Is this the long-awaited year of mobile? Last week, Facebook announced that its quarterly profits had more than doubled, driven in large part by mobile; 62% of Facebook’s ad revenue now comes from advertising on mobile devices. Forrester forecasts that mobile will be the fastest-growing digital marketing category in 2014, increasing 47% in 2013 over the prior year. And Forrester believes that we are witnessing a mobile mind shift — “the expectation that I can get what I want in my immediate context and moments of need.” 
 
But mobile’s marketing moment has not yet arrived. While consumers continue the rapid shift to mobile, marketers have not yet realized mobile’s brand building potential — because for too many marketers, mobile remains a tactical underfunded offshoot disconnected from a CMO's brand building efforts. This is a missed opportunity.  
 
Marketing needs a mobile mind shift. To harness the power of mobile, marketers must start with the experience they want customers to have with their brand, not the technology. Then determine what role mobile can play in delivering, improving, or even reinventing that experience — by creating, anticipating, or addressing a customer's mobile moment. Because the new battleground for customers is the mobile moment — the instant in which a customer has a want or need — Forrester has identified three types of mobile marketing moments.
  • Loyalty moments deepen established relationships. Loyalty moments are relevant to brands that already have a direct relationship with a customer. These are the brands that you consider essential and the apps you use most often — likely your bank, preferred airline, or favorite store. 
  • Manufactured moments create an opportunity for engagement. Manufactured moments create assets to solve a customer’s problem, entertain, or connect around shared values. The recent World Cup was rife with brands like Samsung trying to manufacture moments around their customers' love of soccer.
  • Borrowed moments drive discovery. Borrowed moments take brands to where their customers are already engaging in mobile. This could be on social networks like Facebook or Pinterest, message platforms like Snapchat or WeChat, or media properties like The Huffington Post or The New York Times.

To learn more about how to create your mobile marketing moment, check out my new report “Brief: Create Mobile Moments That Boost The Brand Experience” (subscription required). What's your mobile moment?