In 2012 Mobile stormed into Cannes lions as the hot new category. In 2013, submissions were up 30 percent and the winner was a country first for the Philippines.
The morning the winners were announced, I joined Mobile Juror Chris Miller, Chief Digital Officer, Draftfcb; Ben Jones CTO of AKQA, a perpetual winner in the mobile space across all award shows; Anna Bager, VP and GM, IAB Mobile Center of Excellence and of course, Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB for an open conversation on all things "mobile".
Covering everything from the inside scoop on the 4 days of 20 hour judging by Chris to what a creative agency wants in engineers, we could have easily produced 10 videos from our discussion. But we focused on two themes -- both of which came out of the big news of the day: the winner. TXT BKS by Smart Pubic Affairs and DDB Philippines isn't a mobile campaign but an app. A product not a tag line. This lead us into a discussion on what the future of mobile looks like, where it's value lies and how brands need to think about mobile.
The mobile awards are only in its second year and we are seeing loads of wonderful executions that are less mobile advertising focus (just driving awareness) but more like advocacy (driving brand loyalty) through utility. A shining example of this is the free Wi-Fi sponsorship by Scrabble. By spelling your Wi-Fi password using the Scrabble board game, people got to engage in the game in context to the user experience. Brand experience through mobile is a wonderfully refreshing trend.
One thing we all agreed upon -- the future of mobile is uncertain. But the best uses will be true branded experiences that operate between surprise and delight entertainment and customer service. In that sense, should TXT BKS have been in the innovation category? Or does it belong in mobile.
Check out the two videos below featuring the highlights of the discussion: