Mobile Ads Need To Be Viewable & Not Overly Intrusive

Mobile Ads Need To Be Viewable & Not Overly Intrusive

Two pieces of news that made their appearance on the web this week caught my eye. The first item is fantastic news (and contains a dash of obvious common sense) for those mobile marketers and their clients who might have been worried by all the recent talk of the burgeoning ad blocker industry. Apparently, a whopping 83 percent of people using ad blockers only want to avoid overly intrusive adverts that take control of their browsers away from them. I think that’s a pretty obvious observation and brings us firmly back into the realm of reality when it comes to blocking software. We all know that consumers use advertising to inform their purchasing decisions. Why then would they opt to block all ads? They know they would make some pretty lousy buying decisions if they did that. So, this new survey by popular ad blocker, Adblock Plus, confirms that the vast majority of consumers are only looking to block intrusive overly “obnoxious” ads. The article I read suggests a way forward for marketers faced with increasing numbers of blockers. That way forward is how InTarget has been designing mobile campaigns since its inception. Campaigns must inform, not annoy. The must be personal, not irrelevant. Ads must speak to, not speak at. It’s as simple as that – almost! The second mobile marketing item that caught my attention was the news that advertisers are wasting about R14 billion a year on non-viewable ads. A report from ad verification company, Meetrics, says publishers are upping the speed at which ads are re-loaded or auto-refreshed to raise inventory levels and revenue. The...
New Industry Talent For Intarget Mobile Advertising

New Industry Talent For Intarget Mobile Advertising

Seasoned mobile industry veteran Grace Mlimo has joined the InTarget team as Vice President: Mobile Solutions. Former Vodacom and MTN executive Grace joins one of South Africa’s foremost wireless application service providers (WASPs) at an exciting juncture in its decade and a half history. The provider of mobile marketing and advertising solutions recently completed a rebranding exercise to better position it as the mobile aggregator of choice to African corporates and their marketing and advertising agencies. Grace’s most recent tenure was as Regional Business Development executive for Clickatell, also a leading WASP. “South Africa’s mobile marketing industry has burst its banks and it’s no secret that today’s growth is coming from other African markets. I’m thrilled to be able to help InTarget explore opportunities as a fully-diversified mobile advertising solutions provider with an expansionist culture,” says Grace. As VP: Mobile Solutions, Grace’s role covers all VAS-related business. “Grace comes with a fantastic telco pedigree, having achieved significant success at the continent’s biggest mobile network operators and at the biggest SMS aggregator in the world. She is welcomed as a key team member,” said Herman Cremer, InTarget South Africa CEO. As one of South Africa’s most established WASPs with a 15-year pedigree, InTarget provides mobile advertising, aggregation, premium SMS, mobile billing and bulk SMS services across the African continent. It has an enviable record of commercialising mobile advertising platforms in 32 African and Middle East...
Client Service Delivery Boost For Intarget Mobile Advertising

Client Service Delivery Boost For Intarget Mobile Advertising

The appointment of Nomathemba Mokoena as Group Vice President: Mobile Advertising at InTarget is a huge coup for the mobile marketing leader and a tremendous boost for seamless client service delivery. This is the first time InTarget has appointed a group-wide executive to integrate all advertising work across the organisation, in consultation with InTarget’s country managers and the different business unit heads. Thembi was previously Group Media Strategist at RamsayMedia, a subsidiary of Caxton Group. A self-confessed media lover, she claims to have ‘a never-ending crush on the industry’. “My passion is to ensure that the messages we communicate to our audiences are crisp and clear the first time. InTarget is the perfect vehicle to help me design the very best mobile campaigns for valued clients,” she says. InTarget is a wireless application service provider (WASP) with a 15 year pedigree. The provider of mobile marketing and advertising solutions last year completed a rebranding exercise to better position it as the mobile aggregator of choice to African corporates and their marketing and advertising agencies. As VP: Mobile Advertising, Thembi will report directly to the Group CEO. “As VP of Mobile Advertising for a mobile advertising company, Thembi’s role cannot be overstated. We welcome her as a key team member,” said Herman Cremer, InTarget South Africa CEO. As one of South Africa’s most established WASPs with a 15-year pedigree, InTarget provides mobile advertising, aggregation, premium SMS, mobile billing and bulk SMS services across the African continent. It has an enviable record of commercialising mobile advertising platforms in 32 African and Middle East...
Immediate Action Ability A Boon For Marketers

Immediate Action Ability A Boon For Marketers

Immediate gratification has to be one of the most outstanding features of the world we live in today. In centuries – or even decades – past practically every call to action was by necessity followed by a significant amount of preparation. Imagine the act of making what is today a simple cup of coffee in 1780. The decision to drink coffee was not followed by the flip of a switch and the consumption of the beverage within a minute or two. It was followed by the making of a fire to boil the water needed in the preparation of coffee, and plenty of steps after that. You had to really be convinced in 1816 that you wanted coffee. Today, you might say that consumer consumption is a lot more frivolous. Not only have technological advances made access to desired goods and services so much easier, leading to much more rapid consumption after the decision is made, other recent modern developments such as consumer protection legislation have virtually eliminated the purchase risk for consumers. So the point of another lengthy introduction on this blog is that modern mobile marketers really don’t know how fortunate they are to be interacting with consumers in 2016 that have the means to make immediate consumption decisions, followed by very rapid consumption of what’s been purchased. However, to take full advantage of the immediate action by consumers that is now possible thanks to mobile and other technology, marketers need to keep a few things top of mind. The first is what marketing textbooks, business gurus and your own common sense has been telling you all...
Mobile Marketing To The Captive Customer

Mobile Marketing To The Captive Customer

You’d think that In-App marketing would attract more attention from mobile marketers. I mean, it really does tick all the boxes. You have a captive customer that you know a lot about based on plenty of hard facts and statistics collected during one or several browsing sessions and you have the ability to deliver them the marketing holy grail of instant gratification with very little action required on their part.   Unfortunately, as with many campaigns out there in the world of traditional marketing and advertising, the lion’s share of budgets continues to be devoted to winning new customers. There is very little attention given to up-selling existing customers and one can only surmise that loyalty-based tactical campaigns don’t deliver as many accolades as a powerful piece of brand-building television work.   Let’s take a step back and outline exactly what we mean by in-app purchases. With in-app marketing, brands can create personalised messages that focus on the specific and unique needs of customers at the best time of contact. Essentially, in-app marketing delivers personalised product or service-related content and messaging directly to a consumer’s device within a particular mobile marketing application that the consumer is currently interacting with. Marketers can leverage the vast amounts of insight already collected on the customer to deliver targeted offers and then closely monitor customer interactions to gain insights and feedback for future communication.   In conclusion, the power of this form of mobile marketing lies in the ability to offer the right product, at the right time, to the right consumer and all of this is based on the best predictor of...
One Stat Mobile Marketers Need To Know

One Stat Mobile Marketers Need To Know

Marketing in general, and mobile marketing in particular, runs on statistics. The fact that firms like InTarget can accurately measure such indices are clickthrough rates, average cost per user and others means that numbers feature prominently in mobile campaigns. Many of us here at InTarget can quote the usual mobile marketing-related numbers with ease. For example, over 90 percent of adults keep their smartphones within reach and almost half of millennials check their phones within five minutes of waking. Stats like these have become such accepted wisdom that they’re often quoted and never credited. A brand new statistic that caught my eye this past week is from Opera Mediaworks’ new report. Looking at data from the top 100 apps that use Opera’s mobile ad platform to monetise their traffic, it’s clear that mobile users are spending about 30 minutes each in popular apps. That’s really significant and especially good news for mobile marketers as this research seems to indicate that brands have got as long as half an hour to make an impression. Other highlights from the research includes the fact that Games is the top category for ad impressions and also have long average session times. Ads also convert at a higher rate on Games apps than any other category. Music, Video & Media is no. 1 for engagement (as measured by clickthrough rate), followed by Travel and Lifestyle. finally, although the volume of impressions on mobile apps versus the mobile web are comparable, apps generate more than twice the engagement and 13.5X times the revenue. Food for thought indeed and definitely stats to be bourn in mind...