Mobile Marketing in the Middle East MOBILE MARKETING IN 2013 PREDICTIONS FROM THE MMA EMEA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FOREWARD There is never a shortage of people and companies making predictions about what’s to come in the year ahead so what makes this set any different? Well, it’s the people making the predictions. The EMEA Board of Directors is made up of industry leaders operating businesses across the whole region and it includes representatives from Operators, Technology Enablers, Publishers, Agencies and Brands.

Our Board members are people at the forefront of mobile marketing today and their insights here are not based on speculation, but real knowledge about what is happening to make mobile an indispensible part of the marketing mix. As ever we welcome your thoughts and feedback.

Paul Berney CMO & MD EMEA Mobile Marketing Association

Kerstin Trikalitis Chair MMA EMEA Co-founder & CEO Out There Media

“For the first time since the advent of mobile advertising and marketing we are seeing significant budgets being put behind mobile from leading global brands on a global and regional level. The aim of some of them is to reach 7-10% of total media spend by the end of 2013. We have also seen a growing need for fully integrated mobile campaigns and agencies are actually officially adding mobile to the plans that they present to their clients at this time of the year for the year ahead. “It has finally become clear to agencies that clients will no longer be interested in working with them if they do not come up with innovative, mobile proposals for their clients’ money for 2013. We have heard this in the past – but this time it is really happening. I see it everyday from New York to Beijing.”

Adhish Kulkarni Senior Vice President, Products & Marketing Lumata

“The battle for customers within the FMCG and retail segment will increasingly shift to mobile as part of the integrated mix, leveraging its unique contextual information (e.g. location) to reach consumers on the move. There are two main drivers of this. Firstly, the smartphone and tablet revolution, which allows us to reinvent rich, interactive relationships over mobile and secondly, the rise of mobile payments, which allows brands to interact at the point of purchase and start closing the loop from offer to redemption.”

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“2013 will be a year of realisation as companies start to accept that apps are not always the best way to build relationships with consumers. Mobile-optimised websites are often better as they also allow for interaction and engagement while ensuring a high quality of user experience. In addition, they are more cost-effectively structured and work across (virtually) all devices and platforms without requiring a chunky download. “As more brands and agencies start to recognise the positives of this approach, we’ll see a shift in mobile strategy and less focus on apps as a result.”

Alex Meisl Chairman & Co-founder Sponge

Arda Kertmelioglu Co-founder & VP/Marketing Mobilera

“The concept of the “app store” will accelerate in 2013. We will see an increasing number of white label app stores cropping up either branded by companies who are not actively involved in the mobile or telco space or even perhaps, unbranded. With a growing number of these proxy stores, I expect that we will also start to see targeted vertical offerings such as app stores aimed at, for example, the finance, the pharmaceutical or the automotive industry. In addition, I think it will become easier for consumers to build and launch their own applications at a minimal cost using DIY app tools – consumer-friendly SDKs, if you will. Both these efforts will eventually help mobile advertising industry accelerate and catch marketers eyeballs finally.”

“I expect 2013 to be the year of mobile for retail as opportunities increase for the channel to help grow retailers’ bottom line.   “The mobile channel is ideally placed to drive foot traffic into bricks and mortar stores. Push marketing notifications – that were once limited to SMS – now offer significant opportunities for retailers to target consumers using location-based offerings and it is these that offer the biggest sales opportunities for the industry.   “Ultimately, retail strategies must become integrated. And, it shouldn’t stop with push marketing. In the long term, payments via mobile will also have a significant impact on the industry.”

Benoît Corbin President Mobile Marketing Association France

Gavin Stirrat Managing Director, EMEA Millennial Media

“2013 will be the year advertisers take their campaigns to the next level with audience targeting. Mobile is the only medium that allows advertisers to combine interest data, social data, demographic data and most important of all, location data. Whether a brand wants to target a fairly broad audience like mums, or a more refined audience like IT decision makers, no channel allows them to do so more accurately than mobile.”

Jay Patel Managing Director IMImobile

“Use of mobile to drive direct marketing campaigns will accelerate as consumers and marketers alike realise the benefits of responding immediately to a call to action. To make the most of this, businesses will make increasing use of personalisation techniques and analytics to better engage with their audience and drive consumer response ratios.   “In addition, tablets will become the preferred medium for mobile advertising as these are not impacted by the limitations of screen size associated with a traditional mobile device (and the budget restrictions that can result from this). As a result, we’ll start to see growth in agency expertise associated with tablets and creative ad formats developed specifically for them.”

Mandeep Mason Director of Mobile Advertising, International Microsoft

“2013 will see the industry finally unlock the potential of mobile as a scalable marketing and commerce channel for advertisers. Apps and emerging technological innovations are shaping how brands can deploy a seamlessly connected and measurable experience to consumers across device platforms.   “With mobile, we are meeting consumers at different touch points throughout their day and we are enabling advertisers to create content that is contextual to the device, behaviour and location. Microsoft Advertising is excited at the opportunity created with Windows 8, particularly the mobility component through Windows Phone 8 and devices like Surface.”

Melis Ertem Consumer Product Marketing Director Turkcell

“I expect to see more and more peer-to-peer communication apps emerge and their usage extended as consumers expect to be able to contact friends and colleagues whenever and wherever they choose.   “In addition, HTML 5 and rich media will become increasingly important for organisations as they look to disseminate a growing volume of content via mobile. This must be created without detracting from the user experience so companies will need to be increasingly innovative with their programming skills to ensure that consumers continue to associate known brands with the content delivered via mobile as well as with that delivered via ‘traditional’ channels.”

Nick Wiggin Head of Advertising, Global Huawei

“In 2013 I expect we will see more consolidation in the mobile advertising industry, the pace of start-up acquisitions will increase and joint ventures will become more common. Watch out for the huge rise in Asian mobile ad spend as global brands use this channel as a key marketing tool to create impact and breakthrough in growth markets”   “The mobile messaging trend will take off with the aggregation of multiple services and simplified apps making the experience ubiquitous.  Brands will more and more be looking to engage with consumers through the phenomenon of ‘sharing’ experiences via mobile.”

Rob Jonas VP & MD EMEA & Global Business Operations InMobi

“Marketers are unlocking the potential of mobile advertising by pursuing rich media and creating more engaging, immersive experiences on mobile. The personal nature of smartphones and the multimedia content and features of rich media and HTML 5 allow marketers to engage viewers at scale, in an unparalleled manner. In 2013 we will see an increase in cohesive cross channel campaigns across mobile devices and other types of media. Successful campaigns no longer deliver the same message or ad already running on TV, on mobile; for marketers to succeed cross-media campaigns incorporating mobile will deliver high impact, targeted campaigns.”

Shaun Gregory Director of Advertising Telefonica

“I see advertising evolving from a ‘dark art to a clinical science’; the decisions made are no longer subjective or creative, based on historic spend allocation, but are rather considered and logical decisions based on data around consumer habits and preferences. It is mobile that will sit at the heart of this change next year.   “Whereas most forms of media are restricted by screen size, form factor etc, mobile is versatile and sits squarely at the centre of the ‘screen family’. As a result, I expect it to become the first channel to be considered rather than the last – I would even go as far as to speculate that it will likely overtake commercial radio ad spend in the UK in 2013.”

Kim Siler Mobile Brand Strategy, Global Interactive Marketing The Coca-Cola Company

“There’s going to be a lot of focus on location-based strategies next year and with that, companies are going to realise very quickly that there is a need to invest in the right mobile infrastructure in order to make all that location can do ROI-positive. Location-based services depend on a huge amount of information to enable interaction with lots of people, but delivering locally relevant content  depends on a good (content) management systems. Without it, hyper-local and hyper-sensitive targeting becomes almost impossible.   “Finding the right balance of local insights, universal brand truths, consumer value (and customer value) is not going to be easy. But ultimately we believe that when coupled with mobile payments, the location capabilities of a mobile device/network can enable our vision of a world where people can walk in holding their phone to walk out with their phone and a Coke.”

Cristina Recuero Head of Mobile Marketing, Vivaki Spain Vivaki Comunications

“At the start of 2012 we asked our members what they saw as the future of mobile marketing – they rated content and applications as key followed by couponing, display, video and location in that order and we have definitely seen brands considering all of these over the last twelve months. “Successful campaigns will drive a significant uplift in spend, however, these will depend on a solid understanding of how to integrate mobile into the wider marketing mix without diluting the existing brand identity. How will this happen? Through education – a focus I expect to see elevated across the marketing industry in 2013.” ��� ���

Firat Ertem Chairman, Mobile Marketing Association Turkey Rabarba Iletisim

“Turkey is a global leader for mobile marketing and really drives innovation on the iOS and Android platforms in particular. As a result, I expect to see a large number of areas evolve next year including mobile search and mobile research.   “Gamification should be a particularly interesting area to watch as edutainment – educational entertainment – has really taken off as a result of the proliferation of mobile devices. Mobile finance, including mobile banking and mobile wallets, is also seeing a real spike with usage increasing from anywhere between 68 per cent to 292 per cent from 2011 and 2012 depending on the tool being used.”

Steffen Krabbenhøft Mobile Director Mediacom

“The biggest change will be the volume of investment in mobile by brands as the channel is now recognised as a strategic element of any campaign; it is no longer merely an add-on. The challenge with this will be understanding how to invest due to the number of different activities and goals that can be addressed via mobile.   “Rich media will play a significant role as it will enable brands to provide high quality mobile-optimised content that quickly engages the consumer. For big name household brands with multiple product lines, this is a particularly important consideration as it isn’t always viable to develop a mobile-optimised landing page for every product available. Rich media platforms provide the tools to bridge the gap for consumers and engage within the confines of an agreed budget.”

Mark Wächter Mobile Strategy Consultant MWC.mobi

“With mobile becoming a most valuable real estate in the battle for consumer eye balls and share of wallet, CMOs have to embrace the Mobile Screen as an integral part of their business model rather than simply another marketing channel. 2013 will be the year where CMOs will turn mobile into a strategy!”

Daniel Rosen CEO EMEA Joule

"I expect and hope for big transitions in the way that brands view mobile in 2013: From Why to How? From Mobile to Mobility. From Technology to Behaviour. From Bolt-on to Mobile First. From Digital to Physical.   It is the final point which is the most significant not just because of the importance of retail but also the unprecedented opportunity for contextually led engagement that it brings."

“2013 will be the year that having a mobile presence of some sort will become essential for every major brand worldwide as the realisation grows that nothing gets you closer to your customers than mobile”

Paul Berney CMO & MD EMEA Mobile Marketing Association