The glow of cell phones, a sea of them. That’s what I saw peering down on the 2,000 or so Ohio University students (my daughter Ali included-can I get a BIG Woo Hoo??) eagerly awaiting to walk across the stage at their commencement ceremony this Saturday. This was the afternoon session. There were already 2,000 students who had participated in the morning exercise. 4,000 students in all lighting up a dimly lit arena. No need for glow sticks here. They could just put their cell phones on their wrists and twirl them in the air.
Of course, they were trying to be discreet. They held their phones down in their lap as they feverishly typed text messages back and forth or actively watched the World Cup’s England versus USA game. One thing is for certain, this generation has ADD big time, especially when it comes to mobile devices.
For my generation, “Going Mobile” was a familiar tune from the Who. All about living out on the road and movin’ from place to place—in a vehicle. Now being mobile is about instant communication and access to anything in the world.
Smart phones (and most college students have this type of phone) are the phone books, newspapers, magazines, radios and televisions of this generation. They are actually much more than that to them. They sleep with them. I guess you could consider them their spouses too!
But in all seriousness, mobile devices are a way to advertise. If you have a business that relies on walk-in traffic and/or local awareness and if 18-24 year olds and even 25-36 year olds are part of your mix, you need to be doing something with this medium. Mobile coupons, apps for phones, banner ads on sites they frequently access on their phones, ads on Facebook—something.
The local advertising landscape has changed for good. No longer can you rely on traditional print and broadcast media. You need to be dominating online media as well. There has been and will continue to be a huge shift in advertising dollars from traditional media to this “new” media. Lots of research has been done to back this up. Over the next five years we will experience the greatest shift of advertising dollars of all time. Something we have never seen in our lifetime. It’s that big. I encourage you to do something now and get ahead of your competition.
(Shameless advertising message goes here.)
If dominating local online search is something you are serious about, we have some terrific programs available that can help you do this. Give us a call or send me an email. We’re scheduling appointments now with all our clients and after that we will start marketing to those we don’t know in the various niches.
Side note—after relaying to Ali my ”attached at the hip” observation of students and their cell phones, I posed only one question to her. “How come you don’t pick up when I call?” She just replied with a nervous little laugh…Busted!
Author: Kathy Jiamboi
Owner of Creativedge Marketing, where growth-oriented dentists find dental practice marketing strategies and advice to take their practice to a new and higher level.