What Hilary Rosen Can Teach Us About Focusing Your Mobile Ad Campaign

In the latest politicial mishap, democratic party strategist Hilary Rosen uttered the following comment about Ann Romney:

'Ann Romney has never worked a day in her life.'

In the spirit of always learning from other people's mistakes, we realized there could be no better way to learn from Rosen's mistake than to identify a couple ways to focus a mobile advertising campaign!

I know we're stretching here, but stick with us and we'll take you to the promised land ...

1. Content

Imagine that the Democratic National Committee was running a mobile ad campaign in political-heavy mobile apps like CNN or MSNBC.

As Hilary Rosen utters the phrase mentioned above, you are buying up all inventory around political content (breaking news, politics section, etc) and your DNC advertisement shows up directly next to a negative story about your brand. Lesson Learned: Do you have a transparent view into the type of content your mobile message is running alongside?

2. Device

Again, referring to Rosen's comments mentioned above, how would you react if you had seen her make that statement on live TV? If you read the statement in a newspaper article? If you heard it over the radio?

The channel that is presenting the information is critical in the way the user interprets it and formulates an opinion in their head.

The same can be said for the device that a mobile ad campaign targets -- if your product or service is focused on Android devices, yet you buy inventory on iPhones / iPads, how is the user supposed to react to a disconnected message like that?

Lesson Learned: Be cognizant of the creative and technical implications of running mobile ad campaigns across different devices.

3. In-App vs. Mobile Web

Building on point #2, device, where is your mobile ad campaign being delivered to the user? Is the advertising being served in actual mobile apps, or is the message sent out across mobile websites?

The creative implications of in-app vs mobile web are significant, and agencies should understand those differences and be able to interpret which option(s) are best for their clients.

Lesson Learned: You can't serve a 'Dunk Tank Hilary Rosen!' interactive ad across mobile websites -- understanding your clients options to deliver their message is key in making sure the creative execution works effectively.