Skyhook, WPP and Y&R recently hosted a brand and agency Cocktail Hour where we shared insights, challenges and ideas for the future over a few drinks. JJ Schmuckler, Global CMO of Y&R took the stage to illustrate what the ideal relationship between mobile location services and agencies could be. In his speech outlined below, he gives an overview of where the industry is headed and what brands and advertisers can do to reach consumers in an ever-changing technology landscape.
“Why would a mobile location company partner with a well-known established creative campaign-level branding company? What’s the point of it, why are we focused on it and what do we hope to get out of it? It starts with how we think about what we do at Y&R and how we define creativity.
We say that creativity involves a story, which essentially we own as an agency (on behalf of our brands) and create day in and day out. That means we need innovative thinking, and innovation isn’t this kind of thing that lives in a vacuum for Y&R. We define innovation as what can further drive a story. With that in mind, we spend a lot of time curating and partnering with innovative data companies that can help deepen the kinds of stories that we tell. We consider that piece a foundation for us.
The Problem Today
But the challenge and problem for us - which I stole from Skyhook - is that there’s data data everywhere! 90% of the data in the world has been created in the last 2 years - this is a pretty scary statistic. As someone who spends most of his day servicing brands, I’ll say that they are driving us to figure out what to do with that data.
The truth of the matter is that most of that data - if not harnessed correctly - is just noise. On top of that, a lot of brand partners want the next best thing - whether it be in wearable technology or the next piece of digital or mobile technology available. As brand stewards, we have to find the right calibration between the end product and end deliverable and how it’s going to manifest itself in the world, but also a story that puts people first and is driven by deep storytelling.
How do we do this? Our Global CEO David Sable talks about the difference between mobile and mobility, and I think we need to define that difference.
Mobile vs Mobility: What's the Difference?
Mobile is how you connect with people - it’s the actual way of reaching people. Mobility is way of life. It’s a lifestyle and it’s what you choose - it’s the delivery of information while on the go, making things easy for consumers to learn about your business across multiple devices and screens. We spend a lot of time with our brand partners attempting to delineate between the two. We’ll get to mobile, but encourage them to think in the lens of mobility.
Everyone is saying that everything in tech is mobile first, but it’s actually mobility first - that’s the reflection of who the consumer is, what the person is thinking about and their mindset.
The Connecting Thread: Mobile Location
We’re focused on partnering with Skyhook because if there was one collective data set that is the reflection of mobility and not mobile, it would be the output of a mobile consumers life on the go. If there’s any element, any asset that is so connected to who we all are, it’s location! We’re partnering with Skyhook because we want to harness deep, accurate data to help inform the consumer journey in a new way.
If you want to learn about a lion you don’t go to a zoo, you go to a jungle, so that’s what we do on behalf of our brands with our eXploring tool tool, which is our version of ethnography. When you marry the core Skyhook location data piece with our tools in the foundation of deep and accurate mobile data, you can better understand and drive the consumer journey."
-- JJ Schmuckler, Global CMO Y&R
