Back in 2002, when mobile communications over here were still something of a pipe dream, the guys at Ogilvy launched their “God” campaign in Singapore targeting potential and lapsed church-goers.

My mobile phone is very personal to me and proof of this is that I’ll rarely answer a phone call from a number that is not saved on it. The reason is simple: If you’re not important enough for me to have your number saved on my phone, you shouldn’t be calling on it.

[Just as I type this, a call from an unknown number, tough luck]

Needless to say I will not often sign up for mobile campaigns unless it adds substantial value to my personal or professional life. So Ogilvy ensured that the strategy behind the campaign was well planned and the execution and timing thereof just as precise.

Religion, being one of those sensitive issues, has the potential to blow up in a marketers face, especially when it comes to speaking with “The Big Guy”. This is where I believe Ogilvy has struck gold.

They have created an awareness campaign at 150 churches in Singapore inviting church goers to refer a friend’s mobile number to receive messages from “God”. These friends were then text to confirm their subscriptions. (no spamming)

“God” will then send clever and witty programmed text messages on carefully planned times to establish a more personal relationship between Himself and his people in a fun manner. This also served to get people more involved in the church and in their daily interactions with God.

Since 2002 technology has advanced substantially though and these days images, videos and audio are sent across mobile phones with just as apparent ease as text messages are.

This coming Christmas of course, while many businesses scuffle around to get everything done, don’t you think having the ability to add a personal touch to your professional relationship with your clients would go a long way in maintaining that relationship over the silly season?

Moreover, once you have gained access to their personal communications device, you have opened up a brand new avenue of adding value to your services offering.

I would like to invite any business leader to prove to me that their clients aren’t the fortress of their existence. Ok, fair enough, it is a given.

We’ve all seen the HTC mobile ad of the wacky Martians bragging among themselves. These are your clients.

So you refer to your clients as Martians and sometimes something a bit stronger, right? I mean, hell, they are probably the most annoying, whiny bunch of (faceless) creatures to grace this galaxy.

If it’s not client service, it is faulty products. If it’s not pushed advertising, it is mass mailing. If it’s not delivery time frames it is inadequate content. Finally, if it’s not you then it must be someone else in your godforsaken company.

A little secret has never hurt anyone, so here goes. Just as life on earth is seemingly normal and the (business) people you communicate with understand your jargon, lingo or whatever you call your linguistic efforts at the office party, so too do Martians live in perfect harmony among themselves.

The problem lies at the odd opportunity where earthlings actually need to communicate with Martians that their message gets lost in translation. Previously, the empires on earth thought up a clever way to solve this problem. They would bombard the Martians with masses of communications in the hope that some would be able to translate and amplify the message to their fellows.

The only problem with this approach was that Martians never really appreciated the invasion of privacy or the infantile way in which earthlings communicated with them.

Subsequently, some clever earthlings with the ability to speak Martian orchestrated a way in which Martians’ voices were translated. Furthermore, they were given a vehicle with which they could perpetuate the message among their peers.

For the first time ever, earthlings struck a panic. There were too many messages, complaints, whinges and hate speech to keep up with. Attempts to silence the voices were greeted with more of the same.

The clever earthlings soon enough realised that the only way to aggregate these messages were to proliferate among the Martians in an attempt to live together in the same confinement. This was no easy feat considering both are from different planets.

Earthlings had to devise a complete new strategy. One with which they could speak and understand the language and converse in a manner which is understandable and acceptable to Martians.

In short, earthlings had to place themselves in the shoes of Martians and view their own strategies from an outsider perspective.

It worked. They realised that the most effective way to communicate with the mother ship was to engage in a channel that was open to them, accepted by Martians and appreciated with respect and privacy.

A personal channel that addresses specific, individual and relevant needs and desires. Moreover, a channel that is the preferred vehicle for communicating among themselves.

In South Africa, many new media marketers are still slightly biased toward the new found interest in the internet or web 2.0 as it is popularly called. I am probably among some of these marketers, but luckily through the responsibility of this blog I am exposed to what is deemed as the 7th Mass Media on a regular basis and it gears me toward the realisation of who’s in control of the ultimate 100m sprint.

In 1992, still a wide eyed freshman to teenage-hood I witnessed the first ever Olympic Games accessible to South Africans on television and in participation. Having been a strong athlete in my days up to high school, especially short distance sprinting, the main excitement of athletics usually lay in the 100m and 200m dash.

The super heroes of those times and athletes I idolised included the likes of Carl Lewis, Linford Christie and the spectacular, yet odd looking runner, Michael Johnson. (They say white men can’t jump, but it seems they can’t run either).

One man though, on which I will base this post, signifies the rise and fall of a legend in as short a space of time as the one we’re witnessing now.

Arguably the fastest man alive in the late 1980’s, it was Canadian Ben Johnson who stole headlines for various reasons during and after the Summer Olympics of 1988.

The internet, much like Ben Johnson was back then, set the world alight with an astonishing rise to fame and fortunes. Venture Capital was handed out like Ben Johnson posters with newspapers and the world beckoned at the sheer panache of both.

Both made headlines worldwide with optimism and skepticism weighing down the opposites of the pendulum. What was evident though, is that it was huge and had the potential to set the benchmark for future competitors.

Then came the fall. It was found that the internet was running on an unnatural performance enhancing substance, in this case venture capital, spiking performance but unable to sustain the effort. Like the fall of Ben Johnson in 1988, the internet came crashing down in 2001. And like Johnson, the internet rose from the ashes again a couple of years later to prove it still has some kick in those tired legs.

And kick it certainly has. But then, unlike the internet on performance enhancers, the natural ability of mobile arrived and is now annihilating any form of competition in its way. In terms of personalised communications, direct permission based marketing and instant gratification, the world has not witnessed a phenomenon like this before.

The internet in many instances laid out the track for mobile to showcase its potential. For the internet has created a platform that catapulted the effectiveness of mobile and provides a means to entry to the World Wide Web from just about anywhere.

Matthew Buckland, GM of Mail & Guardian online had this to say on Bizcommunity: “Mobiles will be the dominating platform to connect to the Internet.

“In Japan, already 70% of the population connects to the Internet via mobiles. This will become a world trend.”

In South Africa, with 40m active mobile subscribers from a population of 44m( thanks Tyler ), Matthew’s words are closer to the truth than we’ll ever be to the claims of Ben Johnson’s doping scandal.

Brace yourselves folks. We have a world beater and it has just left the starting blocks.

The annual study of of the impact of mobile and wireless technology in South African corporations and SME’s conducted by Arthur Goldstuck from World Wide Worx has been released.

A comprehensive piece on the results was published on the Bizcommunity website. I have analysed the piece and dotted down some key points for my readers.

Over 100 IT decision makers and 800 SME’s were interviewed for the study and some of the critical points are listed here together with my opinion on them:

1. Staff’s 3G usage in South African corporations has increased from 58% in 2006 to 82% in 2007

Wireless providers have cut the cost of 3G connections considerably during the first quarter of 2007.

2. WiFi access by staff has decreased from 74% to 66%

This is due to the cost of commercial hotspots at airports, coffee shops and others as well as the introduction of new high speed broadband technology, WiMax.

3. WiMAX, a high speed long-distance broadband technology is having an impact on the WiFi usage figures. 8% of corporations are using it, incidently the same percentage of drop in WiFi usage.

4. Wireless broadband usage in SME’s has increased from 16% in 2006 to 31% in 2007

Research of relevance on SME’s
1. SME usage for 3G: 31%, PDA: 23%, WiFi: 36% (but dropping)

The cost of wireless access at commercial hotspots is extortionate compared to the cost of wireless internet access.

2. Phone features usage:
SMS: 60%
3G cards: from 5% 2006 to 27% 2007
E-mail usage: from 0% 2006 to 27% 2007

3. Planning to use in future:
E-mail: 30%
SMS: 54%
Indecisive on Bluetooth, mobile phone as modem, Internet browsing and location based services (LBS)

Consumer Research
1. 32million mobile users (Some people believe figure to be closer to 40million) out of a population of 48million

2. Only 18% of mobile phones are older than 1 year

3. People love their phones and want a new phone within a year

4. Cellular technology awareness and usage has increased: driven by 3G and WAP

5. 12% have purchased new phone in 2007, increased from 7% in 2006

6. SMS banking still preferred

7. Spam irritation levels are fairly high

Early adopters will surely benefit a great deal from mCommerce (Mobile Commerce), but we should certainly also expect an influx of spam related features. The market will saturate in years to come where innovation will once again pave the way for change communications.

8. Account payments offers the most attractive service in future, followed by mini statements, once off payments and airtime purchases

In a previous post I have mentioned that the next generation mobile functionality will be fully commerced where service providers, retailers and other facilities will partner and deliver convenience driven purchasing options via mobile phones.

9. Mobile commerce is on its way

Goldstuck believes we have seen the tipping point in the use of mobile technology in SA in the past year. “Next year we will see more advanced use of applications.”

My summary

Mobile is growing at a rapid pace and my personal theory is that within the next couple of years mobile technology and usage will become the predominant force in marketing and communications.

Consumer mobile usage outweighs internet usage by almost 10/1, but in terms of business the internet is still enjoying the greatest popularity.

I’m positive that it will once again be the early adopters capitalising on this change that would reap the biggest rewards. As with all types of communications and marketing, the trend will reach a plato where conversion rates will drop and even out considerably.

It is refreshing to once in a while write about innovation happening right here in this country. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that the source of this post comes from a blogger in the US but equally happy that I have his feed in my reader.

“When I visited Zimbabwe last year I actually experienced the long lines to the cash machines when cash was given out in big stacks simply because printed money had almost no value. (Inflation was 15,000 percent during the MONTH of October 2007. Our Western inflation rates are in the 5 percent range, annually. Yes, that is not a typo, it was 15 THOUSAND percent inflation in just one month…)”

Shocking statistics that proves that internet and television are too expensive for majority of households. Add to that, with Zimbabwe’s state of government, there is also no free press.

One can then see the value that the Zimbabwe populace places on radio.

An innovative radio station in South Africa named SW Radio Africa, calling itself the “Independent voice of Zimbabwe”, broadcasts news to the neighbouring country.

With their government being true to its nature, they have decided to censor this radio station as well and thus blocking the news source from South Africa to Zimbabwe.

Most businesses will take this lying down, but SW Radio Africa conjured up the AIB award for Most Creative Marketing Concept by enabling Zimbabwean citizens to sign up for sms news headlines on their mobile phones, free of charge.

They have over 8000 current subscribers and are adding new 100 users on a daily basis. Practical and efficient use of technology to circumvent a government that is as poor as its country.

Because of the free service however, sponsorships are needed to keep the campaign going. I would like to urge everyone reading this to consider helping with sponsorships.

It is time we face the reality of the opportunities mobile presents if taking into consideration that in 2004, there were 3.5m internet users compared to 18.7m mobile in South Africa alone.

Companies and customers are from different planets. The ways they “do business” differ so vastly that it is difficult for companies to keep up with consumer demands. The client is always right is an age old analogy, one that most strive to live by, but this is often much easier said than done.

The reason for this is that life on Mars is commercially driven. Emphasis is placed on business processes and protocol to ensure profitability.

The key to successful business lies is attraction, acquisition and retention. However, retention requires a handy amount of effort. More often than not, these efforts form part of the original transaction and the time consumed by these processes intrude in the next business cycle of attraction and acquisition and negatively impacts profits.

Hence client relations, communications, up selling and cross selling opportunities and consumer demands are less prioritised.

The problem resonates from the fact that life on Venus is emotionally driven. Most of the times purchasing behaviour resides on the consumers’ emotional front. Completing a transaction is similar to engaging in a relationship. Even the purchasing of products or groceries is an indication that the customer has made a conscious and emotional decision to engage with your brand.

While companies might not necessarily agree on this, it has been proven on many occasions.

A typical example of this is when a web development agency delivers a website to a client. These agencies will profess that in many cases, they are suddenly regarded as first line IT support as well. This is especially true when the service delivery was seamless and the client happy with the product.

Why does this happen? Customers find it hard to connect with businesses that understand that transactions reach further than just the exchange of money. When they do, they get clingy.

So for all the times that you curse these persistent clients, realise that they are the customers that value your work the most. They are what I refer to as brand evangelists.

They are the people that will ensure your brand is carried to their peers.

These customers need to be treated with the same value you derived from their transactions. Luckily, in the digital age, there is technology that assists you in your client relations management and simultaneously allows you the opportunity to cross sell and up sell.

Stay tuned for the follow up post on these opportunities.

We’re rapidly approaching the festive season and most of us cringe at the dreaded prospect of Christmas shopping. With 38 days left to crunch time I’m sure many businesses are working on strategies to establish some client loyalty over the silly season.

These often include give-aways, drastically reduced cost on products and services or a sincere best wishes and happy returns message to show them you really care.

As with most things this time of the year however, these courtesy messages are often left to the last minute due to unfinished work and your own rush to get the business to a state where you’ll feel comfortable breaking away for a couple of days.

When you think of mobile, it helps thinking about an always on, always nearby, personal communications device. Come Christmas time and New Year, we all curse at the service providers for not being able to deliver our messages to loved ones.

In fact, so personal are our mobile phones, that we sometimes feel neglected not receiving that special text message from that special person during the holiday seasons, right?

What better communication device then to initiate client communications? Corporate relations rely on e-mails, professional meetings and monotonous telephone calls. But customer relations are personal and we need to treat it as such. Sending your top clients a text message over Christmas shows them you really do think about them and value their business.

It establishes a communications platform for future promotions, news and latest developments. Once you have managed to obtain entry to your clients’ personal channel, maintaining those relationships become much easier and ensure the type of brand affinity that sets you apart from your competitors.

Mobile platforms enable anyone to manage, compile and execute these mobile campaigns within a stringent time frame. It is a cost effective way to keep close to your clients, to show them you value their support and that above all, that the relationship is so much more than just about the money.

The biggest gift you receive this Christmas might just be the one you give your clients.

Many businesses are content with advertising. It is the age old safeway of portraying your marketing message on various high profile media channels like magazines, print, online, outdoor and on the radio.

The effect of advertising has decreased dramatically though. Since its popularity has increased, so did the amount of advertising. It is now at a state where consumers pay little notice to advertising in any form, shape or size across all media platforms.

A previous post of mine, claiming that “Banner Ads are dead“, highlights click through rates dropping from a whopping 42% initially to a substantially less, yet industry accepted norm of 2%.

The result is that agencies charge and companies pay more money on advertising to drive home the message than ever before. Various tactics are executed in attempt to increase conversion rates.

This is highly evident with the launch of two separate advertising models from two media giants, Facebook / Microsoft and Google respectively. Their new models are still in its infancy and it is hard to speculate on the potential successes of either. Both are buoyant on the ability to hyper target audiences because of the demographical information that is available to them.

However, most businesses do not enjoy such luxury and are unwilling to experiment in uncharted territory.

Another teething problem is that information overload has caused the consumer to spend more time content driven and substantially less time deviating from their goal. One survey’s results show that consumers now have the tendency to subconsciously block advertising.

Richer advertising with more witty visual stimulation, shock value and exaggeration together with star studded commercials has caused the latest attempt at reviving the interest of consumers in advertising.

But how is that possible when it is documented that the average US citizen is exposed to 3800 marketing message daily?

Another brain teaser of course is that richer content and flashier advertising might spark a greater deal of interest, but the conversion rates are still lacking. Consumers acknowledge the effect of a brilliant billboard ad, cleverly crafted video commercial or colourful magazine advertorial, but since the advertising is pushed to the user, the pull effect is virtually non-existent.

So while it does wonders for brand awareness, a tremendous feat already these days mind you, it does very little for sales conversions, which is ultimately what ROI is measured on.

Instant gratification works similarly in a child than it does an adult. While the objective might differ, the principle remains the same. When a child witnesses an ice-cream truck their immediate inclination is the desire to have an ice-cream.

Adults have a greater sense of resistance and rationale, so businesses should focus on enabling the consumer to respond to advertising immediately.

I rate the Sony Bravia’s Like.no.other television commercial [as below] as one the most effective commercials ever to grace our television sets. I have never experienced the television set personally, but the commercial alone created the “want to have” feeling. However, as the commercial subsides into my mind’s folder structure, the need to purchase subsides as well.

If for instance, Sony added a mobile component to the commercial encouraging me to conveniently enquire about the picture quality or other features and have them send me some information via my mobile phone with the option to order via reply sms, I reckon they would’ve been one sale better off today.

Is it a pipe dream to soon witness all television, billboard, online, print and radio advertising to carry mobile messaging as convenience driven marketing techniques? I don’t think so.

When that happens though, the novelty will wear off, just like it did with traditional advertising.

Better to get it while it’s hot, they say.

The wonderful thing about Opera’s mobile platform (If you’ll excuse a bit of self promotion) is undoubtedly the range of possibilities it has for companies to stimulate brand awareness, drive sales and encourage community interaction.

I’m going to use actual brands as it will aid in creating the hypothetical competition and allow my readers to get a feel of the vibe.

Klipdrift and Dros franchises throughout the country could run a combined mobile campaign to secure sales, brand awareness and stronger brand affiliation.

In my world, this is how the competition should work. Of course, every campaign needs objectives, so let me discuss this first.

My objectives:

1. Getting more people to indulge in the Klipdrift brand.
2. More feet through the doors of Dros franchises.
3. Creating a social buzz around the two brands.
4. Forming a community among Klipdrift and Dros enthusiasts.
5. Having the community interact with each other physically and digitally.
6. Driving sales.

Entering the competition

By running an in-house campaign, regulars at the Dros are introduced to a mobile sports quiz. By ordering a round of Klippies & Cola they will receive an entry code to the challenge. To register for the competition, all they need to do is to sms their names to this code. The entry forms are also available on the neckers of Klipdrift bottles, with the purchase of any Dros meal and on the respective websites.

How it works

The sports quiz campaign will consist of sports trivia questions and participants are to submit the answers via sms.

Each question throughout the competition becomes increasingly more difficult and only correct answers will see contestants through to the next round. All winners and losers will be notified by sms on their progression in the competition.

After each round the winners of the previous rounds are displayed on the big screens and receive a free drink if present at the Dros. All the winners, previous questions and answers, images and videos of the previous rounds are also published on the Dros website with mobile download options. This allows non participants or previous losers to follow the action.

To secure stronger traction to the Dros’ and Klipdrift’s websites, clues on the questions could be hidden on the websites respectively. This will continue for the duration of the campaign and would familiarise the browsers with other specials and promotions.

To create a lively atmosphere at the Dros, Klipdrift should position branded coasters with the questions on top and answers at the bottom. These coasters will also carry the code to enter the competition. For the duration of the campaign, anyone can still participate in the weekly draw and be in contention for the main prize.

The competition spans across each week of a year with each weekly winner receiving a prize. All participants are also in contention for the major prize at the end of the year. This prize could be a memorable trip to any sporting event of choice anywhere in the world.

Losers

For the losers there is a chance to win a text and win consolation prize.

Winners

To stimulate an even bigger participation, the weekly winners and those in contention for the main prize are encouraged to record their own mini television commercial that is uploaded onto Dros and Klipdrift’s combined Sports Quiz Youtube page.

The general public is also invited to submit their own material and by voting for the favourite, the winners will be featured on Klipdrift and Dros television commercials, displayed on the Big Screens during selected time slots at the Dros and will also feature on the respective websites.

Strategically positioning the competition on sites like Facebook, Flickr and Youtube will see the internet carry the message to online prospects. Television commercials could also drive participants to a nearby Dros to partake in the event.

By encourage people to invest in a minimum expense to take part in the competition will drastically boost sales at the Dros and liquor stores. Premium visitation to the websites is secured and carefully positioned promotions could be featured on these pages.

I believe this competition will drive substantial sales of both brands’ products with the incentive of reaching the finals of the weekly draw as well as a spectacular main prize at the end of the campaign.

About this work:


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 South Africa License.

Today’s post will skip the high end mobile stuff and stick to the basics. Without fancy value added services, consumer convenience, text and win competitions or mobile trading, I’m going address the traditionalists who prefers to use the conventional approach to business.

In small business, we have a scenario of business owners that prefer using traditional market oriented business mechanics and do not care for change. What has worked in the past, are still applicable today. Even their clients have no hang-ups or demands in terms of technological advances in their business demeanors.

Some of these include attorneys and law firms, doctors and dentists, real estate agents, vehicle mechanics and panel beaters among others. We’ve established that their clients have no need for technological value added services. They are comfortable dealing in a familiar fashion and still value age old face-to-face interaction.

Their mobile phone usage varies from making and receiving calls to sending and receiving the odd text message. Their internet usage is limited and only occasionally used for receiving the odd e-mail from family members. Fact: There are still CEO’s that have their e-mails printed by the PA’s and placed on the desk.

Personally though, demand has steered me into a position where technology is the vehicle of my thoughts. Not only in a professional capacity, but also my personal life is driven by the internet, mobile and relevant channels. Being a geek has never before enveloped such a wide section of the populace than it does now.

Demand is a strong word though, and from a technology point, not something that’s likely to be taken too seriously by the group of people in reference here.

I’ve broken down business into three typical cycles. From within these business lifecycles, which is applicable to any business, we need to understand how change influences our decision making.

The three main business lifecycles are: Attraction, acquisition and retention.

In the not too distant past, (client) attraction was simply not that much of a big deal. When we referred to brands we were talking about Coca Cola, Kirby and Volkswagen. It was unheard of to refer to your business as being a brand, not to mention creating awareness or buzz around it.

(Client) acquisition was based mostly on word of mouth and “door-to-door” sales pitches. Many movies still satirically portray these scenarios, often to illustrate typical American suburbia.

Client loyalty or retention was managed when people met at the grocery store, a quick pop-in at the office simply because they were in the vicinity or by a lack of any recognizable or closely located competitors. These clients were mostly lifelong loyalists. These days are epitomized by the videos featured below and will certainly evoke some reminiscence.

Many small businesses in South Africa still operate in a similar fashion. Attraction, acquisition and retention are merely business terms concocted by Harvard professors to complicate a seemingly simplistic business model.

What businesses need to keep in mind is that I refer to these categories as lifecycles. In other words, the process is cyclic and these loops repeat themselves continuously.

Consumer lifecycles come to an end due to a change or cease in demand pertaining to your product or service. They no longer have a desire or need for the product and the thus the acquisition cycle needs to reoccur.

With these new cycles client attraction, -acquisition and -retention become much more difficult as new generation consumers are drawn into them.

There are various new elements (or baggage) that is conjoined with the introduction of a new attraction lifecycle. These elements are collectively known as consumer demands.

Recommendations from peers, fickleness of customers, the brand affinity your business manage to facilitate with your target audience and the limited reach your brand has across media platforms are imminent threats to your previously undisturbed business model.

Floor crossing or brand hopping is a common occurrence today and more importantly is the manner in which consumers prefer to be engaged in. For some businesses this threat is real and present, while many people in business reading this may not be perturbed by any of this and within reason.

However, it is important that everyone acknowledges these trends and gauge their own consumer lifecycles to ensure that that their business model reflects the demands of their consumer.

Today, attorneys still run office with heaps of files and an endless amount of paperwork. In reality, you’ll find more and more attorneys like Paul Jacobson who has transformed his business model to accommodate an array of possible opportunities in whichever format or medium it presents itself.

Even though your consumer lifecycle does not consist of the emerging generation of consumers it is obvious, and important, to keep in mind that eventually it will.

It is crucial to have your adoption strategy in place.

Volkswagen South Africa Memories

Banned Volkswagen Ad – Indication of the measure of competition these days – challenging the boundaries