INTRO
The great and the good of the marketing world were out in Barcelona, Spain this week for Mobile World Congress where tackling mobile ad blocking, the rise of virtual reality and redefining the smartphone were all high on the agenda.
By Jonathan Bacon and Leonie Roderick
MAIN TEXT
Close to 100,000 people descended on Barcelona this week for Mobile World Congress, one of the industry’s largest trade shows. They were there to see the latest smartphones launches from the likes of Samsung, Sony and LG and new technology that could revolutionise how we communicate.
For marketers it is a chance to experience future technology, meet the brands and companies disrupting their industries and work out what it all means for the future of their brands.
Redefining the smartphone
The big smartphone makers sounded weary, rather than excited, about unveiling their new mobile devices this year. The likes of LG, Samsung and Sony all acknowledged that most consumers do not really care about flashy new features anymore. And so instead these companies sought to redefine the way people think about their phones by talking up new potential uses and applications.
LG announced a whole “ecosystem” of new products to accompany its launch of the G5 phone, including a virtual reality (VR) headset, a rolling robot for remote home monitoring and a hi-fi system from Bang & Olufsen that plugs into the G5 for better sound quality. It also launched a new sub-brand for these products (LG Playground) and a new app for controlling them (LG Friends Manager) as it looked to present itself as a more dynamic lifestyle brand.
“When smartphones were first introduced, we were so excited and [people] downloaded five or six apps every day,” said LG CEO Juno Cho. “These days we don’t see much excitement any more, even when a new smartphone is released. Has people’s appetite for fun disappeared? Of course not – at LG we think the smartphone’s best days are still ahead.”
Samsung’s head of mobile DJ Koh made a similar observation at the launch of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones. “In 2016, who doesn’t take smartphones for granted or wonder if they’ve seen everything a smartphone can deliver?” he asked. But he also claimed that Samsung is “redefining what is possible” with a phone by developing its smartphone-enabled Gear VR system and by offering “console quality” mobile gaming through a partnership with developer Epic Games.
Sony even went so far as to comment on the cultural impact of smartphones, arguing that society is becoming “less human” as people focus more and more on their mobile devices, rather than on the world around them. This statement was intended to promote Sony’s new line of smart products that remove the need for a phone, such as a Bluetooth earpiece that acts as a personal assistant, but it also reflected the fact that Sony’s new Xperia X smartphones incorporate relatively few new features.
Can VR scale?
If last year’s Mobile World Congress was all about smartwatches, this year the subject has switched to virtual reality. Every brand wants to be part of the nascent market and prove that their solution will be the one that ensures this technology finally takes off.
The importance of VR was underlined by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s surprise appearance at Samsung’s press event. In it, he predicted VR will be “the most social platform” and, in a bid to prove how seriously Facebook takes VR, revealed it has created a new ‘social VR’ team that will focus entirely on how VR can help people connect.
Samsung wasn’t the only brand to enlist a partner. LG brought on an exec from Google Streetview to talk about how using LG’s new 360-degree camera and VR headset can help enhance the mapping experience. HTC, meanwhile, has collaborated with gaming company Valve on its Vive VR headset.
The excitement around VR comes from its possibilities across a range of industries. Brands in sectors from gaming to travel and automotives are interested in how the technology can boost their appeal and build engagement with consumers.
“Numerous brands are currently creating a lot of hype around VR, and many marketers would undoubtedly be interested in piloting the technology as it has a real ‘wow’ effect,” says Thomas Husson, principal marketing and strategy analyst at Forrester. “In different industries where having a ‘try before you buy’ experience it would also make a lot of sense, like with the travel or automotive sectors.”
Yet despite the buzz, it could still be a while before the technology attracts that mass market audience. “What marketers care about is reach, so scaling VR will take some time,” Husson explains.
‘The single biggest threat to online advertising’
Mobile ad blocking was a huge talking point at this year’s congress following Three’s decision to allow customers in the UK and Italy to block adverts on their phones. Roi Carthy, CMO of Shine, the company providing the ad blocking technology to Three, described his firm as “the single biggest threat in the history of online advertising” during a feisty debate with brands and publishers.
Carthy called Three’s decision “a game changer” that demands “new rules of engagement” for online advertisers. “Everyone who currently uses a mobile phone is being abused by ad tech, which uses military-grade tracking and profiling” he claimed.
This argument was forcibly challenged by Google’s head of media and platforms Benjamin Faes, who said that online advertising is vital to the ongoing existence of the “free internet”. However, he acknowledged the need for advertisers to comply with industry-standard formats and to reduce the load-time of mobile ads. “The experience of loading some pages is really annoying on mobile. The ad needs to be as quick as the content,” he said.
Nestle’s global head of digital Pete Blackshaw argued that the industry would overcome mobile ad blocking in the same way that advertisers improved their offer following the rise of pop-up blockers on desktop over 10 years ago. He suggested, though, that brands needed to develop a deeper understanding of consumer attitudes towards advertising.
“These debates flare up every five years or so and we always seem surprised,” he said. “There’s an opportunity for more continuous, consumer-centred learnings to avoid these kind of flare-ups in future.”
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