Nigerian Brands Begin Journey on Mobile Marketing

Notwithstanding that Nigeria is the largest and fastest growing mobile market in Africa, with over 90 million mobile subscribers, marketers are yet to tap into the opportunity this platform presents.

The question therefore is why brands should shy away from a huge marketing opportunity to grow profits, market share and sustain success in the market place. This challenge, according to mobile marketing experts is not far from lack of education of how the system operates and how to measure the results.

Assessing the development, Dayo  Elegbe, managing director, Sponge Limited, attributed  the complacency of brand owners to embrace mobile marketing to lack of understanding of how to use the channel effectively.
“The mobile device is an important bridge between the online world and the real world around us and needless to say there is an opportunity for smart brands to engage their target audience like never before,” he said.

Acknowledging that some of the challenges faced by Nigerian brands to embrace mobile marketing is not dissimilar to other markets, Elegbe, who is also the co-chairman of Mobile Marketing Association West Africa, said: “When we spoke to marketers in Nigeria, they admitted that mobile is hot and that there are a lot of people using mobile who sleep with the device, but they don’t know how to utilise it as brand to really connect with their audience.”
It was this gap that necessitated Sponge, the mobile marketing firm to assemble last week in Lagos, some best minds from within and outside Nigeria to share valuable insights, learning and benefits associated with  the use of mobile, as part of an integrated marketing communication strategy to achieve commercial and brand objectives.

One of the speakers at the forum, Alex Meisi, chairman of Mobile Marketing Association(MMA), UK,  who counselled that brand owners should not fear the technology but approach it in an educated manner, believed that organisations who are reticent about adopting the mobile marketing must be those with “traditional management structure where the senior management is of certain age. They don’t really engage with social and don’t really use mobile.

“When we talk of education of marketers, they are not really people who are involved in the marketing side but it is also a challenge to encourage the senior management team. If they don’t get involved in mobile, soon they will miss a huge business opportunity. Mobile marketing will dictate marketing and organisations that move into mobile marketing earlier will get a proportion of better response and better engagement with consumers because they are the first to market.

Alex said that MMA is making progress in allowing brands understand the benefits inherent in mobile marketing, but regretted that convincing some brands will take longer. “It is a slow process running a venture like this, but we will continue to try to convince executives on the advantages of mobile marketing.” He estimated the value of mobile marketing to hit about $2 billion in the next three years.

Dayo further said the mobile device is a unique device which does not only allow people to communicate with others but allows them to organise their lives with transactions and keeping diaries.
“Another thing that is exciting is the mobile internet. Recently, Nigeria became the largest mobile internet marketing in  Africa far surpassing South Africa and we are talking about 15.4 billion impressions in a quarter,” he stated.

The conference also coincided with the plans to launch MMA West Africa in March 2012, reflecting the demand for a localised focus to grow a sustainable market with the region.
Mobile Marketing Association, MMA with headquarters in USA  which is committed to ensuring professional mobile marketing through research, networking and events and instituting advertising  standards .The non-profit  association’s interest in West Africa, is perhaps informed by the growing mobile usage and the potential for intensified mobile advertising in Nigeria.

The body with 26 councils around the world is the pre-eminent mobile marketing association in the world with some 750 corporate members and is committed to establishing and promoting professional mobile marketing.

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Source: BusinessDay