Why is mobile advertising treated like a 7 year old?

 In advertising

After announcing the appointment of Tim Hussain as Head of Mobile Advertising for Sky back in August 2008, I finally had the chance to sit down with him today and talk about all things mobile.

Like me, he was been involved in the first internet wave (1994 – 1999) when we had small screens, dial-up internet speeds and slow processors (sound familiar?) and the nay sayers said that advertising on the internet would never work.  We swapped stories about checking our email via 9600 bps WAP connections in the late 90s …. ah they were the days with my Nokia 7110.

He came up with a great analogy for mobile advertising – likening it to a 7 year old, as mobile marketing has been probably around in a basic form since 2002.

On one hand, the Adults (traditional media & online) want the 7 year old to behave like an adult and can’t understand why they don’t behave that way.

On the other hand, the 7 year old wants to appear all grown up and be treated as an adult – but being only 7 can’t.

Great analogy Tim – and it helps to explain why things are still to mature in the mobile space.  Simply it takes time to grow up and be taken seriously.  As 40 year old, I can but only agree.

About 

Based in London, The Actionable Futurist and former Global Managing Partner at IBM, Andrew Grill is a popular and sought-after presenter and comementator on issues around digital disruption, workplace of the future and new technologies such as blockchain. Andrew is a multiple TEDx and International Keynote Speaker.