Why Mobile Ads Need Form and Function (VIDEO)
Verve‘s VP and creative director — and Street Fight Summit West speaker — Walt Geer believes that effective mobile local advertising balances form and function. The view towards proper balance stems from Geer’s longstanding position that more attention needs to be paid to creative in mobile ad campaigns. Too often, this doesn’t happen, resulting in ineffective messaging and poor performance. But it’s not just about the creative — it’s also important to get the mechanics right.
“People are doing one of two things,” he told Street Fight in a recent video interview (below). “They’re trying to build these big flashy creatives… And then you have other companies on mobile devices who are thinking about trying to do this location based stuff where it’s just about understanding where an individual might be at that point in time, like geofencing, and not really caring about the creative. Where the rubber should meet the road is how you actually bring those things together.”
Stepping back, Geer also believes that success in location based mobile advertising — or any field for that matter — comes from sharing ideas rather than hoarding them. This thought was inspired by one of his favorite books: Paul Arden’s “It’s not how good you are, It’s How Good You Want to Be.”
“In the book, [Arden] made this comment that resonates so much with me, and I think it speaks volumes about our industry, especially now,” said Geer in anticipation of SFSW. “He writes: ‘Don’t covet your ideas, give away everything you know, and more will come back to you.”
See the full interview with Geer below and find out more about Street Fight Summit West here.
