How to market mobile.... here

We just recently concluded a very enjoyable speaking engagement in Hong Kong and met with some of the brightest and creative minds in the industry. There was an amazing opportunity for MobileBehavior to interact and drill deeper into the minds of leading marketers in Asia. From brand managers to CEOs, our 1:1 conversations confirmed what we were evangelizing, that marketers now understand the importance of mobile. The question however has become “How”?

This is a powerful question that shows us 2 major insights. Firstly, We are no longer stuck in the “why?”. Having to convince a marketer about the relevance of mobile marketing seems to be a thing of the past. Almost every attendee we spoke to had a Smartphone in hand, checking emails, opening attachments, surfing WAP links, accessing news. This made them a part of their own mobile marketing audience even if they hadn’t realized it yet! For some time, there was always a disconnect between mobile marketer and audience as the marketer never considered him/herself part of that mix. Now, we have come to an age where we get it because we live it.

The next important insight from the question of “how?” brought home some major reality checks. Marketers in Asia recognize the possibilities based on mobile penetration rates, excellent carrier infrastructure and user behavior. We have in Asia, a mobile only audience in certain countries such as Philippines and Indonesia. China and India represent 2 markets with unparallel potential based on existing mobile services such as Mobile Social networking sites and direct carrier services. However, the peculiarities and nuances of each market has bred a lot of confusion on exactly how mobile marketing works in these parts of the world. It is clear that there is no one mobile strategy that can fit into Indonesia and be duplicated in India The question therefore isn’t just how to market mobile? It’s how do I market mobile here?

What resonated well with our peers lay in the area of activation. The mobile phone has an opportunity to breathe life into any campaign from an engagement vantage point. Using SMS and IVR channels to lead consumers from a passive to active role makes a lot of sense for any marketer in any market. Similarly, there are many other channels where the mobile phone is able to act as an enabler for marketers to interact, track and measure on their offline media. This is an important part of our approach in providing as many answers as we can to our clients and partners. From identifying common marketing tools ( think SMS , IVR) to taking advantage of local networks (e.g. island wide Wi-Fi, 3.5G networks) to considerations like dominant mobile handset brand data, we have discovered most marketers don’t know where to start and how to get mobile campaigns off the ground.

We were pleased to know Asia as a mobile market isn’t being debated. The questions of how to get involved in these fertile areas are excellent from a progress point of view. We often hear marketers talk about paradigm shifts in thinking. Today we are seeing a whole new movement of behavior in the realm of mobile. As innovation and technology continue to converge in providing us awesome mobile services and products. We think mobile marketing is NOW the next great thing in Asia.


Song of the blog
Live version of "Above the bones" by Mishka