Are Selfies the Future of Mobile Marketing?

Defined as a photograph “one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to social media,” the selfie is poised to be the future of mobile marketing, duck face and all.

The folks behind Opera Mediaworks certainly believe in the marketing power of the selfie. The company recently partnered with Celtra and now offers advertisers the ability to integrate selfies into ad campaigns.

The partnership “brings together Celtra’s expertise in empowering advertisers to deliver meaningful, highly-captivating brand messages to their audiences in the most effective and measurable manner and Opera Mediaworks’ vast global ad platform, which serves 64 billion impressions a month to more than 800 million consumers.”

This selfie ad format allows advertisers to create highly-personalized campaigns geared towards “precisely-targeted” audiences, and therefore up the ante much like geo-tracking. Today’s consumers can browse the internet, download favorite music, stream movies and do pretty much anything else on their phones, resulting in a desire for personal experiences with favorite brands rather than a more generic or traditional interaction. Selfies are about “branding yourself” as much as they are about brands...think images of famous people holding or using assorted products.

The Celebrity Selfie

The ubiquity of the celebrity selfie is partially responsible for turning the concept into a money-making opportunity, with Calvin Klein recently launching a selfie campaign using celebs and fans posing in their Calvin briefs. The pictures feature the hashtag #mycalvins. Ellen DeGeneres’ snapshot from the 2014 Oscars featuring Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts and a number of other stars was dubbed “the most retweeted selfie of all time,” once again demonstrating the selfie’s impressive function as a communication tool.

World Domination

Selfies aren’t just for American audiences, or for those who keep their feet on the ground. The Philippines is one country capitalizing on the selfie, with their Postal Corporation recently creating selfie stamp tourism souvenirs as a way of encouraging locals to send personalized packages. NASA is getting in on the selfie action, with their Instagram account featuring selfies of astronaut Mile Hopkins...in outer space.  

Simplicity At Its Best?

Taking a selfie isn’t exactly challenging, and the popularity of selfies and their corresponding hashtags provide an easy advertising option for brands looking to create more personal relationships with consumers. Every smartphone features a quality front-facing camera, and even if the selfie is as narcissistic as critics say, there’s no denying its power as a marketing tool.