Mobile advertising: First aim to be helpful

Brands in SA are missing a trick when it comes to mobile advertising if they focus on smartphone penetration statistics instead of generating relevant and useful content, says Emma Carpenter, creative director at Accenture Interactive. Brands should be building empathetic and intuitive products that enable people, she says.

She’s just returned from the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, where she sat on the mobile advertising jury. She dismisses the notion that mobile advertising is a new concept or the next big thing. “Early adopters have had smartphones for the past nine years and a basic phone for 10 years before that. We’ve been exposed to advertising on mobile since the first Web-enabled phone was launched. Now we need to focus on brands connecting customers, providing innovative experiences and real utility.”

Carpenter says marketers should not limit their thinking by looking at channels, but produce engaging content first and then select the right device.

“Consumers react to a great experience; they’re not thinking about whether it was delivered on a watch, handset, laptop or smart TV,” she says.

Local brands are in a unique position to capitalise on effective mobile marketing because here devices are ubiquitous. “Unlike our competitors in developed markets, [not everyone can] afford a laptop or a home Internet connection, so the small screens are people’s connection to the world.

“Brands should not underestimate the value of smartphones to this audience, or people’s willingness to spend a large portion of their budget on one.”

Brand strategy is still being led at an executive level by marketers who believe in traditional media. They need to “stop believing the rubbish that none of their audience has a smart-phone; they should get outside and see what real people are holding.” They need to talk about connected devices and the Internet of Things rather than platforms. “Customers see anything with an Internet connection as being an extension [towards others].

“Understanding how customers interact with each device allows brands to leverage their different capabilities to enhance that experience.”

The following are two examples of a brand getting that right. First, Samsung’s SeeColors app, which asks colour-blind people to take a test on their mobile phone and then calibrates their television to allow them to experience a full spectrum of colours. Second is the Samsung Blind Cap, which provides a digital answer to a problem facing paralympic swimmers. Instead of bumping the swimmer on the head with a stick at the precise point of a turn, the coach can now use Bluetooth to alert swimmers with a device in their swimming cap.

In short, brands need to look at what customer needs and wants are and after that serve the right content to the right device.