I can’t say that I’ve ever associated “Saatchi & Saatchi” with “mobile,” but as we’ve seen before, it’s an agency that’s quite fond of dropping books as self-promotional pieces. This time around, we get a little more useful information in Mobile Magic: The Saatchi & Saatchi Guide to Mobile Marketing by Tom Eslinger.
Now, keep in mind it’s May 2014, so the information is Eslinger’s book is timely and likely to be outdated next year. But it’s a fairly thorough overview of the mobile marketing landscape, and a very handy resource for planning and executing a mobile strategy. Throughout the book, there are recommendations for brand managers and others to take action in order to learn and understand the complexities of mobile. And the practicality of the advice is what’s really important: Planning, budgeting, testing, and maintenance all get a good amount of attention here.
Thankfully, the Lovemarks blather is kept to a minimum, and a handful of mobile marketing efforts from Saatchi offices worldwide only show up at the end of the book as relevant examples. So while Mobile Magic is clearly designed as a complementary piece to a new business presentation for Saatchi’s mobile teams, Eslinger has done an admirable job of providing a decent guide for anyone in the business to understand this ever-evolving world.
Special thanks to Wiley for providing me with a review copy.
This book is interesting on multiple fronts. GO: 1) It is nice to see an agency actually write a book; 2) This book will act as a new business tool targeting a topic on all client’s minds; 3) It should help wake all Saatchites up about the need to think mobile; 4) Agree that it will have a brief half-life; 4) At $21 it is too expensive — they should be going for distribution.
Peter, I’m seeing more and more agencies/agency CEOs put out books as a new business tool. I’d assume Saatchi has plenty of gratis copies to send out to any new business prospect who wants one.