China has over 530 million mobile subscribers, singlehandedly the largest in the world. This is obviously tempting to every single marketer as most of their consumer own a mobile and are active in this area. Though that, we still have not seen mobile being fully exploited as a marketing medium.

At the moment, mobile marketing is not on every marketing plans purely because marketers still believe is mass marketing. I can see the shift beginning now because media inflation (up till 70%) has left a lot of marketers with no choice but to explore other medium. The most prominent medium is probably digital but there’s also a slow but steady stream of drive towards mobile marketing. A very good case was Tribal DDB’s mobile digital coupon for McDonald’s - the ability to make mobile a sales driver rather than just informational has not only helped reduce printing fees, but also spread the distribution opportunity. If agencies like us can continue to think of great mobile ideas that helped conversions, I’m quite certain that it will play a rather critical role to clients’ marketing plan.

Chinese consumer uses mobile a lot - short messaging, voice and data. Most of their news are read via mobile wap sites from renowned portals like Sina. They send a lot of sms and are very prone to receive spam smses. This has created a general dislike for spamming and marketers who know their grain better would not go down this route. Most of the campaigns on mobile are based on consumers selecting to opt-in, wanting the information because it offers value, delight or curiosity.

There’s still a lot to learn about mobile marketing in China but as the market continue to mature, I can see clearly mobile is a very useful medium in a country this size. Another case is Tier 5 cities - there are no broadband or sometimes electricity in farm lands. The only communication available is mobile and their usefulness can be a big help to famers. Imagine farmers can check the value of their crops through GPRS and thus avoiding the middle man accepting their goods at a lower value. As the matrix become more complicated when we move to other cities, we can clearly see that mobile has a bright future in being relevant not only from a voice channel but also as a great information provider.

I will be one who advocate that mobile would be a strong contender in the coming years as a channel that marketers will not forget in their marketing plans.

Last Modified : July 10th, 2008 Filed under : Digital Navigate : Previous post / Next post