We are currently witnessing an entire generation of people who are actually ‘mobile-first,’ whose lives largely revolve around their mobile devices. This was the gist of the opening speech delivered by Mobext CEO Arthur Policarpio during the recent Mobile Summit 2015 held at the Enderun Tent, Taguig City.
Organized by the International Institute of Digital Marketing (IIDM) and Mobext, in partnership with the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA), the two-day summit had the theme “The Mobile-first Generation” and sought to discuss the pervasiveness of mobile, as well as outline steps to turn organizations into mobile-first believers. The summit was attended by professional marketers and marketing executives from some of the biggest companies in the country.
The event kicked off with welcome remarks from PNA president Blen Fernando, followed by Policarpio’s brief speech which served as an overview of the event itself.
The keynote talk was delivered by Noel Lorenzana, president and CEO of Mediaquest. In his talk entitled “The Mobile-first Generation: Driven by Big Data and Content,” Lorenzana stressed that life has turned to mobile which has become part of every aspect of people’s lives.
Yee Mei Chan, regional director of business transformation of Millward Brown, then talked about the Asia-Pacific mobile landscape, saying, “Because of the falling prices of smartphones and Internet access, more and more people are getting online through mobile devices. In the Asia-Pacific region, the source of Internet traffic is now 50% from desktop and 50% from mobile devices.”
Nielsen managing director Stuart Jamieson then talked about the Millenial Generation, the demographic considered by marketers as the “mobile-first generation.” Also referred to as Generation Y, the “millennials” demographic is composed of individuals who are 15-35 years old and is considered the biggest single segment in society today.
According to Jamieson, 36% of millennials are chief income earners, 35% of them make all the grocery decisions in households, and 47% of them have a direct influence on brands and products. Moreover, Jamieson stressed, “In order to win the hearts of millennials, marketers should listen and have a conversation with them, craft messages to celebrate the millennials’ desire for distinctiveness, relate to them, support their causes, and get visual with them.”
What followed on the first day were talks on “Measuring Mobile ROI” by MMA Asia-Pacific managing director Rohit Dadwal, “Integrating Mobile into the Marketing Mix” by BrandAble managing director Michelle Froah, “Mobile Marketing for Emerging Markets” by AXA Indonesia head of digital transformation and innovation Ari Fadyl, “The Evolution of Mobile Advertising” by AppsFlyer vice president for Asia Ronen Mense, “Content Marketing for Mobile” by Nestle Philippines senior vice president Paolo Mercado, and “Lessons from Cannes Lions Winners” by Out There Media chairman and CEO Kerstin Trikalitis.
The first day was capped with two panel discussions. The first one was on how marketers aim to survive the new mobile world, participated in by Unilever digital manager Kichi Madlansacay and BPI digital head Virginia Brocka. This was moderated by Geiser Maclang Marketing Communications CEO Brad Geiser.
The second panel discussion was on agency collaboration in a multi-screen world and was participated in by Digit managing director Carlo Ople, Starcom Mediaquest Group CEO Leah Besa Jimenez, and Ogilvy One managing director Isa Sicam. This was moderated by Havas Worldwide Media managing director Norman Agatep.
The second day of the summit started with a talk on micro-moments, considered the new battleground for brands, by Google Philippines country manager Ken Lingan.
According to Lingan, “Micro-moments are moments which are very critical to marketers. These moments are when people look at their smart phones to search for information, research on products and services, and to make decisions.” Mr. Lingan also said, “Billions of ‘micro-moments’ happen every single day. Thus, there are billions of opportunities for brands to engage their customers.”
This was followed by talks on “Harnessing the Power of Real People to Measure True Impact” by Facebook-Atlas client partner Swati Rai, “SoLoMo Strategies for Hard-to-Reach Markets” by PMFTC consumer engagement manager Lawrence Villegas, “User Experience (UX) for the Mobile-first Generation” by UX director of Havas Media Bangkok Michael Lisboa, “Cross-channel Strategies” by ScanAd head of sales Dominique Ullmann, and “Bridging the Gaps for Effective M-Commerce” by Luxola special projects head Simon Torring.
The afternoon’s talks were on “Making TV Work Harder with Mobile” by Silverpush CEO Mudit Seth, “Mobile Video: Digital Media’s New Ad Darling” by Vikas Gulati, “Location-based Mobile Marketing” by AdNear general manager Nandita Pal, “The State of Mobile Apps in Asia” by Yahoo Asia-Pacific audience and programmatic sales lead Greg Forbes, “The Uberization of Services” by Smart Internet and media partner Jim Ayson, and “The Road to Cross-Media Measurement” by Incites Inc. senior adviser Jay Bautista.
During the summit, IIDM gave away free slots to their Certified Digital Marketer (CDM) Acceleration Program, a four-week training course for digital marketers who want to accelerate their careers and establish themselves firmly in the digital industry. The CDM Acceleration Program slots are worth P27,800 each.
Learning never stops! Join us as we reopen the Mobile Marketing Specialist Track this August 1st. Visit www.cdm.ph ADVT