If you didn’t make it to this years’ Mobile Marketing Summit, here’s a glimpse of the six important insights that were shared:
Paul Berney, Managing Director of the Europe MMA branch, reiterated what marketers know about mobile in South Africa, that there is more opportunity to use mobile advertising especially, with the pressure on marketing budgets. Brands have to do something different and mobile has benefitted from this.
With search increasing by a phenomenal 300% on Android from last year, and with 2-million queries daily on mobile search, Rob Stokes of Quirk made it clear that mobile usage is increasing rapidly. He shared that an astounding 25% of all Google searches are made on a mobile phone and this numbers goes up to 65% on weekends.
An interesting insight around mobi search campaigns from Rob is that one cannot just “tick-the-mobi-box” as part of the online search strategy to run on mobile. The mobile surfer is different to an online user and interacts with search in a different way. He suggests that a separate mobile campaign is created to reach its objective key target audience. Mobi users “snack on internet in small sessions” while multitasking on-the-go, unlike online users who spend time navigating back and forth around information and mobile search strategies should align with this.
A key approach to community building requires long-term commitment to developing relationships between brands and their consumers, suggests Angus Robinson. (He’s our founder and executive creative director!)
With brands being vulnerable and opening themselves up to criticism, they should adopt a new approach and realise that the power of the community is equal to the power of brands listening. Don't consider technology through your own eyes, look at the relevance of technology to your audience. Value + Relevance = Engagement.
Angus also shared a key learning for some of Brandsh’s successful mobile compaigns: To have mobile at the core of media planning, and building from the inside, with a fully integrated media mix approach at the start of the big idea. A common mistake some brands and even agencies make is that they keep mobile as an afterthought because they have some left over budget and it seems like the logical/easiest/trackable thing to do. Essentially, mobile is here to enhance engagement, not fill a space in a media schedule.
Sometimes the best ideas are the simple ones that are really well executed. We looked at various case studies like the innovative use of media within MXit with a number of Standard Bank campaigns (Brandsh) and the viral “Doritos be heard” campaign (Mortimer Harvey). Gavin Rooke, Trigger managing director, said, "The question is not 'if' mobile is the right medium for a campaign, but rather ‘how’ you use it.” Showing the Cell C Nike Football Starter Pack case study, Gavin left an air of inspiration and eagerness to stretch ourselves beyond banners and buttons.
With mobile web continuously expanding, brands need to ensure that they have a mobile strategy that fits in with the overall strategy, whether that means brand awareness or lead generation.
It’s clear that executing an innovative mobile media campaign, with an integrated marketing mix connecting to the right audience is key. But it’s also clear that mobile marketing is no longer a revolution or something ‘out there’ - it’s right here, right now, everywhere, and in every consumer’s pocket.
However, what is still new and changing, is that we need to have the stats and data showing where to reach the right audience at the right time with the right message. With measurement, reporting and ROI top of mind, we eagerly wait for the updated Neilsens/Admob and Google stats to be presented to the market in the next few months, and the real value in mobile marketing will be evident.