by anton | Feb 14, 2016 |
Last week marked the annual State of the Nation Address where President Zuma outlined government’s achievements over the previous year to a joint sitting of Parliament. This landmark yearly event takes stock of where we are as a nation and presents plans to move South Africa forward. It might be pertinent to also take a look at where South Africa is when it comes to the state of mobile marketing in our country. Most of us know that we’re doing pretty well when we’re talking about overall mobile penetration in South Africa (now over 130%) and, for example, the use of mobile phones to browse the web (40% of users). But what about the State of the Mobile Nation? Current and potential InTarget clients would surely be interested to know just how big mobile marketing is in South Africa. Well, a lot of mobile marketing happens via apps downloaded on smartphones and one World Wide Worx study last year found that South Africa leads the continent in app downloads, with 34% of phone users making downloads from app stores. This compares to 31% in Ghana, 28% in Nigeria, 19% in Kenya and 18% in Uganda. The star performer on the mobile marketing front remains the text ads tagged onto Please Call Me messages. With each of Vodacom’s 31 million customers allowed to send 10 free Please Call Me messages per day, it’s no wonder the company sends out 3.6 billion of these little beauties a year. In conclusion, why don’t you speak to InTarget about these 3.6 billion mobile marketing...
by anton | Feb 10, 2016 |
Much of the content of this blog has addressed the theory behind mobile marketing and why campaigns conducted on, or accessed by, mobile devices are likely to be such resounding successes. We’ve looked at the most popular bearers used in mobile marketing campaigns such as USSD, MMS, SMS and Please Call Me tags, for example, that InTarget uses to deliver results for its valued clients. So with this solid grounding firmly in place, perhaps it is time we presented some real life examples of mobile marketing campaigns that went above and beyond the expectations of brand custodians across different industries. This might also spark some ideas as to how similar campaigns could be conducted in the South African market. Mobile case study #1: MasterCard proved just how powerful location-based mobile campaigns can be when it comes to encouraging consumers to access existing marketing platforms. The payment solutions provider ran a mobile campaign as part of its overarching Priceless Cities campaign. MasterCard developed a mobile app solution that allowed cardholders to tap into the Priceless website using their mobile devices. Then, depending on their location, they were able to access curated dining, entertainment, travel and sport experiences. Essentially, contextual data was leveraged to ensure the offers were relevant according to user location, input and other parameters. Promotional offers were integrated into the campaign for added uptake. Mobile case study #2: Deodorant brand Axe combined QR codes with a social media platform to drive brand engagement. By making smart use of QR codes, video content and Facebook pages, Axe achieved a 33% increase in social interaction with its brand, as well...
by Marius du Plessis | Feb 4, 2016 |
QR, or Quick Response Codes, are exactly that. They are a mobile marketing tool that provides a quick and easy method of getting information to consumers. QR codes are basically offline hyperlinks that direct cellphone users to online content. This 2D barcode can be read by a free QR reader app that you can download across different app stores. Some little-known benefits that QR codes have over other marketing mobile bearers include the following: They provide context to brands, campaigns and causes. Consumers are presented with such a vast number of advertising messages every day that, by necessity, brands try limit the amount of content that immediately accompanies those messages in an effort to get noticed. This of course limits the consumer’s ability to learn. QR codes enable those consumers who do notice your message to find out more about it without overloading that initial point of contact with too much information. They offer unparalleled diversity. Once the consumer has scanned the QR code, it can redirect them to just about anything: a web page, phone number, vCard, calendar event, SMS message, and even geolocation information. The consumer’s downloaded QR code reader is a portal to a vast array of awesome commercial content that can really get creative brains thinking. They help to better measure impact. In one famous example from several years ago, Calvin Klein Jeans replaced racy billboards with QR Codes. Not only did this please city authorities who were concerned with the original edgy outdoor content, but it’s often difficult to measure engagement with billboards, and QR codes help advertisers better measure their impact. All of...
by anton | Jan 20, 2016 |
One overseas study indicated that the single greatest contributor to overall performance when it came to different marketing channels was the newness of a particular channel. Essentially, the ‘physics of media’ indicate that the new channel has the biggest advantage. That’s great news for the sparkly relative newcomer that is mobile marketing, but it’s also kind of intuitive. What are the more specific and tangible reasons brands should give mobile a whirl? Let’s look at three that immediately come to mind. 1. Mobile users feel they have become part of the brand as opposed to being some distant consumer bombarded with messages that are far from tailored. This is possible because of the interactive and engaging multimedia content that is mobile’s biggest edge over traditional advertising. Because mobile marketing messages are being received on very personal devices that have become extensions of us, mobile allows consumers to internalise brands and all their positive attributes. 2. Related to the above, interactive content allows mobile users to stay highly engaged with a brand. It is this unparalleled degree of engagement that can’t be matched by a print advert or a billboard that enables effective learning and later recall to take place. They key is also that mobile’s many different bearers and platforms mean that boredom is limited. A consumer might receive a Please Call Me message with a text tag, followed up with an MMS that’s later reinforced with a promotional banner ad. 3. One of mobile’s biggest benefits is its measurability. And not only can mobile marketing efforts be measured, they can be measured across a wide variety of useful...
by anton | Jan 13, 2016 |
It seems that just over two decades ago, South African executives were just starting to learn about cellular after Vodacom and MTN’s commercial launch in 1994. It seems so long ago that the corporate world was battling to get its collective head around such new concepts as voicemail, dropped calls and text messaging. Today, things have gotten even more interesting and a lot more promising as mobile marketing – or the kind of marketing enabled by cellular technology – takes centre stage. If you haven’t started exploring what can be marketed on, or via, mobile handsets and tablets, here’s the best reason why you should. Mobile is arguably the closest you can get to the consumer. Simply put, there is no other device that is as personal (everybody has their own phone), as pervasive (is with you all of the time), and provides the opportunity for proximity. Mobile truly enables marketers to connect at the right time, in the right place, with the right individual. As business bible Forbes succinctly puts it, “The point is that mobile potentially offers disproportionate results”. For its part, InTarget adds that exactly how disproportionally positive those results are depends on partnering with the right mobile marketing...
