Mobile advertising and understanding context

The three most important things I carry with me when I leave my home are money, keys, and my phone.  In Jan Chipchase’s TEDTalks presentation: The anthropology of mobile phones, he mentions that keys, money and mobile phone are in fact what people carry.

“…identity is mobile, not fixed..” says Chipchase.  What does this mean for mobile advertising? It means that we cannot master mobile advertising until we understand context.

Mobile phones allow us to “transcend space and time,” meaning through a simple phone call, we can transcend space. Sending a simple text message whenever we want for someone to read and response on their own time, allows us to transcend time. We consider our mobile phones to be “personal, convenient,” so advertisers should take careful notes on which individuals (audience) they are trying to reach, how those individuals use their phone, and through which websites and applications best to reach them through.

We take our phones everywhere with us. We take and use it at school, at work, while hanging out with friends, at home, while we are doing other activities, and yes, even while we are sitting on the toilet. Mobile advertisers need to develop a strategy which includes the context of its audience.

Catching the attention of a mobile user may be difficult because it requires the right place and right time and the right mindset of the audience. The copy and time of day in which the ad is seen should be taken into account when designing and implementing a mobile ad. A mobile ad for a car, let us say, that is targeted to someone who is on their lunch break at their nine to five job would use different copy to catch attention from copy that would catch the attention of someone who is at home relaxing on their couch and using their phone during television commercials. 

Tedtalks : The anthropology of mobile phones [Web]. (2007). Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/jan_chipchase_on_our_mobile_phones.html