We're Out of Pockets

When marketers dream about mobile devices we talk about reaching folks on the coveted "third screen" (the TV and computer being the other two). Third screen marketing is bankable, although the accepted methods are still nascent. At Edelman, we are already developing mobile marketing programs for our clients. Some of these will succeed, others won't and we'll form best practices and learn from them. I am less confident, however, that there will be fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh screens.

The big reason is not technology, but clothes. We're out of pockets. How many of you carry three or more devices? I carry a BlackBerry, an iPod and a cell phone. I put one gadget in each jacket pocket and attach the other to my belt. Come summertime I won't be happy. I will have to reduce this load down to two - an iPod nano and my BlackBerry, which also has a so-so phone.

This is why I am not particularly bullish on the latest array of e-paper devices. We simply don't want another device to carry. We don't want the complexity. Although there has been a lot of buzz recently about electronic newspapers and mobile devices like the Sony Reader, I don't feel they will attract widespread use in the near term. Media and marketers should focus instead on proven platforms while keeping an eye on the coming, yet still elusive era of convergence.

The Financial Times has the right idea, although their initial effort needs work, Today the the FT released a special application that puts a link to the The Financial Times Web site on your Blackberry home screen. Hopefully, in the future they will add RSS to the delivery mechanism so that it automatically pushes the full content of the paper to BlackBerry subscribers.

In summary, look at the people around you and the devices they are using and experiment there before placing bets on unproven nascent platforms that add bulk to people's belts.

Comments

[Armand]

Ah, but perhaps this is where science fiction kicks in, Steve. Agree that e-paper is unlikely to be the new paradigm of personalised information - but wireless technology is key here. If it's not the mobile, maybe it'll be some more wearable technology? Perhaps glasses... perhaps contacts... perhaps a chip embedded in our brains, directly datavising (to borrow a term from Peter Hamilton) into our brains.

Ok, largely science fiction. But the point is that the phone is a limited and fundementally fiddly way of accessing information. Something better could easily leapfrog this medium - as someone who's not been a teenager for a few years, there simply isn't an appeal to access any content on my phone. At all.

And I don't think I'm alone here.

[Ryan]

I think the key here is to think of e-paper as a flexible thing. Roll it up and stick it in your briefcase, as you might with a newspaper or magazine. The current brickish e-readers aren't what we'll be pocketing 5 or 10 years from now.