrier level agreements with the ad-blocking tech of Shine is a taste of things to come. Brands need to be more nuanced and personalised in their approach to mobile marketing. “Spray and pray” broadcast marketing misses the target on mobile devices. It was also interesting to see Twitter’s Brenda O’Connell refer to the mobile device number as today’s core identifier, with two factor authentication (2FA) replacing email as “the new password.”
JR Little, global head of innovation, Carat
For marketing and ad professionals, the focus was on virtual reality and messaging, both championed by Facebook on more than one stage, at more than one event.
Indeed, it was hard to miss Facebook’s presence, from Mark Zuckerberg’s memorable keynote in the main hall to the events, parties and luncheons, and not forgetting its (Oculus) virtual reality rollercoaster experience with Samsung. It was interesting to witness the buzz around VR and messaging move into discussions about product betas and rollout, and I came away thinking that 2016 will be the year we escape through our handsets and/or turn intimate messaging into brand and business opportunities.
Nick Halas, head of futures at Posterscope
In spite of the plethora of new mobile device releases and mass media frenzy over VR, in fact the evolution of IoT [internet of things] was the trend at this year’s MWC that may hold the most for out-of-home (OOH) advertisers. The mass market is gearing up for connected cars, like Huawei and Audi’s new partnerships, wearables and home security. It’s essentially becoming every connected device you can think of – including those that are innovative but in my opinion somewhat creepy, like the Sony Xperia Ear.
There’s a tidal wave of change that IoT is bringing with it, and it’s promising to be transformational for everyone involved in the OOH ecosystem, particularly for the digital out-of-home sector. We’ll be seeing greater collaboration with digital and mobile campaigns, both as an extension network and as a platform for the delivery of dynamic personalised messaging.
Additionally, it will enable advertisers to better interact and engage with consumers via beacons, image recognition or device pairing. This will extend into CRM and payments, such as Visa’s expansion of its Visa Ready program, and even possibly directly with vehicular movement as both connected cells – the car and the poster site – will be able to communicate with each other.
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Tom Goodwin
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Ben Rickard, digital partner and head of mobile (EMEA) at MEC Global Solutions
VR had a domineering presence at MWC 2016, with lots of demos and companies taking different approaches. VR is dispersing into two distinct categories, the high-end segment, where Oculus Rift & the HTC Vive headset are positioned ($599- $799). Both of these need to be tethered to a very high spec computer for processing capacity, and allow users to interact with their surroundings.
Samsung’s Gear VR, offered free with pre-orders of the Galaxy S7, is at the opposite end of the spectrum. These use the phone to process the image, but don’t allow for user engagement with the environment.
It’s still a “wait & see” on VR for ads. While it was big at MWC, the consumer use cases still need to be worked out. The hardware is expensive and requires a dedicated space, so isn’t ideal for home use. It would be excellent for experiential installations though.
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