Any time there is an evolution in the way things are done including advertising and marketing, there will be an initial resistant to adopt it. In that case, we are going to have some pioneers or early adopters. With regards to mobile as a mass media platform, it is no longer news that it is so large and any business that is not leveraging it now is taking a back sit to its competitors.
Since Apple came to the smartphone scene, they have been able to make so much money and grow their profit base with the iPad and iPhone, which are mobile devices that people use to communicate and consume different forms of media. There are people who are not even paying for cable TV anymore and some have stopped watching TV entirely.
Coming home to Africa, iPhones may not be so rampant, but there are more mobile phones in Uganda, than there are light bulbs, Smartphones out sell computers 4:1. in Africa, 50% of Africa’s population is younger than 20 years old [source].
These are huge numbers and they are not stalling. Radio, print and television has reigned as the primary media for long. In 1994 in Nigeria there were 100,000 landlines and internet access was zero. It is a different story today, with more than 50% of the over 40 million Nigerians on the internet now having access via their mobile phones.
Why should brands and advertisers shift budget?
These figures are enough to move them to mobile. But they have some fears.
What are their fears? They may be afraid because it is apparently new and they are not very familiar with the different metrics and how they measure and can be connected to their ROI and acquisition of users and customers.
Allaying the fears in jumping on to mobile ad can be done by being aware of the intricacies of how mobile ad works and the benefits that can accrue.
Before I go into the details, I will first examine how relying on the desktop portal and Alexa ranking isn’t the best move.
There is a significant shift going on this year, much more significant than we saw last year, from web to mobile. It is most noticeable in games, social networking, music, and news, but it is happening across the board and it presents both great opportunity and great challenges. – source
Some brands have decided that it is time to make the huge change into the social media evolution. What have they done? They have opened Facebook and Twitter accounts. They have gone a step further is using Twitter, Facebook and Blog influencers. Many of these Influencers and blogs have huge reach in reality, but are hampered in what they offer.
What the Blogs, Facebook and Twitter Campaign offer
When most of these advertisers and brands use Twitter and Facebook influencers, the result is that they create huge awareness and more people get to hear about their service and offerings. If that is the principal goal of the brands, then that is sufficient. However, in most cases, that is how far it goes, nothing more. There is minimal way to effectively track the people who are reached and convert them to users and customers. One can only measure the amount of Clicks, Retweets, mention, Likes and conversation around the brand.
Mobile Ad takes is a step further
There is not yet a means by which the amount of people viewing a particular portal from mobile can be tracked and added to the number of those viewing on the web.
Mobile makes it easier to reach the users wherever they are and engage them. In a research, it was revealed that average Sub-Saharan woman touches her hair 37 times a day; she touches her phone 82 times a day. Many people touch their phone first thing in the morning when they wake and last thing before they go to bed.
What do they spend most of their time doing when they are on their phone? Most of their activities are search, social media, mobile music, messaging [2go, BlackBerry Messenger, Whatsapp etc] and reading of news sites. What is making all these services to see an increase is that they are available on mobile devices [some of them are available on feature phones too]
Feature phones accounts for majority of the phones in circulation in Nigeria, with Blackberry taking 2.5% of the phones that people are using in Nigeria.
You can target people according to certain specifics like, handset types, sex, location and interests depending on the particular type of mobile ad that you have chosen. There is SMS, MMS, Wap, Mobile Website app, in app ads, adds tailored within some mobile applications, like Twitter, Facebook, 2go and some others.
You should be aware that MTN Nigeria has also joined the race in providing mobile ad for businesses. They are trying to diversify and increase their earning potential while providing value to their prospective customers.
In conclusion, this is no time to take a back seat and keep wondering how to crack it in the mobile sphere and grow your business. We have been profiling 2go and their offering to the Nigerian market in the last three weeks. They are set to make their platform open to brands, agencies, media buyers and advertisers to reach their more than 12 million uses from Nigeria. If you would like to work with 2go and leverage on their offering, you can contact them at info@2go.im.
