Context Is King

The idea that content was king resonated. It implied that thought and hard work mattered, that value could only be derived from substance, that meaning was a consequence of effort.

So that made the techno-business interface seem like a place where smart people, or at least those who were well prepared, could dictate terms.

And that seemed consistent with the Protestant ethos, the belief that reward had to be earned which, by extension, implied that those who were rewarded deserved it, a concept certainly consistent with the views of the anointed, if not always as widely shared as they may have liked.

But not being content to leave well enough alone, we had to go and embrace the whole mobile thing. Talk about changing the rules...

Suddenly, content is necessary but not sufficient. Because where we are and how we feel and what we think at any given moment, with inputs rushing at us like a meteor shower, means that context has emerged as a gatekeeper. In that battle for attention - and retention - understanding context became an essential element. This requires more information, which means greater access and an entire panoply of other factors we are not sure we like, let alone understand. We get the end, we are just not sure we embrace the means. JL

Daniel Weisbeck comments in Wired:

Mobile and smart technologies have transformed the relationship between brands and their customers, placing the power firmly back in the hands of the latter.

It’s almost 20 years since Bill Gates uttered the now famous phrase “content is king”, ushering in the World Wide Web and a new way of production and consumption for consumers. Yet, two decades on, and while his observations about the importance of content on demand still ring true, we now live in a world where the mediums of social and mobile underpin the way we interact with content and communicate online.
Mobile and smart technologies have transformed the relationship between brands and their customers, placing the power firmly back in the hands of the latter. The contextual “how” we communicate and what form that experience takes has become as important as the actual content being delivered. To that effect, context is everything. Context is king.
There is no clearer example of the importance of context than within the mobile web. Mobile is everywhere, and the explosion of smartphone devices will see the audience reach 1.75 billion in 2014. The increased popularity of smartphone, tablets and other connected devices has seen marketers desperately trying to work out the best way of delivering content to these mobile channels. Customers today are increasingly tech savvy, and brands who rely on their desktop websites using sub optimal ‘screen scraper’ templates have discovered a great way of alienating them.
Consumers do expect their experience online to be seamless across desktop and devices, but they use their mobile devices for different activities and at different times of the day which means they expect different contextual user experiences. And they heavily reward companies that pay attention to this context and the functionality of their device so that the experience is intuitive, fast and easy.

Responsive and Out
For many, the next iteration is Responsive Web Design (RWD), which focuses on the delivery of one website that works with all devices, ensuring content displays correctly on everything from desktop monitors, through to smartphones and tablet devices. RWD continues to grow in popularity with web developers, as it allows for multiple-device experiences from a single pool of code. For IT, this is a sound and scalable solution. But for marketers there are still pitfalls in RWD.
I mentioned earlier that user experience is everything in today’s world, and performance is one of the main issues affecting RWD. Users want everything ‘now’ and because RWD essentially asks the browser to suck in all of the page components before deciding which of them to deliver and how they should be laid out, this leads to longer page load times. In addition to performance, marketers are looking to out manoeuvre their competition, grab hold of a user and increase engagement which is only possible through customized mobile experiences for their customers online, and this can be difficult to achieve with RWD, as it is primarily focused on layout. RWD has its place, but its limitations, including ongoing development costs means it’s just the starting point for the future of mobile web and needs some assistance to really meet consumer expectations.
Adapt or Become Irrelevant
Taking the strain off the browser and making the server do the hard work before the two engage is the latest web idea and it’s where RESS (responsive design with server-side controls) comes in to play. At Netbiscuits, we’ve worked with brands like Coca-Cola, t-online, BMW and MTV helping them deliver faster load times through adaptive websites that are built to understand the device they are working with and how to optimize the experience for that user.This knowledge comes from the Netbiscuits Device Detection which provides a set of server-side components that enable the adaptation of web content and design to deliver the most engaging experience possible for that device.
Brands failing to drill down to this level and deliver adaptive experiences run the risk of customers abandoning their websites. In 2013, Netbiscuits research found that 76% of consumers will abandon a website if it’s not optimized for mobile browsing, while over 30% simply won’t bother trying to use a brand’s non-optimized site, or turn to a competitor instead.

Analyze This – Device Context and Beyond
An effective mobile marketing strategy takes in to account a variety of factors, such as: page impressions, unique visitors, session duration, basket abandonment, conversion and revenue tracking, combining these with event statistics that include media plays, trigger-calls, clicks and form submissions to give a complete picture of user behavior.
Beyond these traditional user metrics, Netbiscuits Analytics was developed to capture and integrate key contextual information for mobile web users, which can build up the most complete visitor profile, detailing device specific and contextual factors. Understanding visitor context at the time of connection, including location, remaining battery life, orientation of the device and the quality (i.e. speed) of the connection at that precise moment truly matters.
Taking these into account, alongside the precise make and model, operating system and browser versions along with usability components, such as ability to process JavaScript and HTML5, the memory and CPU power, take mobile web analytics to the next level.
The mobile web continues to evolve at pace, and will no doubt continue to do so. What’s for certain is that the constant stream of new devices, operating systems and platforms will continue. The question for marketers is how to best understand the context in which users are using these devices to engage with their content. From there, they can shape and craft unique, adaptive experiences that truly form a lasting connection between brand and customer.