spreading jam

It’s been a while since I’ve seen an inspiring mobile marketing campaign from a music label, but XL Records has really grabbed my attention! Deviating from the norm (a run of the mill template app which has 30 seconds of video content, a biog and a competition to win tickets) they’ve opted for a more innovative campaign, and definitely the most interesting I’ve seen in a long time.

To celebrate the release of Jamie XX’s reworking of Gil Scott Heron’s 2010 album ‘I’m New Here’, XL Records are transmitting the new record from several locations across London – to access the content, smartphone users will have to visit www.werenewhere.com/radio/ from their device when they are within range of one of the transmitters.

And it’s not the location based content sharing that has captured me, it’s the fact that the campaign will run across all smartphone platforms; it doesn’t discriminate against you if you have Android instead of Apple or vice versa. It’s this cross platform experience that really gives this campaign an edge, and makes it stand out among current mobile marketing activity. Of course, the reason why so many mobile marketing campaigns are run of the mill, is because of the vast range of smartphone operating systems available – which operating system are you supposed to pick?

A year ago, there would have been a conversation in an office somewhere with the label saying ‘let’s do something really cool on mobile, so and so artist has just released an iPhone app, we need to be in that space’ and whilst there is certainly still lots of opportunity for innovation, engagement and awareness through applications – it’s becoming an increasingly fragmented market. Just think, if you want to target ‘smartphone users’ via an app then you will certainly need to develop for iOS and Android – then there’s the question of developing for Nokia, Windows, Bada & Blackberry to name but a few. If the answer is yes to all of those platforms then you better be prepared to get the cheque book out and write a pretty hefty cheque. Developing across all of those platforms requires a huge range of different skill sets from developers; objective C, Java & C++ are three that immediately spring to mind – how do we get around this?

Well, in some cases you’ll pick the platforms that are most relevant to your audience, in other cases your CEO will pick the platform because he/she use an iPhone or has just seen that his/her rival has launched a store-finder app and feel that they need to keep up.

The other answer is HTML5. It’s in its early stages on mobile but already there are some very interesting and creative uses of it. And the Jamie XX & Gill Scott Heron promotion is one fantastic example of the benefits that HTML5 will bring to the party in 2011. For other examples, check out Nike’s website on an iPad and eBay’s mobile site, both of which are now using elements of HTML5 to give users a native app like feel.

So what is HTML5 allowing brands to do on mobile? Well, it’s delivering functionality that traditionally you would expect from a native app only in the browser.

Here are just a few examples:

• Geolocation for the increasing number of users accessing the web from mobile devices.
• Ability to provide better audio and video playback optimized based on the web device you are using.
• Offline storage so web applications can still work even when you don’t have a network connection.
• Drag and drop which was near impossible to implement previously. For example, you can drag and drop a file from your computer into the web browser.

And why is this so exciting for mobile development? Well, it bypasses a number of issues that have crept up on us since the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and the resulting smartphone race.

• HTML5 is platform agnostic, it runs in the browser, this will allow users of iPhone, Android etc to have the same experience without having to download a dedicated application.
• Search has been an issue with applications, particularly on iOS. Content that lives within applications isn’t discoverable via search, having a mobile site that has a dedicated URL will improve search visibility
• Apple’s refusal to support flash has been the headache of many a brand, agency and developer, HTML5 will solve the development issues that could only previously be solved via flash.

However, although HTML is set to revolutionise user experience across mobile platforms, there is still a big, big place for apps in the mobile landscape with iPhone and Android representing the most affluent demographic on mobile and without doubt they still offer rich and immersive experiences. If the predictions from Mary Meeker and Morgan Stanley prevail then accessing the web via a mobile device will overtake traditional fixed line methods by 2013/14 so it makes perfect sense for brands to be exploring and investing in HTML5 now, when the app race started too many brands were left behind, now’s the opportunity to pioneer.