The mobile campaign for the Land Rover LR3 utilizes video, which plays from the Mobile WAPsite that can be accessed at http://landrover.enpocket.com/lr3 from a mobile browser. The campaign is representative of the new breed of mobile advertising that employs video to engage the target audience. Mike Baker, VP of mobile advertising for Nokia Ad Business, formerly Enpocket, which served the advertising, and John Ohara, senior media planner at Mediaedge/Irvine, Calif., the agency that created the campaign, discuss the work and the repercussions for the use of mobile video in the future.
Interview with Mike Baker
iSPOT: Can you provide background on the Land Rover mobile video campaign?
Baker: The brand was trying to reach a certain demographic on their mobile phones. Nokia can do advanced targeting with the kind of data that’s available in mobile communication. We were able to target the campaign through display advertising in the mobile browser to consumers who fit the high net worth category. From the browser you take them to a mobile Internet site which we host. The consumers went to a site where they can learn more about the LR3 and find local dealers, which is one of the conversions they were looking for to find test drive candidates. It provided engagement in watching videos of the car. We’re finding consumers have a high propensity to engage with advertising that features rich media because most of the content consumers have to pay for, while we offer it at no additional charge. We can also determine which handsets can watch the video and we have the capability to launch a video from a banner so we know which handsets can launch the media player from the browser. If it can do that, we will. For those that can’t, we have a jump page where you can download the video.
iSPOT: How do the videos play in this campaign?
Baker: These videos were downloads, not streams.
iSPOT: How do consumers actually download them?
Baker: They go to the website from the banner and click to download the videos. We are targeting based on who has high bandwidth connections on the 3G network. It’s a pretty quick download, about 10 seconds. We found that 70 percent of the people who came to the mobile website downloaded the video. It’s a very targeted message and when you have something good to share, like a car in action, there’s a high interest level. We also found that there tends to be multiple viewing of the video. People tend to spend some time with it because the mobile phone is a device people use to get information they need right away or when they’re killing time waiting in line. If it’s entertaining enough you’ll find people going back, which they wouldn’t do online because there are so many things to do and see.
iSPOT: How many videos are being used in the campaign?
Baker: Three, but I can’t tell you the length or file size. We pare it down narratively for quicker consumption time. We recommend the agency not run a TV spot; 10 to 15 seconds is the ideal length. Typically, the piece of video is longer and needs a shorter narrative.
iSPOT: When did the campaign start?
Baker: It launched this month and it’s ongoing.
iSPOT: What’s the future for mobile video advertising?
Baker: We see a bright future for it. The medium has been limited by the number of people who have video capable phones with broadband data connections, but we’re seeing the adoption of 3G coming closer to mass market. Also, we’ve been doing video on phones for awhile in the U.K. They’re further ahead in Europe, it’s a preview of what’s coming. There’s a trend in the high level of user engagement. The trick is to weave it in so it’s not just a passive experience. The user can convert, sign up for a test drive and call a dealer. The challenge of mobile advertising is the small screen size, but we see video as a compelling payload for those who have the necessary equipment. We’re up to eight million video subscribers in the U.S. When you see these kind of conversion rates, it tells the brands we’ve found a successful way to engage the demographic.
iSPOT: How do you get around traditional carrier opposition to playing video ads?
Baker: Carriers have realized there’s a lot of promotional content that doesn’t cannibalize the market for paid content. Nobody is going to pay to download a Land Rover video. It won’t cannibalize it at all, maybe it will encourage more consumption generally for video. The person who downloaded the Land Rover video is generating more bandwidth revenue for the carrier. So if they can get people to consume video in the phone, they’re in the bandwidth business. You don’t have to use much to talk on the phone but to watch video you use a lot. One big issue is the data plans relative to video. The question is how will it change in the future. One exciting development is WiMax which Sprint is committed to role out in 2008. It’s a complete game changer for consumption of video on mobile devices. It’s a 4G technology that gets people to T1 speeds on the mobile device. It’s a tremendous bandwidth. The economy of that kind of system favors the ISP model where the carrier is providing high bandwidth connections and looking for terrific content that spurs consumer adoption of the broadband proposition. Part of the reason carriers are loath to flat price is that the economics of bandwidth aren’t conducive to unlimited data consumption. The incremental cost of data on current cellular networks is far more than costs of data on fiber cable so that’s why we are where we are, but as Verizon and Sprint roll out 4G connections there will be heavy consumption of data and they’ll merchandize the offering in a fashion that looks more like an ISP.
iSPOT: Traditional mobile video content is entertainment oriented. How are advertisers going to be able to get in the mix?
Baker: Advertisers will play an important role in subsidizing the cost to consumers and the revenue to the mobile operator. We did hear Verizon say they were going to an ad supported channel, but it didn’t happen. But it doesn’t take a visionary to see that mobile TV subscriptions are expensive. If you can lower the price with ads, you might double or triple the number of subscribers. The media model says overall yield will be maximized if you lower the price to consumers by introducing a third party payer to the system, which is the advertiser. It’s a well established and successful model. Now mobile advertising is new and needs to go through a proving it out stage. When it does, we’ll have reliable price points and be able to create business models to launch products and programs and integrated advertising and figure out how to share the revenue. Some interesting things are coming down the pike. We’re all watching WiMax roll out for Sprint. Interesting devices are coming out that will be well be suited to video consumption on the phone.
Interview with John Ohara
iSPOT: How did the Land Rover mobile campaign develop?
Ohara: We worked with Enpocket and they developed the LR3 WAPsite. We had all the WAP banners demo-targeted to 35-54-year-olds with household income over $125,000 plus. It was all demo-targeted to our core audience. We designed the LR3 WAPsite with digital channels highlighting different features of the vehicle. On each channel we had a custom LR3 video that spoke to those points. We had a dealer locator, which was one of the primary functions we’re looking to use the WAP site for, with a zip code search function. We’re seeing really high conversions and downloads for video. For the WAP banners we have running, we use different calls to action–“Click to see the LR3 video” and another that said “Free Land Rover video.” Typically we see very high conversion when things are free, like a free mobile ring tone or in this case a free video. We saw high conversion and high engagement overall.
iSPOT: What kind of videos ran and how were they created?
Ohara: Each of the videos spoke to a different category. If we had a technology channel, we chose an LR3 video that highlights technical characteristics of the vehicle. For terrain response, which is one of our main selling points, there was a separate video on the terrain response page. In terms of the shoot, we have an in-house video production company and they went out and shot the videos.
iSPOT: Were they original for mobile or TV commercials?
Ohara: They’re for the online global website, not exclusive for mobile; they run online but not TV. The videos are about 60 seconds long like a tutorial overview of the vehicle. They vary in length, another might be a little shorter.
iSPOT: How does mobile video fit into all the advertising for Land Rover?
Ohara: Overall, Land Rover hasn’t done too much with mobile, this is the first time. We’re seeing high return on the investment with the hand raisers we get from the dealer locator. We get high engagement with the videos from the channels. Moving into ’08, mobile will be a very big strategy of ours. We’re looking at an overall upfront budget just for mobile. We have four Land Rover nameplates and we’re looking to contact Y&R’s production company to see if they can produce the WAP site in house and then run media off of different vendors. That’s how big this mobile initiative is going to be for 2008.
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