Mobile Opinion South Africa

Camera need fuels MMS

Camera biggest deciding factor in mobile phones; email and mobile Internet growing quickly.
Camera need fuels MMS

Recent research by the World Wide Worx in its annual mobility study has revealed some interesting results, with the importance of the camera and MMS to South Africa being highlighted.

The research shows that the camera is an important part of the phone to many mobile phone users, accounting for 56% usage of applications and driving peer-to-peer (P2P) MMS adoption. Furthermore, email and the mobile Internet are the fastest growing applications on the mobile phone.

This is an important trend to highlight because it shows people's need to be communicated with on the move.

The growing usage in MMS on a P2P level also highlights the growing usage of the technology. People have become more accepting of the technology and, as with SMS, this means that application-to-person (A2P) has been widely adopted, fuelling this P2P growth.

Good news for corporates

This is good news for corporates as the bulk MMS campaigns from companies which have grown the popularity of MMS, have had a knock-on effect, increasing the importance of MMS in people's daily lives. This in turn gives corporates a wider audience to communicate with using MMS.

The need for more technology in mobile phones is also highlighted in the research with almost half of consumers wanting to get a new mobile phone within the next year, while only 10% of people polled have no plans to upgrade.

Doing more on the move

This all points to people getting more advanced mobile phones, enabling them to do more while on the move. While the average user may only use fewer than half the number of features on a phone, high-end phones are increasingly penetrating the market.

With email and mobile Internet usage on the rise as the fastest growing applications on mobile phones, it's important for companies to ensure they have mobile websites up and are integrating mobile marketing into a marketing mix.

Making a connection with the user

Once companies have a mobile presence they can start to think about how they are going to draw people to their mobile websites and how to interact with them. Because while companies know technology usage is on the up and people are becoming more mobile, a successful mobile marketing campaign is built on making a connection with the user.

The wonderful thing about an MMS is that it provides detailed feedback in terms of what mobile phones people have. An MMS campaign can therefore give companies a very good idea of what kind of base they are talking to and how to communicate with this base going forward.

Mobile marketing campaigns can then be customised to be more relevant to the base, increasing response rates dramatically.

MMS can also be used to drive traffic to mobile websites where users are able to find out more about the company, sign up for services, purchase products, enter competitions and more.

More powerful mobile phones and the increased use of technology therefore translates into more opportunities for companies to interact with customers.

About Eddie Groenewald

Eddie Groenewald has 27 years experience in the ICT industry, of which more than a decade has been in the Digital Marketing sector. He now focuses on a True Multimedia Offering, ATL, BTL and Digital.
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