Mobile Marketing Down Under
Mobile marketing needs certain conditions to flourish – in Australia the mobile ecosystem is restricted due to a number of significant factors. Having recently returned back to the UK after 5 years I am surprised at just how restrained it was back in the land down under. Especially since consumer behavior does not reflect this – not by a long shot.
Mobile penetration in Australia is currently at 113% with over 10.5 million people with 3G connections, that’s more than fixed broadband connections in the home. A staggering figure and one that would lead you to believe that this nascent technology should be a dominant force on the landscape – sadly this is not the case.
The Telstra network dominates the environment with over 10m subscribers, Optus the follower is next on around 8m and VHA (recently merged Hutchison 3 mobile & Vodafone Australia) has roughly 6m subscribers combined.
The recent merger of the most dynamic challenger in the market, 3 mobile, is sure to contribute to a fairly conservative mobile marketing landscape in Australia. The previous government (Howard) did not think to break up the behemoth Telsta before it was privatised in 2007. This shortsightedness led to a massive gorilla in the room that dictates pricing and promotes excessive data charges generally suppressing any creativity in the marketplace.
The other main challenge in the rise of mobile in Australia is that the majority of brands are still struggling with their web strategies. Mobile for many is just too much to think about right now. Couple this with the fact that the agencies also need to get their heads around this new channel and you see that it’s placed in the ‘too hard’ basket for many brands.
This however is not reflective of the consumer behavior in the country, which far supersedes the majority of the brands.
Just 4 months ago the two major portals served over 500m impressions alone. With over 5m people accessing the mobile internet on a daily basis, brands do not realise that it is simply not good enough to have potential consumers accessing their websites through their handsets. The experience is a poor one with fickle consumers not likely to give second chances. Loosing out on consumers, through their most personal channel, is potentially a valuably missed opportunity – particularly as mobile consumers are ‘engaged hunters’.
This is indeed reflective of the UK’s ecosystem with only 7% of the Fortune 500 companies possessing and actively promoting a mobile website with a mobile strategy to boot.
Despite the restrictions in Oz there are some pioneering brands that have been able to produce successful and innovative work. The mobile ecosystem in Australia has a vibrant, knowledgeable community of which I was proud to belong. During my time there I have picked out the 3 most inspiring campaigns for you to enjoy.
UN Voices
My last company, The Hyperfactory, produced the most Globally awarded mobile campaign of 2009 for the United Nations. The UN Voices campaign was designed to literally, in a manner never seen before, give a voice to the people who are normally ignored in society and bring their message to life.
A call to action simply asked people to ‘Listen to me’. The person was instructed to take a picture of the person’s mouth and MMS in to 1800VOICES to hear them utilising ground breaking image recognition technology. Instantly the person’s phone would ring with that person telling them their story in a brief pre-recorded message. They were then directed online to the unvoices.org.au to listen to more voices and add their own.
This campaign was completely revolutionary through giving an audible element to traditional media. It was covered across the world as a ground-breaking campaign, donations increased and in turn led to an awareness boaster of 82% for the UN brand.
This technology is completely underutilised and can bring to life anything and everything imaginable! Your on the street and you want to learn about the latest Peugeot car, take a picture of the logo and get the latest information on your phone with a click to call for a test drive. You want to buy a phone but want to think about it, take a picture and get a downloadable brochure with a discount offer driving in store. You see a poster for the up and coming Tron film, take a picture and get an Augmented Reality version of the trailer direct to your handset. The possibilities are endless!
UN Voices from ourentries on Vimeo.
Virgin VFest Guide
TigerSpike created an interactive festival guide for the Virgin V Festival. A downloadable application that sat on the consumers phone, enhancing the core target audiences’ festival experience whilst highlighting Virgin’s positioning as innovators in the Australian market.
The application, once downloaded, enabled the festival goer to access the stage line ups, plan their itinerary for the 4 stages, receive alerts when their selected bands were due on stage and buy branded content from the artists performing that day.
This application was pre-iPhone days and worked across the majority of all handsets (developed in J2ME). I found it incredibly useful and the perfect accompaniment to the festival experience.
The Quantum Code
To promote the release of Sony Picture’s James Bond Quantum of Solace movie, Euro RSCG came up with an innovative promotion utilising the newly launched QR codes in Australia.
The campaign targeted tech-savvy influencers and recruited them as spies. Given a 3-week mission, the spies had to scan codes to unlock the clues to save the MI6 agent Constance Newlove. Players received video mission briefings to their handsets with the missions taking place online, on mobiles and in real life. The espionage hunt culminated on the final day of the campaign in Sony’s flagship store in Sydney for a chance to win $15,000 prize.
Although I personally do not think that QR codes are any good in the Western world (only really in Asia where these technologies are in the advance stages of use) yet, I think that they worked for this campaign’s target audience. The promotion even took on a life of its own when people hacked into the websites setting up false clues and trying to personally engage with the campaign’s spy Candice Truelove!
This kind of campaign can work exceptionally well when you have a good hook (007), a significant plot line (Constance Newlove) and a tangible prize ($15,000) draw up for grabs. People will engage with things that they can resonate with. When you get this right it can take on a life of it’s own – just like this one!