Using mobile banner advertising

Hawa Omar

Operations

The first thing consumers need to do, after reaching the mobile landing page, is select which province they are from. This gets them through the front door and enables the system to share the most relevant promotions. It also provides the client with information about where the clicks are coming from.

In addition to the online catalogue of promotions, the site also encourages consumers to register for SMS updates and refer friends. The client was pleased with the campaign's ROI, as the banner received 10 000 clicks in less than a month.

"As the mobile media partner, we are satisfied with the return on investment that we got for our clients when we used the BuzzCity network. It's a great medium to create awareness to many people in a short period for a fraction of the cost," says Fiona Smit MD of Yonder Media.

Building communities

For retailers to unleash the power of mobile and take their campaigns to the next stage, they need to do more. They need to create communities and enable mobile sales. The architecture exists; all that is needed is for companies to make use of it through these key consumer touch points:

1. Community - Successful e-commerce sites like Amazon have thrived not just by establishing an efficient order fulfilment mechanism, but by creating customer-generated content, such as reviews, around the products they sell. Going forward, the retailers who perform best will be companies that enable consumers to rate products, make recommendations, share recipes etc. in the mobile space.
   
2. Loyalty - retailers have cultivated consumer loyalty through a variety of programmes, which can now be consolidated into the mobile space. For example, there's no longer a need for physical loyalty cards, when mobile phones - and personalised mobile services - can take their place.
   
3. Coupons - forget the Sunday newspaper supplements, as virtual coupons and discount codes can be sent to registered members by SMS and placed on mobile websites. Mobile devices can capture, manage and redeem coupons and discounts.
   
4. Shopping lists - enable consumers who visit your mobile website to create shopping lists that they can access later when in store. If the shopping list can provide details on which aisle and row to find a product, even better.
   
5. Payments - mobile phones can make payments anywhere, anytime and in many African countries, there are now more consumers who use phones as a banking device than there are consumers with bank accounts. Retailers should start letting consumers pay with their phones, in advance or at checkout counters.
   

Today, consumers are in a fundamentally different position with mobile internet. With their phones, they can browse, bank, shop, socialize, buy and trade. Retailers have begun to tap into this power to advertise, collect data and share information about products. It's time for them to take the next step.