Dave Duarte on UCT GSB Mobile Marketing Course

The UCT Graduate School of Business plays host to a brand new mobile marketing course in October. My first reaction was to get into contact with Dave Duarte, course Director and one of the most innovative minds in marketing, to ask him some questions that would help businesses and marketers understand the realities of mobile media as marketing channel in today’s business environment.

Dave happily obliged, so let’s get right into it.

Dave, UCT GSB is running a brand new mobile marketing course in July. Why the sudden focus on mobile marketing?
There are currently more cell phones in South Africa than TVs, telephones, radios and taxis combined. Of course, this represents a massive opportunity for marketers, advertisers, and professional communicators. We decided to focus a course specifically on mobile marketing due to the array of options that are available for mobile marketers, and the need for a formalized high-level of training in the field.

The statistics are staggering compared to internet penetration, yet we find many companies now awakening to the idea of internet marketing. Are they barking up the wrong tree again?

Not at all. The Internet is an important element in the marketing mix today, and South Africans are increasingly accessing the internet via their mobile handsets anyway. Today’s marketer needs to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each channel - be it Radio, Print, TV Web, or Mobile - and be able to communicate their messages across a suitable mix of them simultaneously.

I am of the opinion that, much like social media, companies may feel that mobile marketing is just another phase and hardly something worth their money, time and effort. Is it?

Due to the cheap, targeted, personalized, interactive and measurable nature of Mobile communications, we are seeing response rates to advertisements hundreds of times better than could be expected on any other channel or medium. Companies who are concerned about the efficacy of Mobile Marketing can start small and expand their campaign as they see results. There’s generally much less risk in well executed mobile campaigns than in traditional media campaigns.

To many companies, the idea of mobile and internet marketing synergies sound either expensive, complex or both. Is it? How do they get going?

The great thing about the web and mobile is that they can achieve a level of focus that traditional media couldn’t - so you needn’t waste money exposing your message to people who fall outside of your target market. A simple and cost effective way to start with web marketing is to try a Google Adwords campaign, where you only pay when someon interacts with your advertisement. The easiest way to get into mobile is through a simple SMS campaign, which can range from under 100 messages a week to over a million - you control the costs, and you can adjust your budget based on the results you’re getting.

Aren’t we trying to imitate our American and European counterparts? I mean, we’ve adapted blogging, but it’s going rather slowly…we’ve also embraced social media, but it’s difficult to measure return on investment. Shouldn’t companies rather focus on what “works” in South Africa, like print media, radio and television?

South Africa is a world leader in mobile technologies, and we have an extremely high adoption rate around new services available on the handset. Due to the relatively low rate of fixed line telecommunications and internet, South Africans are more reliant on mobile phones. It’s therefore more likely that the rest of the world would imitate us!

With internet and mobile marketing coming strongly to the fore, where does this leave print, radio and television?

Traditional media isn’t dying, but it’s adapting. People increasingly expect to be able to interact with traditional media with their cellphones - typically by SMS, but also to recieve multimedia downloads, or to get more information via the web.

Traditional media is very expensive. Why is digital marketing so cost effective? I was told that when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Digital market offers a level of targetting and measurability that can’t be matched by broadcast media. Believe it because it’s true!

Who should attend your course? Is it for marketers or company representatives?

The two-day Mobile Marketing course is designed for Marketing Managers in organizations of any size.

What will they learn?

They will learn the key elements of mobile marketing, and how to develop a mobile communication strategy

Are there any case studies available in South Africa that supports your case?

There are so many! For example, not many people know that with over 1.5million unique visitors per month Vodacom Live is the largest South African web property available for advertising! Nike recently ran a download campaign on V-live and had over 84 000 downloads in under 3 weeks. This is one of many examples where consumers don’t just want to be told about products, they want to interact with them before they make a purchase decision. The mobile medium is perfect for this.

Thanks for your time Dave; I look forward to seeing more of these courses in future. Africa is indeed in a unique position where mobile possesses such a strong communications channel that I’m convinced, if applied correctly, that companies could achieve great levels of success through this medium.

I also know that Dave is such a nice guy that he’ll try and answer any questions you might have in the comments section.

Delegate Profile
Marketers, brand managers and anyone associated with the communication strategy of their brand or business
Programme Benefits
Get to grips with the nitty-gritty of mobile marketing;
Learn the different elements that can be used in the mobile marketing mix
Understand how to apply the mobile marketing mix to a communication strategy
Study other mobile marketing programmes in action, and learn how to achieve similar impact

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