Mobile ROI at SXSWi
The streets of Austin, Texas are crowded with Chuck Taylors and big ideas, as SXSWi is in full swing. If 2010 was the year for mobile, 2011 is the year for ROI. Then, it’s quite appropriate that some of my initial takeaways are related to the marriage of both: Mobile and ROI.
Just like 2010 won’t mark the only year for mobile, really: When has ROI not been important? True, the industry has always focused on delivering returns on marketing initiatives, but the expanse of the supremely-measurable digital space has prompted a new era of marketing accountability.
So, what’s being said about how to calculate mobile ROI?
Media-Centric KPI’s for Brand Awareness
In the “Behind the Curtain: Secrets of Mobile Application Wizardry” session on Saturday with Razorfish’s Paul Gelb, the audience heard about the making of some of the finest branded mobile apps launched recently: SitOrSquat by Charmin, the Audi A4 Racing Challenge, and the Victoria’s Secret iPad app amongst others. Aside from the Victoria’s Secret app, which incuded a Red Laser bard code scanner, the apps featured were mostly engagement-focused as opposed to sales-based. When I asked about tracking sales-based ROI with non-sales-based apps, Gelb conceded that sales was usually not the objective in those projects. Media-centric key performance indicators, like content created or shared, impressions on that content, etc, are some potential metrics to track when a mobile app project is focused on creating brand awareness.
Sales Can Be Sexy Too
“Augmented Reality for Marketers” certainly acknowledged the gimmicky side of A/R, but a featured Converse app where you can place a virtual shoe on your actual foot (then buy directly) showed that engagement can lead to sales.
The Holy Grail is continuing to extend this engagement-to-sales value chain. With the bevy of user data being collected on the back-end of these apps, connecting with sales data from the customer relationship management (CRM) database could open the floodgates of knowledge. Imagine the insights you could garner: App user propensity to buy, customer propensity to engage, and so much more.
Final Thought
From brand awareness-building media-centric KPI’s to direct engagement-to-sales value chains, measuring mobile to calculate ROI is something all brands can - and should - be doing. Determine the objective of your mobile initiative, connect your goal with the appropriate metric, then compare performance across media.
What mobile ROI lessons have you learned from SXSWi - or anywhere else? Share your thoughts in the comments.
