The forum, sponsored by Unilever and BBM, covered varying pertinent topics related to mobile marketing, including mobile adspend, theories about tracking engagement and the types of video that works well on mobile.

What is great marketing?

Enver Groenewald, CCM director for Unilever Africa, and Doug Place, CMO of Nando's, drew contrast between “marketing” and “media”. Place explained that “marketing is an art and science, based fundamentally on persuasion, whereas media can be likened to the race track and not the race car. You can’t compensate for poor marketing regardless of how innovative it is. Get your marketing right, before you decide on your media. You’ll never solve your marketing problem with great media.”

According to Place, great marketing involves understanding your target consumer and what they currently believe about your brand. You then have to go one step further, and “create the optimal positioning for your brand and these consumers. This requires imagination. Imagination meaning: where would you like your consumers to be in relation to your brand.” To elaborate on this point, Place quoted Bill Bernbach: “We’re so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mould it.”

Groenewald, on the other hand, explained that people consume content, not media. However, these should not be viewed separately. Groenewald went on to humbly admit that the big brands, such as Unilever, don’t rule in this world anymore, as individual YouTubers, such as PewDiePie, often gain far more traction. He emphasised the need for brands to collaborate with each other in order to create “thumb-stopping content that is always authentic, relevant and eminently talkable”.

Consumer engagement

Matt Talbot, senior vice president of emerging solutions at Blackberry Messenger (BBM), explained that mobile messaging has created a major platform for brands. “Messaging apps are now the go-to apps for consumers, so you’ve already got a captive audience. The only logic now is to develop content for this audience,” says Talbot.

A common theme throughout the forum was that marketers should not be so focused on measuring and tracking engagement that they miss the opportunity to create captivating mobile content. “There is zero correlation between people who click [on ads] and people who buy. Clicking just tells us about people’s behaviour. Agencies should rather focus on reach, frequency and resonance,” explains Aiden Baigrie, regional head Facebook Africa.

Tips to make great video for mobile

According to Monique Claassen, director media and digital insights, Millward Brown SA, the following constitutes the best performing videos:

• Strong branding and clearly communicating a key message in the first five seconds

• Creatively using/playing on the ‘skip’ button

• Captivating your audience within the first five seconds and holding their attention beyond this

Adspend on mobile

According to Chris Babayode, MD MMA EMEA, it is always better to broaden your marketing budget to include mobile advertising, as it will no doubt increase brand presence and increase sales. He made this claim based on research on four brands that could’ve bettered their reach and overall profit had they incorporated mobile advertising in their campaign.

Furthermore, Babayode explained that in order to make mobile work harder, you need to focus on format, location and creative.