Mobile, the 7th Mass Media Channel?

I’m sure you all agree last week was a bit of a struggle. To celebrate getting through the week a few of my esteemed colleagues and I decided to break all our new year’s resolutions and have lunch comprising of a “few” bottles of red wine. To feel less guilty, we thought we should discuss a media topic. Surprisingly, we enjoyed an immediate consensus of views on the topic - mobile.

Mobile facts started began pinging round the table like a demonic pin ball machine. Twice as many mobile phones globally than personal computers, nearly twice as many mobiles as TV sets. One fact that is obvious but still astounding is that twice as many people use SMS messaging on the phone than use email.

Alan Moore and Tomi T Ahonen in their excellent book ‘Communities Dominate Brands’ see mobile as a fully fledged mass media channel. They call it the 7th mass media channel not merely a response tool to facilitate accessibility. Mobile phones are an expression of individuality which makes them unique in media terms. From ring tone to contacts, the mobile phone is as close as you can get to an individual’s cultural finger print. There was a woman on Radio 4 last weekend who told listeners she has an erotic relationship with her phone, she sleeps with it and takes it to the loo. Maybe this is taking things a bit too far but it makes an interesting point.

As practitioners in media communications we all need to exploit the relationship consumers have with the mobile phone. So we all made a belated new year’s resolution. Ensure mobile media is an integral part of our comms planning. Much better than losing weight! If you’d like to explore how you can incorporate mobile into your media mix, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Ian Prager, Planning Director