Scott Curtis joined Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) in 2008 as a digital executive and was promptly promoted to the role of global digital media manager. In 2014, Curtis became the company’s mobile development director.
How would you sum up the first half of 2015 in one sentence?
Brands are becoming bolder, and developments in technology are evolving at a much quicker pace than in any other part of the industry.
Which brands do you feel are embracing mobile technology and innovation?
Every brand must be disruptive to reach their audiences as they migrate towards increasingly digital and mobile behaviours. Different brands are at different stages of their journey towards this. Innovation for one can be the bread and butter for another.
At SMG all of our clients’ brands are willing to embrace mobile, and we are even seeing the brands that are in the early stages of their mobile journey utilising advanced mobile tactics in order to communicate with their customers.
Where do you see mobile location technology in 2020?
I see mobile (and so location) merging into digital.
Over the next five years the whole digital landscape will shift towards cross device programmatic. Different channels will have different targeting capabilities, but at the heart of this future will be more precise targeting of audiences and deployment of content to them. This means being able to reach audiences regardless of device, at the right time and in the right context.
We’re already seeing the promise of location being fulfilled with mobile, which is only set to grow in the coming years as we continue to digitise and use real-world behaviours in order to communicate with audiences.
What advice would you give brand marketers who are not sure how to best leverage the mobile channel?
Mobile is often seen as a difficult channel because it’s still so new, less understood and continually changing. In the face of this, it is understandable that some marketers play it safe with tried and tested activity. But the mobile opportunity is one that requires a “get involved” mentality, rather than a “wait and see” approach.
All brands’ audiences are using smartphones, while mobile and tablet usage has overtaken desktop and is set to overtake TV in the near future. What this means is that it’s not just going to become the biggest channel, but it’s already substantial today.
Scott Curtis is European mobile strategy and development director at SMG
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