Mindshare's Nick Seckold: Mobile to complement the marketing campaigns

Early in his presentation to a packed session at the Digital Media Festival, Mindshare’s Asia Pacific Digital Lead, Nick Seckold shared his ideas on how marketers can use mobile to complement their marketing campaigns.

“In an age of ‘always on’, people are always on the move and are socially connected through their mobiles 24/7. Hence, there is no doubt that mobile represents a growing opportunity for brands, but penetration alone is not the best reason to convince advertisers to use mobile. The engagement portion through seamless, fun and addictive user interface is key to the success of a mobile campaign” said  Seckold.

Mobile is slated to stay on the uptrend. Based on Portio Research’s latest report, there will be 6.5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide by end-2012, while annual handset shipments will reach 2.15 billion by 2016.  So as mobile technology continues to evolve and significantly influence culture and the lifestyles of consumers, the impact mobile devices are having on daily life is almost unfathomable.

“The missing piece to the puzzle is not “why” advertisers should use mobile but “how” they should use it” added  Seckold.

In January 2012, Ford launched the “Drive Smart” mobile application campaign in India to advertise the new Ford Fiesta. The application launch was in sync with the Auto expo and gave a unique platform to catch auto enthusiasts at the expo. Whilst every car manufacturer was distributing freebies in form of physical product catalogues, merchandise, calendars, etc. Ford distributed this utility cum entertainment application to its users at the expo via handy QR code cards. Through social integration (Facebook and check-in), conversations around Ford increased to 2.5 times more than its competitors. An app called “Drive Smart” was developed to engage prospects and customers, with a popular maps feature and traffic updates. The app has had 43,000 downloads and is still counting.

“The nature of our new age audience demands a new approach to mobile marketing communication. These out of the box ideas such as Ford’s will take mobile marketing to a whole new level.  In the past, advertisers merely wanted a mobile presence but at Mindshare, our mantra is to adapt to consumers’ needs, making the campaigns memorable and hard-hitting” commented Seckold.

With this in mind, Seckold urged marketers to transition their mindsets, putting themselves in their target audience’s shoes and truly understand where they live – online, offline and on mobile.

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