MANILA, OCTOBER 8, 2012 – Two years ago, mobile advertising tested the waters in the Philippines and the results came out positive.
Campaigns carried out by major brands emerged successful with mobile advertising. Despite the two-year advantage, the industry is still considerably in its infancy in the country.
Successful case study
One successful case study in mobile advertising is the campaign done by Sunsilk which intensified its Expert Makeover Promo, helping promote other Sunsilk co-creations and increase traffic to the Sunsilk hair experts’ page on Facebook with a contest.
The campaign engaged its target audience using an SMS (short messaging service) dialogue, pointing to both the campaign’s page on Facebook and a mobile site where more information about the contest can be obtained.
With over 620,000 fans, users were encouraged to participate in the discussions, receive expert advice on hair problems, and get a chance to win a trip to London, Tokyo, or Paris.
Despite the success of campaigns like that of Sunsilk, some are still saying that mobile advertising is pretty much useless. adobo magazine will be presenting this case this week – whether mobile advertising is a go or a no.
Smartphone revolution
This year, the possibilities for mobile advertising has increased as the Philippines is noted as the fastest-growing market with the value of smartphones sold growing by 402% in the first quarter of 2012 over the same period in 2011.
However, compared with its neighbors, the smartphone market in the Philippines remains small. Smartphone penetration in the country at the end of March was pegged at 29 percent, less than half the penetration rate in Indonesia. The region’s most mature markets were Malaysia and Singapore, where penetration rates were at 90 percent for both countries.
The new techniques used by mobile advertisers in other countries may not work if smartphone penetration in the country is not at its desired level yet. This poses a problem to the budding platform.
