Over the course of the last several weeks the graduate students in my Mobile Media class at the University of Washington have been seeking out and participating in dozens of mobile marketing campaigns. The idea is to get out there and experience what marketers and designers are doing to engage people via their mobile devices. And what an eye-opening experience it’s been!

“Is mobile marketing really so hard that it leaves today’s digital marketers fumbling around trying to get it right?”

Reading through their blog posts (students are required to blog about the campaigns they experience) I had sense of growing disappointment. So many of the campaigns they were trying, which leveraged things like 2D barcodes, apps, SMS and MMS, simply didn’t work. That is, the student’s experience on their phone was completely broken. In one example, Reebok promoted a new woman’s shoe line in Shape magazine via a SnapTag which, when sent in using MMS, resulted in an SMS containing only a link to a YouTube.com video. OK for some smartphone users but anyone else is out of luck. Another campaign – this one by Ski Utah – offered a look at their “amazing deals” via their QR code, which directed you to their regular Internet site; a very broken experience for anyone not using an iPhone or other smartphone. In fact it didn’t even work on those devices. I was becoming disappointed and a bit embarrassed. Disappointed by all the failed experiences and embarrassed by fellow marketers who can’t put down their iPhones.

The lesson: User experience needs to be considered for all mobile devices, including smartphones. Read more…