Effective Mobile Marketing Awards 2018: What the judges want

The 2018 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards, in association with Weve, have had their very final deadline extention, and at midnight UK time on 24 August, entries will close and our judges will begin the hard work of determining winners. However, before the entries are passed over to our esteemed panel of industry veteran judges, and while youve still got time to dot the is and cross the ts, we reached out to some our 2018 judging panel for some insights into what theyre looking for.

Steph Miller, head of sales, marketing services, Zoopla
“I’m hoping to see innovation and using mobile in a seamless way to maximise the value of the campaign and the user experience. Brand safety and data privacy have always got to be of paramount importance in campaigns, therefore if these were lacking, I don’t think the entry could even be considered. However, if you can show a campaign that was interesting and innovative that used new technologies and managed to provide a great user experience while taking safety and privacy into account, it would be very compelling!

“There are more [ad] units and responsive design has improved, but the spends still don’t seem to be there, and therefore we need to look more into creativity and better ROI. I want to see campaigns either using mobile units creatively, as that isn’t something you often see, or bringing newer technologies into mobile, like AI.”

Cadi Jones, commercial innovation director, Clear Channel
“I’m excited to see campaigns that push the boundaries of what’s possible from a creative execution perspective; campaigns using data both from a targeting and an attribution perspective. And I’m really looking forward to seeing mobile in combination with other channels: mobile and out-of-home, mobile and TV, mobile and audio. Show us you best omnichannel!

“We’ve heard a lot about mobile location data, and there have been some excellent niche examples, but I’m keen to see it in action at scale, really changing marketers businesses. Data privacy is the new table stakes, so yes, I’d definitely like to see that illustrated in entries. And judging other awards, entries often overlook tying results to objectives they set out, so accountability to the brief is key.

“In the last year, mobile has become less intrusive; in the UK, fewer and fewer publishers are allowing interstitials. Not only that, it’s become more targeting and relevant, so audiences are objecting to it less and engaging more. The rise of vertical video has really enabled brands to focus on better quality content. Oh, and Cambridge Analytica killed the ‘personality quiz’!”

Ben Phillips, global head of mobile, Mediacom
“I’m interested in seeing creative measurements; moving away from standard buying and reporting proxies, anything that shows real world attribution and measurements of engagement such as Cost Per Footfall or increased spend, rather than the standard digital nomenclature that doesn’t do mobile justice. We should be seeing mobile as a data source as opposed to yet another display screen. We’ve all been over-exposed to ‘interscrollers’ by now. AMP pages and designs that reduce fil size and loading times, which are the main reasons why consumers install ad blockers. And AR – aside from Snap lenses, who’s making a difference?

“By providing better measurement and ROI analytics, there’s no surprise that mobile continues to advance but we’re still comparing it to models and benchmarks from a decade ago in some cases. Mobile has become marketing focused, as that’s its heritage. It was only when digital adopted it as part of its services that we lost track of its unique potential. As brand marketers and those that work with mobile as a specialist function on a day-to-day basis, it’s easy to see the benefits it affords and the support it lends to traditional and digital strategies.”

Ross Sleight, chief strategy officer, Somo
“I’m looking for solutions and campaigns that have a clearly identified objective with a clear understanding of how this will be met and measured. I’d like these solutions to be full of interesting thinking and customer understanding, driven by a real insight not just a large budget or blanket reach. I’d really like to see clever uses of marketing that are truly mobile only or mobile-first – utilising either the native functions of the smartphone or other device, or alternatively understanding and reacting to the context, the ‘where, when and how’, for the customer. Finally, I want to see something wow; something both clever creatively and from a media perspective – something that makes me think ‘I wish I’d done that’.

“I’m interested to see how the programmatic market has developed over the year and whether claims of machine learning are really adding value to customer relationships through enhance targeting. I’m also keen to see how brands prepared for GDPR and how they may have brought some of the thinking into play before it become law. I’m excited to see whether influencer marketing has had any major effects through social platforms or if it is merely hype, and finally I’m keen to see how the use cases for AR (and to a certain extent, VR) have developed and whether we have moved from gimmick to mainstream adoption.”

Julie Fairclough, senior director, marketing, EMEA, GroundTruth
“I’ve seen (and written) a lot of award entries, and campaigns that really resonate generally have one or more of the following: they make a real difference to business – changed brand perception, demonstrated an impact on behaviour or achieved attributed revenue generation; people find it valuable, providing an outstanding customer experience that people want to engage with – context is everything! I’m also a complete sucker for a simply brilliant concept with clearly defined, value-adding creative!

“Innovation should be at the heart of every good mobile campaign, but only if it adds to the experience of the consumer or is to the benefit of the brand. Real-world performance-based buying models are increasing in popularity, and audio/podcasts seem to have really come into their own over the last year, so very curious to see how brands have been using those.

“Brand safety, data privacy and transparency are all fundamental in protecting brands, agencies and indeed any business. I consider these to be hygiene factors, so I’m not sure campaigns should be called out individually in addressing these areas. More that the companies involved have taken the necessary steps in these areas, have the accreditations (such as DTSG and IAB Gold Standard) and have their campaign results independently verified for entries.”

Entries for the 2018 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards close at midnight UK time on 24 August. The entry fee is £225 (plus VAT where applicable) per entry, per category, and there are 35 categories to choose from, listed below. Entering this year’s Awards couldn’t be easier: just register here, choose the categories you wish to compete in, and upload your entries.