Mobile Marketing on a Shoestring

By Michael de Souza, VP Media

As 2012 approaches, there are still companies that have not allocated budgets for mobile marketing yet.

What are they thinking?

Yes, we are biased, but here are the facts:

• The number of mobile devices is about to equal the number of people on this planet.
• Mobile is the primary – sometimes the only – way to access the internet in many markets
• Mobile advertising is inexpensive as compared to other media
• It is easy to measure the return on investment and unlike print, radio and TV, marketing can be directly linked to sales.

So if you are a brand manager, agency type, media buyer, strategist or really anyone who has a creative say about what goes into a campaign, don't be scared of change.

Listen, we realise you could get fired for spending half a year’s budget running a mobile campaign (but never for a TV commercial!), so here are some ways you can become the go-to guy on your team for mobile.

Are Mobile Consumers Better Informed than Salespeople?

By Michael de Souza, VP Media

An editor of Harvard Magazine recently wrote about consumers who are taking on (willingly or not) the roles of petrol attendants, check out clerks and sales assistants. Go to a supermarket in the US, and you're likely to scan your own purchase. Drive into a petrol station, pump your own gasoline and squeegee the windshield yourself.

“The robots have won,” writes Craig Lambert. “Although the automatons were supposedly going to free people by taking on life’s menial, repetitive tasks, frequently, technological innovation actually offloads such jobs onto human beings."

It's not all bad news, though. When it comes to purchase decisions, consumers are winning. The average shopper has become adept at product research - checking product information and comparing prices on the spot.  Even in situations where a salesperson is available, consumers have a bigger view that includes options in other stores and online.

The self-service phenomenon may be charmless, but in this case, mobile technology is empowering consumers with information . . . and offering new opportunities to retailers and publishers.

Some Advice for the Makers of White Box Phones (and the rest of us too)

By Michael de Souza, VP Media

Walk into a handset store in the popular shopping mall ITC Roxy Mas in Jakarta or District 1 in Saigon and there's a very good chance you'll find rarely heard of makes being sold alongside the international mass-market brands.  Some phones, though, like the Blueberry and ti-phone, have a familiar ring to them.

These generic 'white-box' phones are selling just about as well – sometimes better – than their big-name competitors and they now offer the same features, and then some, at a cheaper price.

Telecom carriers and brand-name manufacturers are taking a big hit, but if the no-name upstarts are to survive and flourish, they should take a few tips from the likes of the iPhone and Samsung. Otherwise, they'll be knocked off the block by the next company that can slice a penny off the cost of a chip or screen.

Mobile Development Tips: The Hybrid Approach

By Michael de Souza, VP Media

OK, you're about to embark on a new advertising campaign. One agency tells you that Mobile Apps are the way to go – they're sexy, there's no lag in the experience, the app stays on a consumer's phone forever (unless she deletes it), it's a fantastic branding tool and besides everyone's doing it. But another agency has a long list of reasons why you should concentrate on a mobile website: they're easier to access, cheaper to build, better suited to sales and have a superior return-on-investment.

So what do you do?

Increasingly, the right approach is to build both. Here are five steps to help you along the way . . .

Blind Networks: Now You See!

By Michael de Souza, VP Media

Blind ad networks are often misunderstood despite the huge traffic they serve.

With blind networks you can’t specify the individual mobile internet sites on which your ads will appear. Instead, you select a channel, such as ‘Entertainment & Lifestyle’ or ‘Premium Portals’ (there are nine to choose from altogether), and your ads are displayed across the hundreds or thousands of mobile internet sites within that category.

This kind of selection is a necessity, as it is in any long-tail network. Asking brand managers or media planners to work through a list of thousands of individual sites to evaluate their content and context for a good match to the brand that they’re promoting, and then make a selection, would be time-consuming and counterproductive.

CAMPAIGN OPTIMISATION SECRETS

by Michael de Souza, Executive Producer, South Africa

Here in South Africa in recent months, we’ve noticed two distinct approaches to managing campaigns on the BuzzCity network. There are those who upload their campaigns and let them run, hardly making any changes. Then there are clients who monitor and optimise their campaigns, making constant tweaks, testing new bidding levels and exploring targeting options. No prizes for guessing who’s getting the best performance and return on adspend.

Some of our most experienced advertisers are sinfully lazy! They upload a campaign based on past experience. They set start and end dates, enter a bid rate, upload one version of a good solid creative and perhaps include some relevant targeting. Then they sit back and let the campaign run. Sometimes this means that an early mistake will play itself out through the entire campaign. That's an extreme case. Most advertisers still get decent results – it's just that they could be doing a lot better.

So, I’ve taken note of how some of our very best advertisers* continually optimise their campaigns and I hope they won’t mind me sharing a couple of their secrets with you.

Here’s what they’re doing: