Mobile Mainstream

Creative campaigns and designs are already reaching out to mobile. Michael Burns examines the opportunities open to you to increase your mobile design skills

Mobile design has been around for a while but, aside for some Java games and the odd GPS-enabled application, it hasn’t really made that big an impact – yet. There are signs, however, that the advertising industry and marketing departments are viewing mobile in a new light. “Mobile is rapidly becoming a standard feature of any campaign we put together,” says Alec East, director of Do Tank Studios. “Truly integrated communications work seamlessly across multiple delivery platforms.”

It’s a view shared by Duan Evans, creative director at AKQA. “Forward-thinking brands are clearly leading the way in mobile advertising,” he says, adding that AKQA proactively recommends mobile solutions that create or enhance an experience. “I believe we’ll see rich applications flourish throughout 2009, where strong creative ideas fused with fresh technology enhance the way we interact with our favourite brands.”

Mobile also now occupies individual categories in respected international design awards, among them D&AD. The D&AD mobile marketing award, appearing for the first time in 2008, awarded esteemed Yellow Pencils to BBH and Hakuhodo for campaigns for Unilever and Tohato respectively. Mobile design can often be incorporated into a web strategy, with networked games, peer-to-peer sharing, micro-blogging and location-based applications all acting as an extension to the overall marketing message or branding. There’s been a particular growth in the form of mini applications, or widgets, which give access to dedicated web services. “Web-based applications that work across desktop, mobile and, soon, TV screens are the norm and not the exception today,” says Alec East. “This applies equally to the regular websites, too. A version that works on any platform should be part of every web build strategy.”

A prime example of this approach is the BBC iPlayer. It runs in web browsers, plus it can be accessed with the same look and feel on mobile, as well as being deployed as a desktop application on Mac and Windows, on TV set-top boxes and across games consoles. If the BBC is making such advances, it’s safe to predict advertisers will follow suit. As the iPlayer example shows, the time when you had to severely limit the design of web content for it to be reused on a mobile phone is over; today’s devices offer high-resolution screens capable of rich media delivery, and support for standard web technologies means that content can easily be optimised for mobile.

For example, Nokia’s Series 40 and S60 devices offer large screens and support for Java and XHTML as well as greatly improved media handling via the Nokia WebKit. This re-uses components from proven desktop browser technologies, such as Apple’s Safari, and supports Adobe’s Flash Lite. The S60 can also support Flash-based widgets for accessing standalone web services.

Web designers can thus transfer their skills to mobile with ease, and port existing multimedia applications to smartphones, as well as design new widgets and interfaces for mobile use. “If you are already familiar with designing games for Flash, then Flash Lite shouldn’t present any major issues to you,” says East. “Similarly, if you can design CSS-driven sites in Dreamweaver, it should be very simple to adapt your design focus for mobile screen sizes.”

So with all this infrastructure in place, why has it taken so long for mobile to be recognised as a valid communication platform? “The problem was never creating the apps or the content for mobile – that was easy enough,” says East. “The problem was finding a userfriendly way to get stuff out there. While content may be king, distribution has proved to be the power behind the throne.”

Manufacturers and service providers are now working together to provide their customers with simple, easy-to-use storefronts, for example the Nokia Music Store and new Ovi Store and services. Nokia has also made deploying Flash-based Rich Internet Applications (RIA) much easier, with the release of the NFL and SIS packaging solutions for the Series 40 and S60 series respectively and its new Flash Packager service. Flash Lite content from Adobe creative tools can be packaged in these downloadable container files which, when accessed by the Nokia devices, will install applications via a familiar desktop-style icon.

Finally if you need any more prompting that mobile is worth your while, just look at the figures. At the time of writing, it’s estimated that mobile broadband subscribers number well over 84 million worldwide (source: hspa.gsmworld.com). That’s a lot of extra eyes for your – and your clients’ – content.

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