The first day of ad:tech Singapore 2012 gave digital marketers and industry observers a glimpse of the continued growth of the role of technology and digital media in marketing and advertising in the Asia Pacific. The second day, however, seemed to hover over one particular aspect of that digital future – mobile.
For sure, mobile adoption is growing by leaps and bounds – be it mobile commerce or mobile advertising (Yahoo! recently launched smart targeted ads via video on the mobile, for example) – so brand and digital marketers were keen to see how they could leverage on that space. Other discussion topics included search, social and digital communities.
Here’s a quick recap of some of the day’s events:
Mobile Advertising: A New Era for Brands
Harry Dewhirst of Amobee and Omnicom Media Group‘s Lee Smith discussed how mobile has today become the focus of people’s lifestyles, and how consumers need content to be accessible on any screen, anytime, anywhere. The session also looked at how large brands have already full embraced mobile advertising and how they are leveraging mobile to create relationships with consumers like never before.
· Mobile trend: 472 million smartphones in 2011; 8 trillion SMS messages sent in 2011;
· Mobile advertising spend in Asia Pacific expected to rise from $1.6 billion in 2011 to $6.9 billion in 2015; and
· 350 million new subscriptions in one year in Asia Pacific; this exceeds number of mobile subscriptions in the US in total.
Integrating Mobile Marketing Into Your Overall Business Strategy
Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific managing director Rohit Dadwal exhorted brands and businesses to understand the mobile landscape today and how mobile marketing fits into the overall marketing mix before embarking on a mobile strategy.
Rohit highlighted the potential impact of new mobile applications and platforms on emerging markets:
· With mobile, “prime time is all the time”;
· The “digital handshake”: to keep brand portable across mobile devices, keeping consumers satisfied as and when they want to connect; and
· Marketers should note smartphone installed capabilities for mobile strategy when developing communication, content & community.
Digital Dynamics – Asia’s Future
This session involved digital marketing experts representing the Publisher, Agency and Advertiser industry who provided their analysis on the current digital media landscape in Asia. They also shared their insights on how digital media and its technology will further develop over the next 3-5 years across the Asian region:
· Mobile advertising is not about just delivering the message; it’s about finding the right spokesperson;
· Mobile advertising should be about location based services, social, commerce; and
· Half the phones in China will be smartphones by year end according to Baidu.
The Convergence of Search and Social
Adobe Systems‘ senior product manager of Adobe Social, Jeff Jordan looked at how, although search and social are traditionally seen as being at the opposite ends of the marketing spectrum, data is showing that this may not always be the case. He discussed why collaboration between the two can improve the performance of both search and social.
· On average, only 16% of a brand’s total fans were exposed to organic messages on Facebook; and
· Social media is under-attributed by about 80% because of last-click attribution.
Harnessing the Power of Professional Communities
LinkedIn‘s managing director for Australia and Southeast Asia Cliff Rosenberg outlined the company’s role as a professional community, and spoke about how brands today need to capture attention long enough to convey a purposeful message. With attention spans reducing due to the vast amounts of information that people are exposed to, he argued there is a need to adopt a focused approach leading to measurable outcomes.
· LinkedIn is currently available in local languages such as Japanese, Korean and Bahasa Indonesia, with 25M+ professionals in APAC and expanding;
· Word of mouth is a key driver in developing a sustainable relationship between brands and consumers; and
· The more a LinkedIn profile gets updated, its visibility is increased, be it via Google search or within LinkedIn.
