Giselle Abramovich, Senior & Strategic Editor at CMO.com, challenged brands on whether or not branded content can make it on mobile.  She reached out to leading experts, including Brian Solis, to get their perspective on what works, why and how.

Other experts include:

Adam Broitman, VP of global marketing at MasterCard,

Esmee Williams, VP of consumer and brand strategy at Allrecipes.com

Jeff Hasen, CMO, chief strategist, and founder of Gotta Mobilize

With more than half of digital content now consumed via mobile devices, approaching its creation with a mobile mind-set has become a must. The problem is, taking desktop content and merely porting it over to mobile is not going to work, experts said.

Worth noting: Many marketers talk about the notion of mobile-first and mobile-only, but that addresses mainly how Generation Z—anybody under 18 years old—operates, according to Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group. Indeed, Gen Z consumers only know the world with pinching, zooming, swiping, tapping, and holding, which has great implications on the future of digital content consumption, he told CMO.com.

According to Solis, brands need to map the entire mobile customer journey, and have different content scenarios ready for each stage, depending on whether a user is on a smartphone, tablet, desktop, etc. Mobile isn’t just a platform for marketing either, he added.

“[Marketers are going to have to] take control and elaborate or advise customer support, customer loyalty, and advocacy, essentially all things to get people to understand or appreciate that the mobile customer doesn’t click; they swipe and pinch and zoom and tap,” he said. “Just because there are different mannerisms in how you engage with the screen doesn’t mean that it’s not important.”

Be sure to read the latest report by Brian Solis and Jaimy Szymanski, “The Inevitability of a Mobile-Only Customer Experience” on the state and future of mobile CX and UX.