Mobile phones open new doors for advertising
MANILA, Philippines – New doors are being opened to advertisers in the Asia-Pacific, owing to the continuous growth of mobile phone users in the region, an executive of a mobile advertising company said.
“Mobile phones are part of people’s lives, always in hand and integrated into lifestyles and work. Mobile is about here and now. Through mobile advertising campaigns, advertisers are able to reach consumers at any time in the day, and get responses almost immediately,” Fabrizio Caruso, Vice President of Business Development & GM Asia Pacific, Out There Media said in an e-mail interview with INQUIRER.net.
Mobile advertising is also a highly effective, albeit new, medium which can help build the profile of a company or a brand within a well-targeted audience, Caruso said.
“Across multiple markets, mobile advertising campaigns have proved very valuable in achieving customer loyalty, while actually driving sales. Product launches, special promotions and offers, as well as coupons, are only some of the ways in which mobile advertising can inform, educate and quickly convert interested visitors into customers,” he added.
Caruso, quoting the International Telecommunication Union, said that there were more than 2.6 billion mobile subscriptions in Asia-Pacific alone.
“Asia-Pacific is an economically diverse region that encompasses a wide range of markets, including advanced countries like Japan and Singapore, as well as emerging ones such as India and China. Mobile penetration rate is extremely high in the region – it is predicted that by 2015, one out of every two mobile users in the world will reside in Asia Pacific,” Caruso said.
“E-Marketer reports that mobile users in the region will increase from 2.14 billion this year to 2.89 billion in 2015. This means that, whether they like it or not, mobile is the next big platform for reaching out to consumers,” he added.
Quoting another report made by ABI Research, Caruso said that mobile advertising expenditures in the Asia Pacific alone would reach $7.7 billion in 2011 or nearly 48 percent of the global expenditure. In 2010 alone, the requests for mobile advertising campaigns in the region had experienced an exponential increase, he added.
Among the many benefits of mobile advertising, aside from its obvious mobility and ease of access, it also allows for easier means for advertisers to quantify the results of their campaign and measure accurately its effectiveness.
“Based on this information, mobile advertisers not only are able to get accurate records of campaign results, but they are also able to have sufficient information about their target audience at hand,” Caruso said.
Mobility also allows for immediate information dissemination since consumers may be reached any time of the day virtually anywhere they are. Likewise, this also gives way to higher engagement of consumers since the advertisement is more personal and in turn creates a positive attitude towards the advertisers.
This type of advertising is popular among companies which sell fast-moving consumer goods and those in the beauty, finance and automotive industries, Caruso said.
What sets apart Out There Media – currently the leading company in mobile advertising worldwide – from its competitors, Caruso said was their respect for the consumer’s privacy and choice since they practiced permission-based or opt-in marketing.
“In permission-based or opt-in marketing, consumers indicate their interest in receiving information which they find interesting or feel is relevant to them, while at the same time submitting essential demographic and/or lifestyle data about themselves. This differentiates mobile from other advertising media by providing consumers a platform for expressing their choice, motivating them to be more receptive and attentive to information which they have chosen to receive, resulting in better response rates,” Caruso said.
He added that Opt-in mobile advertising also gave advertisers an advantage in terms of reaching their target audience or consumer and allowing for a wider reach in terms of information dissemination since the advertisements are sent through mobile phones hence there is a higher possibility it will be read.
Caruso said that they adhered to four Ps of mobile advertising which are: Penetration (reach out to the focused target consumers); Permission (consumers decide what they want to see, receive or engage with); Privacy (consumers to decide whether their information should be and how it is used) and; Preference (consumers are allowed to decide on what content is relevant to them).
