Pete likes Jenny. Like in, a lot actually. But she doesn’t know! He spends his nights listening to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and “When you’re Gone” through his earphones on his MP3 enabled Samsung D900. He like, thinks of her and stuff.

From her Facebook profile he knows that she loves Avril Lavigne, is into soft teddy bears and thinks Brad Pitt is like, a babe! He knows all of her friends by browsing her Flickr photo albums. He even knows why her previous boyfriend was dumped, all thanks to being in the same Mxit group and picking up on her heartbroken conversations with others willing to listen.

He’s carefully planning his first meeting with her. He’s calculating how much money he’ll require for the first date. He’s carefully rehearsing his pick up lines in his head. He needs to be funny, but not sarcastic. Also not too funny, because that’s just childish and hey, he’s like, 16 already.

He’s not planning on what to wear for the date, how to style his hair and he’s most definitely not practicing his killer smile in the mirror. And his pimply face is the last thing that is depriving him of any sleep. Why is that?

Simply because the entire date will occur via his mobile phone. The money he requires is based on airtime. He’s in charge. Technology has enabled him to present the perfect model of himself to this girl. His best picture is stored on his phone ready to be fired off when things aren’t looking up for him.

Does this sound familiar? I bet it does to the majority of people reading this that are younger than 30. For the rest, parents included, this might be a revelation of what goes on for hours behind his closed bedroom door at night. It also explains his constant plea for airtime.

There are millions of Petes and Jennys out there. Each one of them is representative of a brand. A brand that defines their being, albeit skewed at that early stage of adulthood. Whether it is healthy that Pete’s entire wardrobe is Puma and Billabong oriented and Jenny prefers Sissy Boy jeans, is irrelevant.

The fact is, just like their airtime requirements, their choice in brand affinity is non-negotiable. Parents spend millions on these brands each year. The truth is though, if some of these brands knew how to revisit their own childhood days, mommies and daddies would have to spend even more.

Good news for brands. Bad news for parents. For these kids have little money to spend on these brands. It is also a futile attempt marketing their brand to the parents of these kids. They are all too relieved to know that some of these advertising are missed because Pete is upstairs locked in his room.

Pete and Jenny on the other hand would not mind for a second when a quick video or MMS interrupts their first date with a special offer on an Xbox 360 or the latest Avril Lavigne album.

Think about your product for a second. Think about who your target market is. Kids don’t have money, but they have influence beyond your wildest imagination.

Then think about a vehicle to carry your message to these little manipulators and then execute on it. Parents would be so proud of you!

Shifting my mind from wines, sports stars, great food and quirky wine makers back to mobile marketing takes some effort. It takes a little more preparation and research after a nice two week layoff, the excitement of new projects and meeting an all too fascinating girl.

These are the sort of life altering pressures previously unknown to me as I drifted through my daily tasks completely oblivious to a life divorced from my laptop and mobile phone.

That was two weeks ago. Now suddenly things have changed. The previously ordinary and sometimes tedious 24 hour days seem slightly more hastened. Somehow it seems that there are now about 30 minutes to every hour and to top it all off, I now have load shedding to negotiate as well.

I’m a structured person. Albeit not meticulously organised, I still place a great amount of emphasis on planning my days ahead. I’m not your spur of the moment person and nothing irks me more than having to adjust my schedule at the last minute because “life happens” or whatever.

I like knowing things. For instance, when I meet a girl, the best part of the encounter for me would be to immediately sense the attraction (if any), to have a communications platform carefully crafted already and full well know what to expect at least a couple of days in advance.

You’d think that my life is boring, but I’ll have you know that the amount of adrenaline that rushes to my brain on more occasions than I care to divulge is often enough to deem the main character’s super powers from Pushing Daisies not worthy of the airtime on M-Net.

If it hadn’t happened yet, you’d probably soon end up wondering what exactly all this has to do with mobile marketing. The answer would be, well, nothing. But also everything.

You see, if some clever, outside the box thinking nut job at Eskom cared enough about the load shedding crisis that is paralysing our tourism industry, halves our economy and exponentially increases our traffic congestion, then a simple paid for sms service on load shedding times, reminders and ad hoc notifications on changes to their scheduled downtime would suffice.

I wouldn’t be rushing from the office at 5pm last night to make it to the gym, the shop to get dinner, manage to cook it, devour it, shower, check my mails and read 4 lines of The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO before the electricity is supposed to kneel before the electro empire’s command at 8pm.

You guessed it. With great anticipation, slightly elevated breath from all the mayhem and trembling like Larry Hagman first thing in the morning because he hasn’t had his remedy yet, 8pm came and went like the promise of competitive fuel prices and reasonable bank charges.

It was 9:30pm when I realised I was still waiting. Doing absolutely nothing, except waiting. Waiting for Eskom to deliver on their promise of another romantic solo act with blue scented candles, a room exceeding 30 degrees and a declaration of war against those bloodsucking mosquitoes.

The lights were on, literally. But no one was home.

Come to think of it, I probably could’ve called that girl.

Shoprite (Checkers), lower prices you can trust. But what about convenience? Competitive prices inevitably mean more feet through the store, higher demands from consumers and longer checkout queues.

In a number of articles in the past I have expressed my disdain about the lack of convenience of many product and service suppliers. A complete marketing strategy features a great product, with effective advertising and marketing campaigns that reaches a relevant audience, but without convenience perfectly nestled at the base of any campaign, the purpose is defeated for all practical reasons.

The more human beings are exposed to convenience, the more convenience they demand. And it is up to the smart marketers to help their clients move toward that.

So when I first read about ShopRite (unfortunately not ours in South Africa, but keep reading) taking shopping carts (the actual in store shopping carts) to an even more convenient level, I was quite impressed.

They have implemented a digital MediaCart in their shops for their loyalty card holders which enable their shoppers to type in their shopping list at home and then when they swipe their cards on the MediaCart the list will display. As the shoppers then scan their items and place it inside the cart, the console will display a running price tally.

The MediaCart also has a built in infrared unit that provides feedback on the location of the shopper. This data is useful for marketers, product suppliers and store arrangement purposes in particular.

It also serves as advertising medium as product suppliers could display relevant in store advertisements to the shoppers’ benefit, depending on their location in the store, items in the cart and preferred brands that have been chosen.

Best of all, when the shopper is done, there is no need for them to stand in line to pay for the groceries, as that would only defeat the purpose. A simple swipe of the card an electronic transaction then debits their account.

For the in store shopping experience, my CLR (Convenience Level Ratings) returned a solid 8/10.

This world of ours is full of extraordinary people, you know. It’s no coincidence that many of today’s masterminds behind successful internet and mobile businesses are child prodigies, more often than not worth more than both their parents combined.

Meet Carl Ocab. A meager 14 years old and brainchild, literally, of www.carlocab.com, make money online with a 13 year old.

He’s too young to smoke, too young to drink, but the 14 year old prodigy makes a fortune as a… blogger!

We’re often told that our lives would be much simpler, with fewer obstacles, stress and worries if we could just shift our mindsets and behaviour back to when we were kids. We had a carefree life, challenging personalities and had the confidence back then that is truly needed in today’s world to ensure success.

When we were kids, we hardly ever let opportunities pass us by, regardless of the risk and possibility of failure. That is what makes these kids more special. They have found their niche, their passion in a very early stage in life and had the tenacity to do something about it.

Our fear of failure, embarrassment and scrutiny restrict our natural will to apply our minds and bodies to new experiences. Similarly in business, our inclination to follow our gut feel is stifled by protocol, tedious processes, ignorant decision making and our aversion to taking risks.

I see this in practice virtually every day. Businesses are afraid to pay notice to the plea of their customers, however subtle or direct. They refuse to acknowledge the change in consumer behaviour, change in trends and change in preference because they have smothered their natural ability to listen.

They also mostly refuse to change protocol or communications because their Neanderthal approach of top down management is firmly embedded in their being. They believe that a paying customer is a happy customer.

They’re scared to let go of the control of their brand. They prefer to let their mission statement do the talking in a time where customers aren’t willing to listen to corporate thumb suck anymore.

The truth however is that they have probably lost control of their brand already. Today, if you don’t have your finger on the internet pulse, you’ll more than likely be missing critical discussions around your brand.

Stop putting your faith in professional spin doctors to publish crafty contributions from the CEO, industry jargon that confuses and perceivably influences the belief system of your customers where in fact all it is that your customers really want is a direct communication channel to someone that actually gives a sh*t.

The key ingredient to success is simple. It is the willingness to change that stubborn mind shift that is so damn hard. Furthermore, it is the fear of losing control that is having you sit idly while your adventurous competition walks away with the prom queen.

Carl has a simple approach to business: Almost everything nowadays is possible. You want to be invisible? There’s a coat for that. You want to change your colour from black to white? Ask Michael Jackson!