If you did not attend the Mobile Marketing Association’s Asia conference, you should read this comprehensive review by Tomi Ahonen. It is full of excellent stats, eye-opening campaigns and analysis. But of particular note is his summary of a presentation by Coca-Cola.
“Then a true bombshell announcement that was referenced by at least half of the following speakers… Gavin Mehrotra, Director of International Media for the Coca-Cola Company, started his presentation stating categorically that “SMS is the number one priority at Coca-Cola in mobile” and that you need it to reach just about every person on the planet. He later added that the mobile web is number two, and smartphone apps are a distant number three. Talk about shock and awe. The world’s undisputed number one advertising brand, Coca-Cola says categorically, SMS is priority number one. Wow.”
This news might be a bombshell for those Johnny-come-lately Western brands that have jumped straight from no mobile strategy feet first into smartphone apps, but it shouldn’t be such a shock for Asia Pacific brands.
In Asia Pacific mobile marketing has more history – dare we say pedigree? – and where even fewer people have smartphones than in the West, this has been this progression is better understood by mobile marketers. Start with SMS, which reaches all customers, whatever their handset; then extend (not replace) the mobile strategy to mobile Web, which reaches all phones with a mobile browser; and finally add the mobile apps (preferably apps that work on a number of handsets).
In this interview the head of MMA in Asia, Rohit Dadwal, describes SMS marketing as the “lowest common denominator”, but he doesn’t mean it in the way that western brands and their creative agencies perceive SMS – i.e. it’s cheap, it’s mass market and it’s beneath them – he uses it in terms of SMS is the foundation for a brand’s mobile strategy.
Think about it: if a brand has first built up a base of customers who have opted-in to SMS marketing, they can then promote the mobile site with a simple link; similarly when they introduce a mobile app they can market it to their existing mobile base by SMS and Website. Without this foundation, brands need to find other vehicles to promote their app, i.e. expensive TV, print, Web, and mobile advertising.
P.S. not all western brands are Johnny-come-lately. Many of those Western brands that now have successful mobile apps were successful on SMS and mobile Web first – and most importantly, most of them are still very successful with SMS and mobile Web.
Recommended reading:
• What’s Happenin’ in Mobile Marketing? MMA Forum Asia review – the most astonishing event ever!
• What makes Asia Pacific the most exciting mobile market in the world? Interview with Rohit Dadwal, MD Asia Pacific, MMA
If you feel you have missed out, don’t worry, the MMA will host four more Mobile Marketing Forums this year, and you can get a discount here.
• Be the first to know about mobiThinking competitions, guides, news etc… follow mobiThinking on Twitter: @mobithinking
Further reading:
• Great mobile conferences… excellent discounts and free tickets
• What makes Asia Pacific the most exciting mobile market in the world? Interview with Rohit Dadwal, MD Asia Pacific, MMA
• The insider’s guide to mobile health.
• How mobile money is changing Africa
• Guide to mobile ad networks
• Latest networks profiled: Madvertise; Hunt Mobile Ads; Mobile Theory
• B2B mobile marketing: the insider’s guide
• Mobile research (m-research): the insider’s guide
• Mobile barcodes: the insider’s guide
• The insiders’ guides to world’s greatest mobile markets
• Latest country profile: France
• Guide to mobile agencies
• Guide to mobile industry awards
• The big compendium of global mobile stats
• The big page of essential links
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