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.

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.

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.

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.

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.