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Oh, did I say “sales”? I meant “service”.

As emerging media continues to evolve and marketers / companies glob onto new opportunities, it’s funny how there always seems to be a “backtrack” when it comes to stating the purpose of a particular channel.  We’ve all witnessed tons of dollars and resources dumped into channels such as virtual worlds, social media, mobile marketing, in-game advertising, etc.  I have to admit, I love the shift of perspectives when everyone discovers that the “gold mine” isn’t inherent in the new media they try.  Especially when consumer adoption has yet to be fully realized.

For the past few years “mobile” has been touted as the pot of gold at the end of a long rainbow.  And now that many of us are entrenched in the space, everyone’s discovering that it’s not driving that much incremental revenue.  So now everyone shifts their gears and says, “well, mobile might be more of a service for us to offer rather than a revenue generator”.  This seems to be the phrase that justifies all the hype and squelches formerly established expectations.

Just like the article on Eye For Travel; a year ago this article would have said “Mobile is the next gold mine!”.  But today it’s more conservative when it asks the question “Is mobile more about delivering service or generating revenue?”.  Let’s face it, “delivering service” was really never at the top of the pile when it came to expectations.  Companies were sold on mobile marketing entry primarily based on the estimated ROI it seemed to portray.  Now, it’s a perfect “out” from that stance to say, “It’s more about service”. 

Mobile, just like any other new media isn’t going to replace revenue (or even come close to matching) garnered from media that has been established for over a decade.  Seems as though many marketing professionals still seek the one channel that includes mass audience.  That doesn’t exist.  And never will.  Media fragmentation is here to stay.  You need audience/users in order to generate sizeable revenue.  So while we all work towards a position in new media channels, let’s not kid ourselves and say “anything” is the ”answer to our sales prayers”, thus avoiding having to eat our own words.