Theres more to smart mobile marketing than smartphones: Q&A with Candice Goodman Chair, MMA South Africa; MD, Mobitainment

Candice Goodman is the chair the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) South Africa and managing director of the Johannesburg-based mobile marketing agency Mobitainment, which was awarded Organization of 2013 by Direct Marketing Association of Southern Africa.

1) Why is it a mistake for brands to get hung up on smartphones and native smartphone apps when targeting a) South African and b) African mobile users?

Following trends in the US, Europe and Asia simply will not work when developing mobile strategies for African countries. Before embarking on a mobile campaign in Africa, companies must be aware of the facts. It’s important to consider factors such as the number of people with smartphones, cost and availability of bandwidth and airtime in developed countries versus those in Africa.

Africa is booming, when it comes to mobile – there are more mobile users here than in the US, but less than one in 10 people has a smartphone. Even in South Africa, which is one of the most advanced mobile markets, only one in four people has a smartphone. Half of South African mobile users have a basic phone that is unable to access the Web – to reach them only the basic mobile channels are available – such as SMS, USSD and voice functionality, according to the MMA South Africa AMPS 2012 Mobile Review (July 2013).

2. Do many brands make this mistake? With what sort of results?

Yes, many brands in South Africa become so excited about the new technology that is available in Europe and Asia that they tend to forget how few people have access to a smartphone, which means they tend to develop applications that only cater to a specific market and therefore they lose traction in an African market. Campaigns that use advanced technologies such as Augmented Reality, even QR Codes, have only seem limited, if any success, on a broad scale, in the South African market.

3) What proportion of a) South African b) African mobile users have smartphones?

Across Middle East and Africa (MEA) there are about 526 million mobile phone users, according to eMarketer (October, 2013) of which 112 million have smartphone – that’s twice as many as 2012. Smartphone penetration (i.e. the proportion of the population who own a smartphone) in MEA is 8.3 percent – considerably less than the other regions of the world.

It’s estimated that there are 14 million smartphones in South Africa of at the end of June 2013. This means that 27 percent of the South African population, or 35 percent of South African cellphone users, have a smartphone, reports World Wide Worx/Business Day (August, 2013). MTN leads other South African operators in numbers of smartphone subscribers; and BlackBerry is the dominant smartphone brand, with about 5.5million devices in South Africa.

4) Are smartphones likely to be owned by a significant minority any time soon?

Across Africa feature phones still outsell smartphones four to one – so it is unlikely that smartphones will reach a majority in the foreseeable future. IDC (October, 2013).

IDC reveals that shipments of smartphones in Africa went up 21.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2013, with smartphones now accounting for 18 per cent of the overall mobile phone market. IDC expects the African smartphone market to double in volume over the next four years, when smartphones will account for a third of all handset shipments in 2017.

IDC also says that South Africa is the largest smartphone market in Africa, with South Africans buying more than a million units each quarter; Nigeria is second.

5) So if the vast majority of a) South African b) African mobile are using feature phones, what are the best ways for brands to engage their customers?

With only 50 percent of South Africans able to access the Internet via their mobile phones, according to MMA South Africa AMPS 2012 Mobile Review, marketers need to find alternative ways to effectively reach the mobile masses – one that amounts to smart marketing, without the use of a smartphone. It is entirely possible for brands to develop mobile campaigns that have the ability to reach the majority of South Africans, irrespective of their income, to create an understanding of who and where they are.

The Excella’nt Competition was a mobile campaign to promote Excella cooking oils & mayonnaise for the Mobitainment client Wilmar Continental, and it was a winner of the AfricaCOM 2013 Best Mobile Marketing Campaign. The aim of the campaign was to create awareness and increase sales among the lower income consumers using print, radio, leaflets and mobile activations. The competition itself was based on a barcode entry mechanism, allowing participants to enter using a free messaging service. Entrants were able to continue the conversation in a language of their choice without having to own a mobile internet data connection to do so. The competition received over 154,000 entries in just three months, providing Excella with a substantial database of consumers willing and eager to engage with the brand. Using these entries, Mobitainment was not only able to determine the geographic breakdown of participants, but to measure the most popular products by segment as well as the cost per lead per channel.

5) How many mobile consumers are using SMS, mobile Web, mobile email, mobile apps etc… just so we put this in perspective?

Recent research by Nielsen (August 2013) found that the key mobile activities for South Africans were:
• SMS text messaging – 69 percent of cell-phone users prefer to text contacts rather than calling.
• Accessing social media sites – 85 percent of mobile users are Facebook users.
• Instant messaging (IM) – 61 percent use MXit, South Africa’s most popular IM service.
• Browsing the Internet – while just 11 percent of mobile users use their cell phone to go online, with such usage heaviest in the 25-34 years age bracket, this number is sure to grow.

6) But is it possible to still do ‘smart’ mobile marketing to an audience without smartphones? Can you still have the nice user interface, targeting, location, context, analytics etc that marketers associate with smartphone apps and Websites?

You may be giving up the glitz and the glamour of the graphics of the smart phone, but you are exchanging it for the reach and hopefully relevant messaging of voice, SMS and USSD.

• USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) was first commercialized in South Africa – by Vodacom in 2004. It is a menu-based service that allows bi-directional text-based communication between a user and the service provider’s computers. It works with all phones in South Africa and all network carriers. The connection remains open, allowing a two-way exchange of a sequence of data, making USSD more responsive than services that use SMS. It has become a very popular as a channel for mobile banking, airtime top-up, and entry into competitions. MMA award winning campaigns that used USSD include Carling Black Label Be The Coach and AVBOB Funeral Services survey.

• The Please-Call-Me (PCM) campaign is Another innovation emanating out of necessity in South Africa. PCM is a free network service available to all cell-phone users across all South African networks, on all level of phones. Customers can simply dial a prefix, such as *140*, followed by the number to send a free call back request to any other mobile phone user on any other South African cellular network. The free service is funded by ads tagged onto the PCM sender and receiver notification messages – it’s become one of the most powerful tools for mobile marketers to reach the mass market of South Africans.

7) Is it worth marketing to the general mobile populous? The smartphone audience might be small, but aren’t smartphone users richer and more ready to engage with brands on the mobile platform?

Not necessarily. The mass-market of South Africa has the numbers and shows it in their responses. As mentioned previously, the Excella’nt competition received over 154,000 entries in three months, generating a double-digit percentage increase in sales. Doesn’t that prove return on investment from the lower income consumer?

8) How can these forms of mobile engagement be used with other media e.g. print, TV, outdoor etc?

Mobile strategies should be integrated into traditional marketing. A mobile call to action on a traditional (billboard, print etc) ad not only gives you the reach but also allows you to add measurability to your campaign, and allows the consumer to talk back to your brand through their mobile device.

A great example is adding voice to a print campaign through an interactive call-back ad, which allows the characters in the ad to talk directly to the consumer about the brand and then ask the consumer to “talk” back.

9) What are the issues and hurdles with mobile marketing?

The challenge inherent in mobile marketing is that while marketers and their boards have an innate understanding of traditional above-the-line advertising platforms, they do not always understand the value in going mobile. Mobile is a different ball game – it’s not tangible. The same can be said for social media platforms – it’s not an easy task to explain the value of 1,000 likes on a Facebook page to an accountant. It’s much easier for the boss to understand the success of a billboard campaign when he is driving past the poster ever day on the way to work. Mobile strategies are not measured or experienced in the same way, which makes for a hard sell at times.

10) So what else can the Western world learn from mobile in Africa? What are your best practice tips?

When it comes to the use of mobile campaigns as an effective marketing tool, it is not the technology itself that matters, but rather how you use it.
• Consumers are not numbers on lists. They are people and to this end, it is important to talk to them, listen to them and provide them with content that will add relevance and value to their lives.
• When appealing to the mass market, the use of celebrities to attract attention to a brand or campaign works particularly well.
• Entry mechanisms that are either low in price or free to the consumer, such as Free Messaging Service and USSD, generate the best response.
• Integration is essential for any campaign and mobile is no exception – all channels must align and messaging across the board must be consistent. Mobile support for social media is key, as is listening to the customer and getting him involved in the promotion.



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