Genius

A couple of stories that we have put up on the site today have served to remind me why we spend so much time thinking and writing about mobile here at MMM, and why the companies engaged in it are so enthused about it. 
The first was the Knorr Cookbook application (currently available only in Poland, sorry). While I found the idea of a cookbook, albeit a mobile one, containing nothing but recipes for soup, amusing for some reason, the idea is quite simply, genius.
If you, like me, find yourself fishing round websites for recipes, in search of something new to do with those chicken breasts and mushrooms, then scribbling the missing ingredients down on a scrap of paper to take down the shop, you can start to see the appeal.
Having the recipe there on your mobile when you’re out shopping is one of those great ideas that was waiting to happen. Let’s hope the main course cookbook isn’t too far away. And why only Poland? Come on Knorr, the rest of the world cooks too.
The second is Mobstar’s DOGMOB service for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Mobstar, you may recall, is the company that, earlier this year, created a Mobile Survival Kit, which included a virtual Mobile Flame for waving during guitar solos, for this year’s Virgin V Festival.
This time round, it’s a suite of content for your phone, including a barking dog ringtone, in return for £3 of your cash, with the profits going to the Dogs Home. And again, it’s genius. Mobstar is not the first company to use mobile for charitable donations. Incentivated has done similarly good work with Macmillan Cancer Support. But the sheer wit behind this campaign just makes you feel good to be in a position to write about it.
I was talking to someone yesterday who bemoaned the fact that we are forever talking about the “potential” of mobile as a marketing channel. “It’s here now and brands are using it to good effect” he said. “Sometimes you need to stick your chest out and be proud of what you’re doing and tell the world about it.”
To all those brands sitting on the fence, watching and waiting, we say this: Look at these applications and campaigns, think of the level of engagement you could achieve with something as practical as the Knorr Cookbook, or as clever and as witty as the DOGMOB campaign, and get on with it.

David Murphy
Editor