Valentine’s Day News

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, and lots of people reading this no doubt celebrating the occasion by getting on a plane to Barcelona, leaving their partner at home with the kids or the telly or both (that’s what I’m doing – Ed), it’s time for a round-up of some of the mobile-focused Valentine’s Day stuff going on. Mobile and online flirting service Flirtomatic is offering its users the ability to send real presents to each other, in addition to offering lots of new digital Valentine's content. This year, in addition to around 30 new digital Valentines gifts, users also have the option to send one of two real items, either a chocolate heart, a combination of two of the top-selling virtual gifts. Flirtomatic says that premium content has always been incredibly popular among users and for Valentines Day this year, it decided to test something a little different. “Knickers and roses are two of the most popular pieces of content sent between users (over 130,000 in 2008) so we jumped at the chance to be able to sell a real, unique gift combining the two, the ‘Panty-rose’” says Flirtomatic CEO Mark Curtis. “We're always looking for fun and innovative ways to put a smile on a user's face. So far we've been good at doing that online, but to be able to give users the chance to send that special someone something tangible, it's exciting and unexplored territory for us".Meanwhile, Melodi Media has launched its ‘Love Calculator’ mobile application. The Love Calculator features a simple interface with slick graphics and audio. It enables consumers to type in two names, and get a percentage ‘love compatibility’ score within a matter of seconds.Melodi says that Love Calculator products have recently been hugely popular as interactive SMS services, but until now, they have not been available as a standalone application for traditional handsets. “The Love Calculator, as well as our upcoming Flash Lite products, offers a new type of interactive mobile product, with superior features similar to that being enjoyed by iPhone users,” says Melodi Business Development Manager, Gemma Warburton. Finally, if you catch the wrong plane and end up in Singapore, you might want to take part in Rednano Locate’s 'Rednano Hunt for Love' contest, though in fact, the competition is only open to Singaporeans and permanent residents. Entrants are required to pay a “nominal” registration fee per couple and will be given a goodie bag worth more than SGD$100 (£45) for taking part. The competition is being staged by Rednano Mobile, the mobile touchpoint of rednano.sg, Singapore’s local search and directory engine. To take part, each participating couple downloads Rednano Locate, a location-based mobile service application, to their mobile. Rednano Locate is enabled by messaging company Acision and location-based service technology company Seeker Wireless, a member of the Acision Innovation Network.Acision conceptualised, designed and implemented the service infrastructure and the client user interface on the handsets, in collaboration with Rednano’s content repository and Seeker Wireless' location-based technology, SeekerLocate.Armed with game cards marked by clues, couples then search for keywords and proceed to checkpoints where they are required to complete tasks assigned to them, using their phone to take photos as proof that they have visited their checkpoints.Participating couples stand to win more than SGD $18,000 worth of cash and prizes in three categories: Fastest Couple (to complete the route and returns to the starting point); Most Photogenic Couple and Most Popular Couple. For the latter two awards, participants will upload photos of themselves donning Rednano t-shirts to www.rednano.sg/huntforlove for the public to vote for their favourites. The participating couple who garners the most number of votes in each of the two categories, wins. There will also be draws for SGD$5,000 cash prizes. The Rednano Hunt For Love’ contest will be held on Sunday, 15 February, at the Singapore Press Holdings auditorium from 1 - 5pm.

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Three Stars for Ster Kinekor

The big boys get it wrong. Often. Ster Kinekor has been in the limelight on a couple of occasions in the past that I feel slightly bad for highlighting their flaws again.
However, for the sake of marketing, I hope this is seen in the relevant light.
But I want to start with the good stuff. They have done a sterling job on their web presence, because they realise the importance of it. Their website is posh, there’s no two ways about it. They only carry two banner advertisements and on top of that, it’s relevant. Heads up!
The site loads very quickly, despite all the animations and movie clips. There’s minimal navigation required, a feast to eye and the fingers of browsers landing there.
All in all, a job done fantastically well. It’s getting there that’s proving to be a chink in the armour. Once you get the hang of the internet and its browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox etc), you start becoming familiar with shortcuts.
One of these shortcuts is not having to type www before a web address. These days, I never do. And finding Ster Kinekor’s website that way proved fruitless. Typing http://sterkinekor.co.za simply takes me to an error page and forced me to revert to Google to find the correct address.
Arbitrary, you may think. And you’d possibly be right. But, you may find that patience is one of the single greatest issues with marketing today. Simply put, we don’t have any.
Which leads me to my next gripe. I was watching Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory on Sunday night. To this day I’m not sure why, but that’s a debate for another day. I can’t stand the man.
Anyways, some of you might have noticed that after the movie, Ster Kinekor ran a competition giving away the movie on DVD, which I of course, have no interest in. But I suspect that some of my intellectually challenged friends might just.
They ask a ridiculously easy question and then require you to fax your name and contact details to a number that is so long, it can only compare to our South African 911 equivalent…whatever it is.
See anything wrong with that picture? I do. They want you, yes you, to get off your lazy post-Sunday-night-dinner ass, grab a piece of paper, write down your name and contact details and fax it to a number that is as cryptic as the Da Vinci Code. Fax! FAX!
If you don’t want people to participate in a competition, don’t run it. If you do however, have them text the answer to a shorter number (called a short code) in my humble opinion.
More entries and shockingly, you’ll now have a database of mobile numbers to market your products to in future.
Nice.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

The female of the species are more attentive than the male

I know people that could well have been surgically attached to their mobile phones. These people hardly ever miss a call, regardless of who is calling, their phones often don’t even have the opportunity to complete the text message alert or the text has been read and replied to.
I have categorically positioned these people on my high potential mobile marketing list. Come hell, high water, divorce, dinner or speed traps, a beep from their phones creates an instant extrasensory reaction from these people.
What I’ve found from my close observation of these people is that they seem somewhat more prone to responding to marketing material, signing up for various services and are more often than not seemingly oblivious to fine print.
The amounts of time I have been asked why their phone bill accumulates unknown deductions each month is countless. They are soft targets, for want of a better phrase.
What I’ve gathered from my informal research is that these consumers have quite similar character traits among them.
They are predominantly female.
They are younger, typically youths and young executives.
They are creative people, communicative and generally the social type.
They are risk takers. It seems that women are more likely to take risks than men. Invaluable to the business world in my opinion.
They are better at time management, are more organized and also more impulsive.
They are better listeners and would allow you more time to conduct your message than men. Therefore, if it’s attention you’re after, women are more lenient.
Marketers sometimes have difficulty identifying target audiences. Generally, you may find that they portray marketing messages to men if the product in question is targeted at men. Similarly, I have spoken to numerous people that simply cannot comprehend marketing to youths. More often than not, their reason for it is that youths don’t have spending capacity.
They possibly don’t have spending capacity, but the power to influence should not be disregarded.
Women and youths are perfect digital marketing target audiences, especially in the mobile field. If the message is correctly conveyed, timeously delivered and properly addressed, the returns should be greater, regardless of the product.
In Cape Town there are 7 men to every woman according to popular statistics, but in the world, there are probably 7 women to every male that would consider marketing and advertising messages.
I believe a smart marketers should fancy their chances.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

Keep it simple stupid

Some marketers spend a lot of their time dreaming up the perfect campaigns. I would know. I’m one of them. Just yesterday, I ran through 4 folios working on a mobile campaign for a client of mine. The longer I continued, the more I realized I’m onto something magical.
I had the campaign developed and set onto my testing ways. It worked brilliantly, but it took the “consumer” 10 minutes to finish and forced numerous text replies. It was evident that the campaign had failed before it even started.
I was gutted. Not because of the failed campaign. But because time and again I seem to forget the golden rule of effective marketing: Keeping it simple.
At a party the other night a friend of mine wanted to share a marketing idea with me. My friend is in construction, a project manager, someone more likely to overspend on budgets than devising marketing strategies. Needless to say, I was curious to hear what a “non-qualified” could come up with.
Vehicle dealerships tend to issue courtesy cars when your vehicle is in for a service. It’s good practice and certainly goes a long way in after sales service delivery. (I pity those who don’t)
What they manage to do, unintentionally I’m sure, is to remind you just how magnificent your own vehicle is when you return their no bells and whistles entry level mass production model.
That is the idea right? Well, is it? What if they issue you with a same model demo as your car, but with a higher spec? Just how special is your own vehicle now? Just how agonizingly short are you from your perfect car? How much would you be looking forward to trading in your own vehicle for the latest in the range?
I absolutely refuse to test drive any vehicle in a higher spec margin than the one I’m contemplating buying. The reason therefore is obvious. I’d hate to know what I’m missing out on by not spending that extra ten grand or so.
The problem with progressive marketing like this of course is the abundance of reasons we’d be given from businesses as to why this approach will not be viable. Because we as businessmen and women are programmed to assume that complexity is the measurement of success, where I’m sure that the average consumer would be reluctant, yet unanimous in agreement that driving a higher spec vehicle during service intervals will mess with their minds.
I have a new found respect for my friend. Not because of his brilliant mind, but for reminding me that marketing is about my customers.

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Beijing Olympics paves the way for future mobile marketing

Here’s a funny entry to highlight the difference between marketing a mere 8 years ago and today. Marketing around the Olympic Games used to be a like a 100m cakewalk. You pay a gazillion dollars to the Olympic Committee and then another gazillion to show off your products on television and print.
Of course, that was only the Coca Cola’s of this world who managed to do it, while the rest of the smaller business world were left salivating like Pavlov’s dog. Eight years on and Beijing 2008 rolls by and we can already see the effect mobile communication has.
Even Coca Cola realized this and were one of the many companies to introduce mobile advertising and marketing to create awareness of their product around the Games. Their method: A simple Bluetooth connection in thousands of locations in around the Olympic stadium, focusing on the youth market and delivering video commercials directly to Bluetooth enabled handsets.
NBC who were gifted the sole rights to broadcast the Olympics in the US have pretty much covered all bases of mobile communications. “Consumers”, as we marketers tend to call normal people, have an array of mobile alerts programmes to choose from. Among these are daily news alerts, real-time information, and breaking news, to athlete alerts, medal results, event reminders, video highlights and a photo of the day- categorized by sports category. This is profound and guaranteed to drive advertising revenue through the roof.
The fact is people, a mere 8 million consumers will pass through Beijing alone during the Olympic Games and it is estimated that each person would be confronted with about 3000 advertising exposures per day! This is not even mentioning the television and radio commercials. This leaves mobile marketing, a channel that is purely permission based, for companies to secure loyalty and dedicated brand exposures to their consumers.
There’s certain opportunities that come along every once in a while that positions businesses to maximize their advertising spend and show greater return on brand exposure and consumer loyalty. The FIFA Soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa in 2010 and the London Games in 2012 among the obvious.
Where previously, smaller businesses where left out in the cold due to the extreme nature of advertising price hikes, most of them could simply stand on the side and watch in vain. Today however, a combination of the internet and mobile communications has opened a world of opportunities for these companies to engage with their target markets without employing bank breaking budgets to do so.
Digital marketing has leveled the playing ground, resulting in a more competitive market where the smartest and often the simplest from of marketing would succeed. Gone are the days when your marketing budget determined your success.
This should be an eye opener to businesses all over. What they do with this information will determine their fate.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

A Wake-Up Call For Mobile Marketing

Something that has been close to my heart ever since I can remember is education. It’s a boring subject for most, but if you’re reading this, chances are that you’ve completed high school and some form of tertiary education. You have an opinion and on top of that, one that matters. Regardless of whether your 18 or 80, you will acknowledge the importance of education.
As well as the startling realisation that we, the graduates, are some of the selected few to have been granted with that luxury. Motivation and ambition are arguably two of the core factors that got us to where we are today. Many of us had the support structures from parents, siblings or guardians. Some of us are not that lucky though.
We all have one thing in common though, sporting heroes. Whether it is John Smit, Ashwell Prince or current Olympic silver medalist, Khotso Mokoena. They all have an unmatched ability to motivate.
Add a mobile phone and an innovative and passionate drive for education and you get www.boostup.org. The only pity is that it’s a US based model. But let’s hypothesize for a second here.
The function of boostup.org is to offer a “Wake-Up Call” mobile marketing program that motivates teens to get up and go to school.
It features free ringtones and motivational wake-up call messages from celebrities and sporting heroes. A hypothetical example of such a wake-up call message would be:
“I’m Khotso Mokoena. I’ve been a long jumper for the past four years. I made the SA Olympic Team in ‘08. I won a silver medal at my first Olympic Games. But before all that, I had to wake up, get out of bed, and go to school. Maybe you should, too.”
This is a straight forward, no frills marketing campaign aimed at the youth. Something I’m sure will interest many people that are pro-actively campaigning for education of the youth.
Of course, the million dollar question always remains…will I make money from it? My answer is simple. There’s commercial potential in any campaign. If the strategy is correct, the cause is worthy, the money is bound to come.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

You’ve got to be kindling me

I’ve recently received news that Sony has launched their own e-book reader to the public. Second-to-market I thought, until I did some research and within 3 minutes found no less than 12 other such products.
Why would people prefer to read novels, magazines and newspapers on a digital unit like the Amazon Kindle or Sony Digital Reader? Basically, for the same reason people upgrade their mobile phones on their cellular contracts. Because they can. Is it worth it? Hardly ever. Do we do it? Hell yes.
The Amazon Kindle introduced the world to a new way of reading. It allows us to download any book from Amazon in digital format, at a cost of course, and then read it using an electronic unit wherever we go, battery permitting.
When you’re done with reading your latest spy novel, you simply connect to the Amazon store and purchase a new one. No trips to the book store. No waiting for delivery and no shipping costs ever again. It sounds extraordinary. But it’s not.
It’s nothing but a clever marketing ploy in human extortion. Persuading people to purchase things they really do not need and actually have absolutely no use for. But it’s convenient, you may argue. It saves us valuable time. Just about as convenient as your mobile phone, your TiVo, PDA, IPhone Touch, Macbook Pro, Digital Camera, Video Camera and SAT Nav. You see, there are so many “conveniences” these days, that it actually has become an inconvenience, not true? How much time do you actually have in any given day to sit down and spend time with your Kindle?
Because people, the harsh reality is that you will still buy the odd newspaper, visit Exclusive Books while having an Espresso at Seattle, ask people for directions, watch movies with other people created by other people, listen to music on the radio and browse through an actual photo album.
Because that is what living is. Being alive and having time to connect with real people, real things and real emotions. While I am all for technological advances, a part of my being is to try and identify these marketing mockeries that is supposedly engineered to save time, but actually manufactured to extort money.
Yes, people by the hundred thousands are streaming to buy the Kindle and many more will follow suit with the Sony Digital Reader. Just like the Tamagotchi though, people will realise that raising a real pet is more fun than feeding binaries to a digital dog.
Do I want an Amazon Kindle? Oh yes I do. Will I be using it? Probably not.
Just another step into oblivion at understanding the human psyche.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

State of the South African mobile web

We may be slightly behind on internet technology here in South Africa, but I think it is safe to assume that it is exactly because of this that we are one of the most progressive countries in the world in terms of mobile communications.
The company behind Opera mini, a web browser that is installed on mobile phones, has recently released their State of the Mobile Web Report for August 2008.
The report highlights a couple of interesting facts, especially for businesses looking to incorporate mobile communications into their marketing mix.
1. Usage of the mobile Web continues to grow in terms of unique users, page views and data transferred.2. This month, usage of the mobile Web saw significant growth in Ukraine, which jumped to 4th place, and South Africa, which jumped to 6th place in the top 10 list of countries, displacing China and the United States respectively.3. Mobile Web users spend a significant amount of time browsing less popular Web pages in addition to the most popular ones.
From these highlights, it seems that South Africans are pro-actively engaging in online content, not only perennial favourites such as Google and Facebook, but also lesser popular websites. It would be interesting to note how many of these less popular websites are visited via an organic search in Google.
The list of the top 10 mobile browsed website in South Africa also provides a significant amount of evidence that users nowadays use their mobile phones to engage, rather than only seeking results or once off information.
1. facebook.com2. google.com3. wikipedia.org ( back on the list )4. gamejump.com ( down from 3 )5. yahoo.com ( down from 4 )6. mxit.co.za7. peperonity.com ( up from 8 )8. capetown.gumtree.co.za ( up from 10 )9. amazon.com ( new )10. twilightwap.com ( new )
Two search engines rank inside the top 5 browsed websites which strongly supports the importance of search engine optimization for higher result ranking for your website. Not only is search engine ranking crucial, but since such a large portion of users access the internet via their phones, it is critical that your website is mobile friendly.
Mxit continues to be the most popular 100% mobile chat interface for the youths, while Facebook can rightly defend its position as networking facility among the young and upcoming professionals.
There is no doubt that mobile browsing will continue to soar in a country where it seems we will have to make do with expensive broadband, busy schedules and a generation that are as tech savvy as they are dynamic.
The pen-to-paper generation is rapidly becoming extinct and as business professionals it is vital for us to keep in contact with the technological preferences of our target audiences.

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Magazine advertisers go interactive mobile route

Usually I urge businesses to consider the impact mobile marketing could have on their marketing strategies. It is one of the fastest growing marketing channels today and especially in Africa, mobile penetration far outweighs that of the internet.
But what happens when you forget to baby sit marketers that have been converted already? I’ll tell you…they exploit the channel for everything it’s worth. We all know that mobile phones are very private possessions. People are very protective of their phone numbers (I actually dispute that…but nonetheless) so we are very careful to how we communicate with our target audience. Permission based communication is at the order of the day.
But they didn’t stop there. In fact, it is possible for marketers to take it just one step too far. So they did.
“Thanks to SnapTell, a provider of image recognition-based mobile marketing solutions, the winter issue of Martha Stewart Weddings will be the first women’s magazine to utilize fully activated or “live” advertisements throughout the publication.”
This means that women (and men reading women magazines) can now take a snapshot of any featured advertisement inside the issue and then receive content on the specific product via their mobile phone. Content received from the advertisers includes coupons, videos or photos, website links or product information. Nifty, isn’t it?
So is this marketing’s latest innovative ways to get people to pay attention to advertising again? Of course, the entire campaign is trackable, so for advertisers it will surely make sense to avail their product content to consumers for mobile download.
That is, of course, if people actually go through all the trouble of paying more attention to advertising than they do on editorial content. Somehow this seem like a rather futile attempt to make advertising more desirable…and gain greater profits from the advertisers.
Then again, if Martha Stewart reckons it’s worth the effort, my mom will surely do to.

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Should mobile marketers focus on social network advertising?

There is enough evidence that suggests that social networks are the dominant forces in mobile web browsing destinations. ABI Research’s report recently indicated that from a study conducted, 46% of the participants said they visited their favourite social networks via their mobile phones.
The two largest social networks today, MySpace and Facebook claim 70% and 67% of that traffic respectively. In a country where mobile penetration outweighs internet penetration by a country mile, you would be excused to assume that here in South Africa, the statistics of mobile internet browsing may be far higher.
The question I’d like to address today is whether marketers should focus on advertising on these social networks, clearly the outright favourite online destination for the majority of mobile users, or if they should focus on mobile advertising at all.
Considering that the top two browsed (mobile) sites in South Africa are Facebook and Google, logic leads us to believe that Facebook ads, Google ads and search engine rankings should dominate our online strategy. It has been shown though that social network advertising has returned less than desirable results. The hype around the Facebook phenomenon has seized and where the platform was once the talk of the town, it has now settled into its role as connection and communications medium.
This however does not diminish the value of Facebook one bit as it remains one of the most important tools to our (marketers and consumers) disposal today. In terms of marketing, the determining factor is how to leverage off the platform. And sadly that’s where we seem to draw a blank. The market doesn’t really respond to advertising on social networks, nor do they seem vastly interested in corporate interactivity. Sure, some have managed relative successes, but in terms of return on investments, the jury is still out on that one.
Which brings us back to mobile. There are number of options for marketers to explore. One of the most obvious again is to try and leverage off the popular social networks. Mobile applications, Facebook groups and –pages are highly frequented, yet strangely difficult to convert into tangible advertising and marketing results.
Another is to focus on a niche which many industries have now started to embrace. Unfortunately, niche also means fragmented audiences, once again with a sensitive margin between marketing spend and ROI. As mobile penetration and mobile internet browsing frequency increases, so too does the demand from companies to create more innovative mobile strategies and advertising advantages. It remains something that I’m skeptical about at best.
Where some web marketers have realized that integrated, yet simple marketing strategies are still as effective as they once were without breaking the bank, it seems it’s a life lesson the mobile marketing generation still has to learn.
There are still no equal to growing a database of mobile users that are interested in your product, loyal to your brand and have personally requested a more direct communications level with their suppliers.

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Real estate mobile opportunities beckon

An interesting industry embracing mobile marketing has emerged in the US and I couldn’t help but wonder how effective these campaigns would be in South Africa. With the international economic climate stringent to say the least, it is the homebuilders that seem to have been taking a pro-active step in leveraging off this prominent channel to try and sustain a dwindling market.
A very common concern among the young professionals today is the exorbitant costs involved in purchasing property, with many of them simply incapable of producing the sort of capital that is required to purchase property these days. With a required combined household income of in excess of R 35 000 per month as bare minimum and inflated costs of every imaginable commodity, more and more people simply have to resort to renting, an option hardly worth the paper that it’s written on if you add sentiment to the word “home”.
A common mistake in real estate, evidently placed under enormous economic pressure, is to employ desperation marketing tactics. Buying property is as much an emotional decision as it is a financial one and employing mobile marketing methods to communicate brand and opportunity to the digitally advanced professional market is a good idea, provided it is done intelligently.
Real Estate companies should guard against force feeding properties for sale down the throats of potential buyers. It’s critical to realise that in this economic turmoil, the upcoming market is doing an extraordinary amount of homework before committing to a purchase decision that could potentially destroy them financially.
The focus of realtors should evolve from sales driven campaigns to a more educational form of branding. A mobile marketing campaign that informs potential buyers on best practices, tips on how to get into first time buying, which banks offer the best rates or the legal implications and stumbling blocks of multiple owner purchases would serve as a revolutionary marketing tactic already.
And even if the potential market is not ready to convert into purchasing decision, the brand impression from real estate agents that truly care to educate and that are not only hell bent on commissions, would certainly go a long way in establishing a relationship with their potential buyers that could reap uncharted benefits in the long run.
It is just too bad that many companies are blinded by short term profits over long term sustainable turnover.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

Don’t beat around the Benz

Mercedes Benz has recently added to their marketing mechanics by including mobile to its repertoire of value added services. This is another innovative move from another top international brand, one that surely puts a smile on the faces of each of the Benz’s family members, iPhone users, not to mention the agency responsible for this piece of development.
The mobile portal as it is known contains four sections including New Vehicles, Brand World, Entertainment and Service & Contact and it has been joined by additional entertainment platforms such as Mercedes-Benz TV and the music download service Mercedes-Benz Mixed Tape.
The range of personalized services is rounded off by a car configurator and information on the technical details of each model offered by the Stuttgart-based automotive brand.
There are a multitude of features to this new development, but I’d rather spare my readers the technical specifications and focus on one rather important question: Why would Mercedes Benz, “the car for the older man”, identify the need to create a mobile internet platform for its fans?
Some of you might rightly argue that Mercedes Benz have become a lot more savvy of late, especially considering their uber cool new C-Class BMW basher, a car that certainly appeals to the more established and young executive market alike. But is mobile marketing pushing the envelope a bit far?
Let’s look at a couple of the core benefits of mobile marketing: Adding value to service delivery, ranging from access within reception areas to the global accessibility and uptake of the device. That’s massive value any which way you look at it. It is also likely to cloud the downsides to any mobile campaign, which is where my skepticism is borne from.
Without having any figures or ROI measurements to my availability, there are a couple of problems I can identify with developing mobile services to complement your brand, more so if you are smaller business and every marketing penny counts.
After the initial hype around the platform, what are the reasonable expectations of sustained usage of the site? If we look at demographics, it’s almost a given that the younger generation appeals much stronger to these types of technological advances and the younger the user, the shorter the attention span or interest.
Yes, it is a cool new addition to my iPhone, but how long does it take before this excitement is filed in the back of my phone’s memory bank and first in line for deletion once I run out of my incredibly large storage space?
Mobile is a strong and effective medium for marketing and brand awareness, but it’s important to keep a clear understanding of the basic needs of your business. It’s sometimes very easy to get carried away with creative campaigns, often lacking longevity, when simple and clear communications would’ve sufficed.
There are two types of businesses:
1. The Mercedes Benz’s with the capital to fill every possible marketing channel with content, regardless of the sustainability of its value add and the purchasing potential of the market it serves.2. The hundreds of thousands of other businesses that need to focus a lot of time and energy on selecting a channel that reaches the largest possible target audience and ensuring that the campaigns possess the potential to optimally sustain its value.
Make sure you know in which category your business resides.

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ABSA Bank thinks outside the box

The most widely recognized definition of a bank is an institution that acts as safeguard for money that should’ve been hidden under your bed, seeks for a million ways to deduct amounts so small that it’s hardly noticeable, yet leaving you well short on cash at the end of each month.
For more evidence on this, I recommend renting the documentary Zeitgeist and indulging yourself in the alleged fraudulent behaviour of the Reserve Bank of America. You’re welcome to form your own opinion around this.
When ABSA Bank changed their slogan to Today Tomorrow Together I was rather upset, because besides my credit-crunching girlfriend, it seemed I had another life-long partner sucking me dry for every loose penny I own. However, sometimes banks manage to produce some new, albeit still money grabbing, initiative that actually adds value to the consumer’s banking experience.
ABSA Bank calls it CashSend and it’s the first bank in Africa to facilitate funds transfer mechanics without actually having to be a bank account holder.
“CashSend will allow Absa customers to electronically transfer funds using an Absa ATM, self-service kiosk, mobile banking or internet banking, to a recipient who is then able to withdraw the funds without needing a card or bank account.” – MyBroadband.co.za
The cash sender will need to input a six digit code, the recipient’s mobile phone number and the amount they wish to transfer. The recipient can then easily withdraw the money by using the withdrawal number, access code and the specified amount. Simple, efficient and progressive. Mind you, that’s not bad for a new slogan, is it? Something like that would make me breathe easier.
With marketers, especially these new, improved and self-obsessed types of marketers building massive personal empires on the internet today, we find tons of examples of new age mobile marketing campaigns that is as outrageous as the money they charge for them. I’ll take this as the ideal opportunity to commend the team behind this initiative: a simple, effective value adding service that I’m sure will be well received throughout the country.
I spotted only one downside though which will hopefully be rectified soon. It seems the CashSend initiative is not built into ABSA Bank’s internet banking service. A quick scan through my own account and I couldn’t find it. This of course doesn’t imply that it’s not there, only that it might be slightly troublesome locating the service.
If ABSA continues on this path in using technology to streamline my banking, I would be more than happy to let them extort some (please note: SOME) money for value added service delivery.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

Mobile marketing is just not cricket

Cricket is a complicated game, or so we’re told. Many men will concur that the agony of having a wife or a girlfriend sit through a cricket match is almost worse than the fight on a weekend about why you simply cannot commit to any extramural activities with her.
Trying to explain the seemingly simple concept behind the three ways of scoring runs off the bat, the no balls, wide balls, bouncers, yorkers, off spinners, leg spinners, googlys, doosras, off cutters, leg cutters, seamers, inswingers, short of a length, full tosses, slower balls, out swingers and reverse swingers and…are you still paying attention honey? Of course, most of these deliveries also have some sort of variety.
You’ve not only lost her attention, you’ve also lost your patience and she lost her temper. I believe no cricket match can ever be fun with women in close vicinity. Until this past weekend, that is. I didn’t watch cricket though, I went camping. (Which I don’t enjoy doing, by the way)
While we were busy preparing our breakfast on one of those gas thingies with the black pan thingy, one of my friends dropped an egg. Quick as a flash I moved to my right and pulled off the most sensational catch of the day, much to the delight of the immediate crowd. (Mostly women of course)
Without skipping a beat, my friend remarked: “Catches win matches!”
And there it was. Cricket, one of the most complicated sports known to mankind, explained in its simplest form.
I’ll be very careful before I start comparing businesses to women for fear of either being labeled a chauvinist pig or worse, an idiot, but the resemblance between the general cricket knowledge of women and the average business’ knowledge of technology is rather apparent.
Business decision-makers ask for simplicity, marketers think the amount of technological jargon they use reflect their IQ’s, where in fact it achieves quite the opposite. A marketer worth his or her salt is one that comprehends the decision-maker’s understanding of technology, the objective of the marketing campaign and has the ability to employ the simplest method to achieve the optimum goal.
Mobile marketing can be a confusing nut to crack. Especially when digital marketing specialists and mobile communication gurus get there heads around an idea. You can almost bet your bottom dollar Bluetooth will come into play, a Mobi site for extended brand presence will be thrown into the equation, applications built around new models of phones, mobile social networking platforms and location based services are among the more popular terms used.
If you’re a key decision-maker, the one with the million dollar sign-off signature, and you understood the above paragraph, I’m happy to say that you’re one of the elite few. For the rest of you, think about mobile marketing as another way of chatting to potential clients.
You have a message; you have their numbers; send it to them. Rinse and repeat. Technology in marketing is confusing and scares a lot of people. However, with the new millennium came vast technological prodigies and they carry with them the power to change.
You as business decision-maker unfortunately have no option but to adapt or die. If you’re overwhelmed with the idea of mobile marketing, maybe it’s time to change your marketing agency.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/

Connecting on a personal level for election success

With the US presidential election now concluded and the world at large coming off a natural post electoral high it is South Africa that’s bracing itself for round number two in 2009. And what massive shoes we have to fill. The Obama 2008 campaign has shown us a couple of things:
1. Being connected in 2008 is critical to the success of any campaign.2. Addressing the masses through all available media channels on a personal level can secure loyalty.
There is a definite heightened expectation for election 2009 in South Africa. It’s obvious that the broad availability of information and the sheer pace through which this information is delivered to our monitors have underpinned the importance of using electronic communications to spread the word.
Having said that, the DA and the ANC both have been utilizing the internet and mobile channels to gain momentum for a while now, but it is profound how ordinary their efforts appear when compared to the massive global appeal of the US elections.
The IEC have made it that much simpler for people to check whether they are on the voters roll for the upcoming elections in 2009 by either visiting their website and locking in our ID numbers or sending a text message with the ID to receive your status on your phone.
This is great progress considering the reluctance people had to previously go through the efforts to check their status, not to mention voting. There seems to be something like a national surge of responsibility and voting is top of mind of the masses.
Of course, the masses referred to here are those elite few that have the luxury of the internet. Less than 10% of the South African population is connected to the internet, which may or may not explain the IEC’s lack of urgency in getting their website compatible with various web browsers. Regardless, my point in question is whether we’re enabling the already enabled.
While Obama 2008 has shown how the internet could facilitate a ridiculously loyal following, one has to wonder what the respective parties in South Africa have in mind. My mind has been made up to whom my vote will go, but then to be truly honest, I was pretty much born into it. How many of the candidates have made the effort to communicate their message on a more personal level?
It may seem incomprehensible that a candidate should address me personally, but then this is the age of Me, Myself and I. And while the US have an internet penetration level much higher than South Africa, we have the unprecedented advantaged to be one of the highest mobile penetrated markets in the world.
Yet, we haven’t witnessed any form of mobile campaigning that is worth noting. Is that still to come? Our candidates are ready, speeches polished, Windsor knots perfected, but who will they address?
In the mobile phone, the political parties in South Africa have arguably the most valuable tool to swing votes known to man. And while the extravagance of the mobile phone might be slightly diminished compared to the internet, it is by far the biggest reaching communications platform we have to our disposal.
Something to think about the next time you pollute my boulevard with your yellow posters.

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/