Mobile Agencies vs. Mobile Marketing Platforms
A series of recent conversations had reinforced the fact that there is a great deal of confusion about what constitutes a mobile agency and how that differs from a mobile marketing platform.
Mobile Marketing Platform
Mobile marketing platforms are just that, platforms. These folks supply the underlying technology to deploy standard text messaging campaigns but provide NO value when it comes to campaign ideation or deploying custom campaigns. Unless the client or agency has a team of savvy mobile marketers with extensive experience in the space, odds are that they have no idea as to the power of mobile and what can be accomplished. Just want to send text alerts? Sure, a canned approach using an off-the-shelf platform may fit your needs, but if you are looking to deploy truly engaging mobile experiences, good luck.
NOTE: If you are a brand and your agency relies on a third party mobile partner, be sure to ask if the mobile partner maintains their own platform. If not, run the other way. The food chain would look like this: Client – Ad Agency – “Mobile Agency” – Mobile Platform Provider. This is a common occurrence and increases the risk to the client and agency, as the mobile agency doesn’t own the technology and if there is a problem, there is little or no recourse.
Mobile Marketing Agency
Mobile marketing agencies are just that, agencies. While there may not be print or interactive creative produced, mobile agencies can drive campaign ideation and help the advertiser maximize ROI, often developing ideas made possible by experience working with other clients and agencies.
However, not all mobile agencies are created equal. There are teams chasing the mobile marketing opportunity and branding themselves as agencies, but are really just resellers of a third party platform. They often lack strategy and execution experience and certainly aren’t going to know all of the technical details.
As an agency or brand marketer, you should demand that the provider of your mobile marketing campaigns be a firm that can help with both mobile strategy and executes using an in-house platform for execution. If not, you are relying on an unknown entity and the risk is simply too great.