Communications assistant professor Dan Haygood organized the one-day event, which focused on mobile technologies, regulations and advertising.
Participants in the School of Communications’ one-day Mobile Marketing Workshop Sept. 14 absorbed this and other surprising data on the saturation of mobile devices.
“I traveled to Morocco last spring and couldn’t believe that people without running water had mobile phones,” said Marisa Moody, vice president of the Elon student chapter of American Advertising Federation. “Mobile is not a luxury technology anymore.”
Michael Hanley, director of Ball State University’s Institute for Mobile Media Research and editor of International Journal of Mobile Marketing, was the featured speaker. Assistant professor Dan Haygood of the School of Communications directed the event, a continuation of the Digital Marketing Roundtables he has organized for the past two years. Event co-sponsors were Elon’s Interactive Media graduate program and the student chapter of AAF.
“School of Communications Dean (Paul) Parsons and Professor Haygood deserve credit for giving students and other faculty the opportunity to learn about the incredible changes happening in our mobile world,” Hanley said. “As our society transitions to using mobile devices for many aspects of our daily lives, Elon students will be prepared for careers that will require expertise in using mobile technology.”
Hanley focused on the following topics: the mobile ecosystem, current mobile technologies, regulations, privacy issues and marketing, with a specific emphasis on apps and advertising on mobile devices.
“Increasingly large numbers of people are gravitating to the small screen of mobile devices for communication, information and entertainment content,” Haygood said. “This has major implications for almost all segments of the communications realm. Mr. Hanley brought that to life for us this past Saturday at the Mobile Marketing Workshop.”
And student participants responded.
“It was a great opportunity for Elon students to hear from one of our country’s leaders in mobile marketing research and trends,” Moody said.
“The presentation was extremely informative, eye-opening and conversational,” Moody continued. “Thankfully, Mr. Hanley encouraged the interruptions, as attendees had a lot of questions about the role of mobile marketing in our lives. We talked about how sometimes our multi-tasking, tech-savvy generation thinks they ‘get’ mobile. They have a smart phone, so they know it all. But it’s so important to understand the laws and ethics behind sending advertisements through mobile as well as how the process works and how long it takes.”
Haygood agreed: “The challenge for marketers is to use mobile devices in a subtle way to reach audiences with brand messages without intrusion. People are extremely sensitive about their smart phones and would react very negatively to brand communications that were not artfully crafted and properly placed.”
Haygood said the Elon connection to Hanley’s center will now mean opportunities to share in app development opportunities for Elon students and in course development assistance for Elon faculty.
“Michael Hanley is a generous scholar and teacher. We were fortunate to host him here on the Elon campus,” Haygood said. “I look forward to his return.”