Gen Z's Data Obsession: Bits and Bytes are the New Commodity

Last week at Mobile World Congress, Telefonica announced that it's testing a plan that will let consumers trade brand engagement for more data.

Ask any Gen Z mobile user about their phones, and one of the first things they'll tell you is that they are overly concerned that they'll use up all their monthly data and are looking for ways to conserve wherever they can. Advertisements, apps and websites are commonly known to suck battery life and impose on data usage, primarily because to date, brands have not properly optimized their platforms for mobile use.

If last year gave us any indication of the future of a connected world, we learned that while smartphone hardware is not expensive, the real cost of entry into the mobile market can be attributed to data. In a hyper-connected mobile-everything world, bits and bytes are the new commodity. If we as advertisers are going to be successful at capturing consumer attention while addressing this consumer concern about increased data, we're going to need to be aware and respectful of usage.

As an evolution from the early days of consumption models between advertisers and TV soap operas, there is a new value exchange between advertisers and consumers -- with mobile data as the new consumer-attention commodity. So what are advertisers doing  -- and what should we be doing  -- to address this global and growing consumer need for mobile data?

A new ad model is needed

Conversations in early 2015 have looked at new monetization models and the implications for advertisers and marketers who seek to create meaningful experiences for their audiences, when the dependency on internet connectivity is critical. As publishers typically have relied on ad-based models to gain audience reach, advertisers have relied on them as well. However, when a consumer is interacting with a mobile ad experience, a new advertising model may be needed. As demonstrated by Telefonica's announcement, brands could ideally offset their data costs in exchange for consumer interaction with the brand.

We are starting to see these types of moves in the general mass market, with brands like T-Mobile touting "stash your data" plans in order to save unused monthly data. And recently, McDonald's acknowledged mobile data's growing status as a currency and announced it will offer customers in the Philippines free SMS messaging with food purchases.

But it's not just about coming up with a solution for the technology . We need to focus on the consumer mindset and look at the issue through their lens. If we treat data as a commodity and come up with ways to give users a way to offset their data woes, we've solved for a major rational (and sometimes emotional) pain point.

Offering "bonus data" to Gen Z

Advertisers are going to have to pay particular attention to the Gen Z consumer and think creatively and strategically about ways their brands can offer "bonus data" to their consumers for spending time with their brand. Whether it's giving them opportunities to watch a video, play a game, listen to music or spend time on a mobile website, advertisers should think about ways to engage consumers that won't count against their data plans. As a reward for engagement, consumers get to conserve precious data.

For example, let's say a Gen Z shopper was browsing the fall collection from her favorite retailer, and after several minutes of activity on the mobile site, she could be sent a notification saying that if she continued to shop, her time and data usage spent on the site would be free for the next five minutes.

Consider downtime at the airport, bus shelter or a waiting room, when consumers quickly turn their attention to their smartphones. Brands could reward consumers by informing them they are in a "data-free" zone and the brand is picking up the tab on the data used while visiting their websites. Or musicians who want to drop their albums via a music-streaming site could offer these downloads as a "data-free" gift to their biggest fans.

The benefit to advertisers is that they not only create some entertaining and exciting experiences for their audience, but they also provide utility and value to the consumer, which in turn helps shift brand perception. Those advertisers who think about consumer needs first will win in this space.

This could be the start of a new golden age of mobile and advertising, much like the early days of soap operas and TV. It's time for brands to start thinking of ways to not only create something useful and entertaining for their audiences, but also address the growing consumer obsession with data -- the new commodity.

Apple Watch: Responses + Reactions

I was asked to provide my reaction to the launch of the Apple Watch. This excerpt was originally published in The Drum. Here are my thoughts…

It will be interesting to see how brands think about extending their identity into the Apple Watch screen and more interesting to see how consumers adopt these new features. Today, we can use our phones or computers to check the time so watches have actually become statement pieces that say something about who we are as people. These new customizable watch faces represents an interesting opportunity for us to share a little bit more about who we are and what we like: i.e. if you can customize the watch face that is a) a great way for customers to personalize their watch and b) an opportunity for brands to extend their identity into the smart watch. For example, if I’m a huge surfer, I may want to set the watch face to the activity tracker and surf report, all powered by one of my favorite surf brands, letting others know it’s a personal passion.

Wearable technology is only as good as it’s original purpose – so if a smart watch doesn’t tell the time elegantly as it’s primary purpose, then no one is going to care that it also connects to their other ‘smart' devices, tracks their health or accesses popular social media apps because they are not native functions of a wristwatch.

The success of smart watches hinges on consumer adoption of the technology for the absolute simplicity of being a watch first. That the watch also happens to be smart and connected to the ecosystem of other connected devices comes second. Keeping true to what a watch is meant to be will be critical to the success of mass adoption of these new devices.

Mobile Marketing's Gender Gap

Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles' director of digital strategy calls for more women in the mobile marketing industry

A Fleishman-Hillard Inc. study reported that over the next decade women will control two-thirds of the consumer wealth in the United States and be the beneficiaries of the largest transference of wealth in our country’s history.

As we look towards 2015, it’s more important than ever to consider the implications of this statistic for mobile advertising and marketing. As mobile becomes consumers’ preferred platform, advertisers need greater awareness of how women influence the consumer marketplace if they hope to be successful in what is sure to be a benchmark year for mobile.

As a woman in mobile marketing, I’m well aware of the gender disparity in our industry. In order to change the low number of women working in mobile, we need to focus awareness on systemic challenges facing the category, while showing the value and importance of a women’s perspective for our mobile future.

The issue: Mobile is still homeless

Mobile marketing has yet to find a permanent home in many marketing departments.  Research shows marketers and advertisers are still uncertain about the medium’s effectiveness, and we remain in the early stages of developing mobile marketing as standard practice.

Even though we’re seeing mobile-ad projections increase each year, mobile-ad spending could be much higher given how much time consumers spend on their devices. eMarketer estimates American adults spend almost a quarter of their media time on mobile devices, yet only 9.8% of ad buys went to mobile in 2014. A 2014 Mobile Behavior Report, ExactTarget found that women are significantly more likely to like or follow a brand on social media to receive coupons or deals (71% do so, compared to 63% of consumers overall), yet marketers aren’t taking advantage in their mobile strategies.

Why is this? Could the uncertainty be related to a lack of diverse opinions - including women’s - influencing and shaping the mobile marketing narrative? If so, how can we pinpoint the origins of the issue and move forward the industry forward to reassure marketers and advertisers?

Mobile has a technical history

One reason: The current mobile marketing landscape is distinct from other areas of marketing. Traditionally, mobile marketing has been tied to the functionality and technology of devices themselves. Many, many people currently working in the existing mobile community hail from the product development side, a predominantly male sector, versus traditional advertising and marketing communications industries.

Since product technology and user interface skills are driven by product design and engineering and not out of marketing departments, the gender discrepancy on the engineering side of mobile has bled into the marketing side of mobile. The result is an inherent lack of women sitting at the mobile marketing table, and consequently a lack of a female perspective.

Women in mobile, for mobile

Women are uniquely positioned to add a valuable and diverse perspective to mobile marketing. We can empathize and truly understand a woman’s needs and mindset in the context of technology. We understand certain pain and passion points and can use those insights to help create better, more relevant experiences for consumers — the more relevant the mobile experience, the more we will see mobile marketing being selected as a first-choice engagement option.

A few years ago, I was one of four women working for a mobile-technology firm. We were working on a project for a consumer packaged goods brand whose main target audience was moms, and we were well aware of how important it was to engage the purchasing power that moms hold within the household.

Our task was to develop a mobile-optimized website where moms could read reviews and recommendations from other moms about the product and locate where to buy the product via a store locator and inventory match. When it was time to review the user-experience wireframes, we noticed the interface required the user to type components into several lead forms — meaning the functionality of the app design optimized interactions for someone browsing with two free hands. But busy moms juggling various physical activities throughout the day rarely have both hands free to dedicate to interacting with an app. And without a first-hand experience, that sort of consideration may not have entered the planning process.

The future

If advertisers and marketers are to take advantage of everything mobile has to offer, we need to help create better experiences for all consumers on mobile. In order to create those experiences, we need to engage diverse perspectives to move the industry forward.

I’m optimistic about the future for women in mobile. This September, Business Insider published a list of the 32 most powerful women in mobile; BI acknowledged that the industry was dominated by men and noting that only one woman made its list of the most powerful people in mobile advertising last year.

Prominent female business leaders are also making major strides. Women like Angie Ruan, Head of PayPal Retail’s engineering team and former head of eBay’s mobile strategy, played an integral role in creating the first PayPal mobile product to enable merchants to take payments easily anywhere. And at Mobile World Congress, Ginny Rommety, CEO of IBM, introduced IBM’s Watson Mobile Developer Challenge, a global competition encouraging developers to create mobile apps that build on top of the artificial intelligence supercomputer technology.

We’re still early in the development of mobile marketing as a practice among advertisers and marketers, and there’s an enormous opportunity for women to get involved. Let’s take a seat at the table and help shape the future experience of our mobile-first world.