“Mobile’s Disgusting Obnoxious Stupid But It’s The One Thing I’d Invest In”: Saatchi & Saatchi Boss

“Mobile’s Disgusting Obnoxious Stupid But It’s The One Thing I’d Invest In”: Saatchi & Saatchi Boss
John Bastick
By John Bastick



Utterly confused about your marketing strategy? No idea what lies ahead? Well, stick all your dollars into your mobile strategy says Saatchi & Saatchi New York’s executive chairman Kevin Roberts.

Roberts – speaking at yesterday’s World Marketing And Sales Forum in Melbourne – told B&T that, big or small, every business needs strong mobile thinking.

“We’re all screen-agers, everybody looks at the screen, people these days are never parted from their mobile; there are now more smartphones on the planet than there are people,” Roberts said.

“Currently people are using mobile in a disgusting obnoxious stupid way because it’s still very new. Mobile will become the biggest platform for advertisers. Already 85 per cent of all the advertising growth at the moment is on mobile.”

Targeting customers via their smartphones is ideal because everybody has one, it’s cheap and most of us can’t go five minutes without checking it, Roberts argued.

He believed the world is miniaturising – business, people, politics were becoming increasingly local. Technology had made advertising and content very personalised, very bespoke and very one-on-one. “The days of global multinational business is all over,” he said.

“If you’re a small business with small resources then just target your key prospects and you know for a fact that everyone of them has a mobile and you know for a fact that they’re spending about five hours a day on them or some horrific amount of time. We’re addicted to our mobiles; most people can’t go five minutes without checking it.

“So that makes a great opportunity. It’s now all down to ‘what the hell is my idea?’ We live in the age of ideas and the mobile is merely a platform, it’s merely a distribution vehicle which is very, very good for any small business because it’s not mass medium television and that means mobile gives you this beautiful little vehicle,” Roberts said before warning that “without an idea it is just garbage.”

He concluded: “There’s no magic wand but if you look at mobile as your one medium and then find the idea that is sticky and compelling. But I appreciate that’s easier said than done.”




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