Mobile marketing drives creativity

Angus Robinson: new developments mean new opportunities.

“Mobile media presents organisations with a unique opportunity: the chance to actually converse with their audience, giving them better insight into their customers' needs and wants, and how to cater to those desires,” said Robinson. “Mobile marketing is taking away the ‘push' factor in many advertising campaigns, and changing them into two-way conversations.”

Mobile phone can't be ignored

There are approximately 5.5 million Internet users in South Africa. Conversely, although a large number of South Africans are in the lower LSMs, mobile phones are highly accessible and relatively affordable for this market.

“I would say there are approximately 10 to 12 million WAP-enabled cellphone users in South Africa, and that is a conservative estimation,” said Robinson. “Data costs are fairly low and our cellphone operators are improving their coverage every day.”

To add to this, cellphone manufacturers are creating phones that are better geared towards improved user experience with larger screens and memory capacity, and better connectivity.

Better ROI wanted

Robinson said the foundations for successful mobile marketing are already in place, and it is only a matter of time before more and more companies make use of this medium. “With the global economy in turmoil, marketers are more selective when they develop their campaigns - they want a better return on investment, better measurement and more engagement. Mobile marketing provides these measurements and interactions.”

Developments in handsets means marketers can create smart, interactive applications for their clients to use, an opportunity to advertise and interact with them.

Mobile marketing campaigns should create content that people can use; it's an opportunity to engage with customers in a different, more interactive manner.

Robinson cited an example of a campaign his company recently ran for Standard Bank, which wanted to target school leavers, to let them know about the various banking products available to them.

Instead of simply pushing students information about these products, Robinson says his company created a MXit campaign aimed at helping scholars deal with end-of-year issues that are common to matriculants. Content included information such as how to deal with stress, study tips, interesting careers and emerging trends in various industries - as well as competitions that were accompanied by prizes. Matric results were provided live through either SMS or from within MXit.

“It wasn't about simply selling a product - it was about how the bank could help these youngsters during a difficult time of their lives, using a medium their audience was comfortable with,” explained Robinson.

MXit hugely successful

Robinson says that MXit's success and its wide acceptance, and not only by the young, means the point is being reached at which the social networking application will need to be a part of many brands' campaigns.

As MXit has become more important, it is necessary to allow brands to manage content, interactions and campaigns - with minimal delays and costs. To this end, Brandsh has created a MXit Content Management System that enables structured content presentation, entry form creation, polls and surveys as well as web-service integration.

This was recently used in a campaign which included MXit-to-TV messaging for Channel GO on DStv where users could send “shout-outs” to the TV viewers of GO.

Many media owners and companies are also creating mobi sites, also known as WAP sites, which users can access from their phones.

“Basically, all these mediums allow companies to service customers, promote products, offer content, competitions, rewards, etc - the opportunities are endless. Companies can use these interactions as opportunities to gather information about their clients and to better understand their needs.

“Instead of being a one-way conversation, it becomes a situation where both parties add value,” concluded Robinson.

Angus Robinson will chair the Thinking Mobile Conference Series, which takes place in Johannesburg on 20 August 2009. Visit mobilemarketingwinners.com for more information on the conference.