In line with the theme ‘Deconstructing Mobile,’ speakers from some of the world’s largest brands, agencies and publishers plus over 250 delegates gathered and discussed the future of mobile at the Mobile Marketing Association Forum Singapore (MMAF) held August 22-23 at the Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore.
BMW Group, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Renren, Unilever, WPP and YouTube were among the companies represented during the event.
“MMAF 2013 Singapore has been a great success, providing a much-needed platform for the delegates and speakers to share their knowledge and insights into what mobile means for brands today,” said Rohit Dadwal, managing director of Mobile Marketing Association, Asia Pacific. “With mobile being the fastest growing component of overall marketing spends, this is an exciting time for the mobile marketing industry.”
Highlights from the event included Daniel Lee, director of digital at McDonald’s APMEA, explaining the brand’s ‘Now Wow Tao’ philosophy describing how mobile can be used to bridge the digital and physical worlds to create stronger customer engagement, which has been key to McDonald’s success in Asia.
Sean Rach, regional director of brand & corporate affairs at Prudential Corporation Asia, encouraged brands take a chance on mobile. The sentiment was affirmed by Dick van Motman, chairman and CEO of Dentsu Network/Asia, who talked about mobile as the essential “center-piece” of the overall marketing mix.
Barney Loehnis, head of digital Asia Pacific for Ogilvy and Mather served as the moderator of the panel discussion, which explored how consumers have recently caused great disruption in the way they access content, communicate and interact.
Flipboard vice president Eric Alexander’s visual presentation of the company’s innovative approach to advertising explained that providing something visually appealing gives something to the customer.
Three insightful industry reports were also discussed during the forum. First, a survey conducted by Warc for the MMA in partnership with The Festival of Media Asia 2014, showed that mobile is a growing priority for marketers in Asia Pacific, disclosing 90% of brands and agencies predict a substantial rise in budgets for mobile marketing in the next 12 months.
(Read more: Warc: Mobile growth priority for marketers http://www.adobomagazine.com/global/module.php?LM=news.level1&id=1377253724100)
This was echoed by the second study conducted by MMA, powered by Digital Market Asia, which predicted 25-35 per cent growth in mobile ad spend in Singapore in 2014, expected to rise from around USD 15.5 -17 million in 2013 to in the region of 25 million in 2014
Moreover, results of a study developed by Global Mobile Ad Network Vserv.mobi, in conjunction with the MMA, revealed the demographic profile of the average mobile internet user in South East Asia, as “educated, young working professionals with high spending power.”
This year’s event concluded with a prestigious awards ceremony for the inaugural SMARTIES APAC 2013 – recognizing innovation, creativity and leadership in mobile marketing from across the region. Out of the wide range of countries represented in the awards, India came out on top with the highest number of winning entries, followed by China, Australia, and Singapore.
“I would like to congratulate all the award winners who put forward a very strong range of entries, demonstrating the exceptionally high standard of mobile marketing talent, innovation, and creativity we have in Asia-Pacific. I would also like to give thanks to the delegates, partners and sponsors for their participation in MMAF 2013 Singapore,” remarked Dadwal.
