Mobile Badvertising: Capgemini

If you're the sort of person who reads the Financial Times, you probably already have a good idea of who Capgemini are and what they do. That's just as well because their advert is almost illegible. Take a look.

Lest you think I've been monkeying around with screensizes, let me assure you that the image above is at exactly the same resolution that it appeared on my BlackBerry Bold. One of the most popular business devices.

Let's take a look at the advert by itself.

Despite the whole image being 300 pixels wide, the consultants at Capgemini have opted to use a mere 120 pixels to get their message across to the readers of the FT.

Even if your eyesight hadn't become strained from staring at pink paper for the last 30 years, you'd find it hard to make out what the advert is saying. Let's zoom in on those sparse 120 pixels

The original image is so small, that when enlarged, it becomes obvious that the famous moto "Consulting. Technology. Outsourcing" was little more than a blur.

So, what is this advert for? The banner image shows nothing more than the logo - and poorly at that. Why would anyone click? Let's see what happens when we do.

Oh Dear

Once again a mobile advert on a mobile site has taken us to a page which is definitely not mobile-friendly. The page is http://www.capgemini.com/supply-chain-management/

To compound the error, what do we spot in the lower right corner?

The number of phones which support Adobe's Flash Player within the browser is minuscule.  The BlackBerry is not among their number.  Nor is the sainted iPhone.

Luckily the HTC Hero, running Google's Android, does play flash files.  Shall we take a look at what's on offer?

It's a video.  A not-at-all-boring video about supply chain management.  The video is probably very interesting to those people who read the FT and visit Capgemini's website. You can download the video directly (warning - 15MB .flv file) or watch it here.

Conclusions

I would hope all of these points are obvious to you.

• Make your advert legible.
• Make full use of the medium.  If you've been given a 300x50 pixel banner - fill it.
• Give an indication of what your advert points to.  Much like Cool URIs - you need something for a human to latch on to.
• Point to a mobile site.
• If the browser can't support certain content, make sure you have an alternative available.
• Video is a great medium for advertising.  Making mobile-friendly video isn't hard.  You can use services like http://m.youtube.com/ to automatically make your video suitable for mobile if you don't have the skill to do it yourself.
• Ask yourself - "What is the point of this advert?" Why would someone click on it?  What benefit will the customer get?  What benefit will the advertiser get?  If you can't answer these questions, you've got a Badvertisement

That a €multi-billion firm like Capgemini can get it so wrong is very depressing.  All that talent, money and effort squandered on an advert which shows them in a very poor light.  Perhaps the FT should consider screening the adverts it places on its mobile site so as not to infuriate its readers.