NEW YORK: American companies aren't using mobile video to expand their business as much as executives would like, according to a recent KIT Digital survey. A poll of 125 executives showed that while 60% of respondents believe mobile video is a worthwhile marketing tool, only 16% are actually utilizing the software.
KIT Digital VP of marketing and communications Daniel Goodfellow said through his work he noticed a lag in companies' use of mobile video, and instigated the survey to discover the hard figures. The survey was conducted during a KIT Digital mobile video webinar. Goodfellow said about 70% of the executives polled were from Fortune 500 companies, with the rest coming from consultancies and media companies.
“We had a pretty strong sense that the US was behind in terms of how marketing people are thinking about mobile video,” he said. “In Europe, where 3G isn't just rolling out, but where individuals and companies are already onto 4G, you have an increased bandwidth. That makes the networks start getting more creative with applications they offer. When that happens, marketers get on board.”
Goodfellow added that one of the benefits of mobile video lies in the technology's ability to produce broad-reaching content at a fraction of the cost of traditional media sources, like TV ads. And looking forward to 2010, Goodfellow noted that while mobile video use is low at the moment, he expects those numbers to increase in the coming year.
“The technology is there now in America, and I would be interested to conduct this survey again six months from now, and again in a year,” he said. “I suspect we're going to see the numbers increase. To bridge that gap, it's important to create compelling content to engage users. It has to be unique, it has to be something they can't get anywhere else.”
Lewis Goldberg, managing partner with KCSA Strategic Communications, agreed that companies aren't using mobile video enough. Instead, it often falls to agencies to champion the tool to clients.
“PR is about helping our clients create content for their audience, and mobile video is a channel that we have to help our clients understand,” Goldberg said. “From a PR perspective, it only behooves me to encourage my clients to take advantage of this tool. To be able to measure consumer response is very valuable in PR, and mobile video is an extremely measurable tool.”
