Mobile customer engagement at a ‘tipping point’

Advertising guru Sir Martin Sorrell says a generational change in the way consumers want to interact with brands means the mobile channel is moving into the mainstream

Sir Martin told the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week that while mobile is still dwarfed by traditional marketing methods and channels its explosive growth is putting it at a tipping point.

The head of WPP advertising agency pointed to research that predicts revenue from the mobile channel will almost triple this year to around £9.3billion. Advertising on smartphones and tablet computers would soon become mainstream after a generational change in the way people use such devices he told the congress.

“We certainly think we are on the verge of that tipping point. Apps enable brands to connect with consumers at home, on their way to the shops, at the shelves or at the tills.”

Sir Martin’s tipping point remarks set the scene for this year’s congress which comes at a time when many industry commentators are saying 2011 will be the year mobile customer engagement comes of age.

Another speaker Wang Jianzhou, chairman and chief exec of China Mobile, the world’s largest telecoms company by subscribers with 600 million customers said the mobile sector needed to create more value from its investment in new networks to thrive.
“If we are just a dumb pipe we will lose the opportunity to profit from innovations” he said.