One of the more popular tracks during last week’s Integrated Marketing Week was from Tim Reis, Head of Mobile & Social Solutions, Americas at Google.

Tim has held a variety of roles  at Google. For example: leading the Mobile Display (formerly Admob) advertising team for the finance, entertainment, auto and travel industry verticals,so his wide understanding of online marketing, and fun, but also insightful presentation style really drove interest.

Here’s some of what we learned from: Understanding the Full Value of Mobile

It’s a truly mobile and integrated world

Reis gave a personal anecdote around his trip into NY for the conference and the current nature of today’s integrated marketing. Riding in a cab after he had landed, he spotted a bus poster for the Ray Donovan program on Showtime.

Reis happened to notice at the same time that there was a video ad on the cab TV for the same show, which prompted him to do a search on his smartphone, yeilding a paid ad by Showtime in the mobile search results.

Eager to see just how far down the funnel Showtime had aligned, Reis also clicked the ad and found himself on a mobile-optimized site promoting the show with facts and airtimes.

This might be a pretty obvious first takeaway, but it was a timely way to talk about taking advantage of the devices that are with us all the time for a new world of consumer behavior and marketing.

Smart mobile strategy isn’t just about winning in mobile. It’s about winning. 

To illustrate this point Reis spoke about Ray Kurzweil and his relationship to Google.

The American author, inventor, futurist, and a director of engineering at Google has hundreds of patents, including a reader for the blind, but core to his philosophy and writings is the underlying principle that information technology will continue to develop exponentially, leading to a not-so-distant future when artificial intelligence and more dominates our daily lives.

Reis stressed:

The urgency in understanding and employing mobile within the framework of technology’s future is on orders of magnitude far greater than just mapping your customer journey.

Convergence, context and friction

According to Reis, these are the pillars that you need to take into account for your overall mobile strategy.

  • Convergence: Think of the lifecycle of the iPod in relation to its physical size over the years. In Reis’ eyes this shows that when it comes to devices, consumers will gladly accept a little less (in iPod’s case size of the hard drive) for more convenience.

    Also, when plotting a simple X-Y axis showing the devices in our lives and the feature set, against proximity (how often we have them on hand) it’s a very clear up and to the right curve.

  • Context: Google has defined itself and braced for the mobile future by becoming a database of intention. Reis gave the example that if you search for pizza at 7am in the kitchen, you are most likely looking for a recipe.

    If you are out on the street and it’s evening, you are looking for a restaurant. 

A great example of context done well, and showing alignment to consumer goals in the real world comes from Meijer Inc., a Midwestern chain of supermarkets, which is using geo-fencing to offer their customers real-time shopping list displayed according to the aisle they are currently on.

Coupons and weekly specials also appear, but the real value-add is for the busy shopper who gets a dynamic shopping list saving them time.

  • Friction: There are a million things that can slow a consumer between when they hear of you and the zero moment of truth. Your ability to erase speed bumps will increase your success.

As an example Reis spoke on the Chase banking app, which was the first to introduce check deposit by taking a photo with your smartphone.

Chase had all the boxes ticked. Discoverability? Chase had site links. Did they loose the registration in formville? Chase knew that 8% of their online form requirements were being done on mobile and scaled.

In closing, Reis stated that, of course people are spending more time in apps, but marketers need to think about what role an app plays in their customer journey before building one.

As per the slide pictured in the thumbnail for this post, 73% of mobile searches trigger additional action, your task as a marketer is to align with your consumer on the action.

Editor’s note: For updated information on Google Enhanced Campaigns and multi-screening in PPC, check out the Econsultancy Paid Search Marketing Best Practice Guide.