MANILA, MARCH 13, 2013 – Barely four months since the conclusion of the Philippines’ first mobile marketing congress, Smart Communications makes a step towards targeted mobile advertising with the launch of a new service that will greatly aid advertisers in reaching the right audience at the right time: Smart Mobile Advertising.
Smart Mobile Advertising provides consumers a richer brand experience, a far cry from the ubiquitous and ancient form of mobile advertising the SMS blast, and an even better alternative that putting ads in mobile-optimized websites.
“Digital advertising or social media advertising has not yet been fully utilized. Or, probably, it has never been understood in terms of using it effectively and sustainably,” said Noel Lorenzana, executive vice president and head of consumer wireless division at Smart Communications. “A lot of it has to do with the setting – setting the mindset, timing and location to reach the consumer.”
< src="/global//UserFiles/Noel Lorenzana_pic. " width="420" height="315" alt="" />
Smart Communications’ executive vice president and head of consumer wireless division Noel Lorenzana keynotes the launch of Smart Mobile Advertising with an interesting anecdote about Chinese commercial viewing habits, finding out by way of testing water pressure in households in Shanghai that most viewers would go to the restroom during commercials, during his three-year stint there.
According to statistics, 4 out of 5 teens carry a mobile device and 58% of them view it as key to their social life. Some 24% of Filipino internet users are said to go online daily using their mobile phone, and 56% intend to do so in the next 12 months. 91% of people are within three feet of their phone 24 hours per day. And today, there are more than 4 billion mobile subscriptions globally, compared with 1.5 billion television sets and approximately 480 million daily newspapers. And the next device to add to this collection is likely to be the tablet with estimates for sales in 2011 at almost 40 million.
In an increasingly mobile world, primetime is no longer defined in tri-media terms but in mobile terms which is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “It’s imperative that we reach our customers and make our brands most relevant. We encourage the industry to start a revolution and pioneer in a big way – a new and better way – to integrate your communication campaigns using mobile advertising, making your brands more interactive, personalized and social,” Lorenzana said.
< src="/global//UserFiles/Leah Jimenez_pic. " width="420" height="315" alt="" />Smart Communications’ group head of digital media Leah Besa-Jimenez introduces the telecommunication provider’s new product.
However, with the smartphone penetration rate in the Philippines at 25%, and an estimated increase to 50% in the next few months, Stephen Li, Asia-Pacific CEO at MEC, said that, although the country is not behind the curve when compared to other countries in the region, it is quite surprising that mobile advertising is only taking this step now. “I would have expected the Philippines to have gotten there a bit faster than where we are today but this launch is the beginning of an exciting uptrend in mobile advertising in the country,” Li said.
