MarketingMix

M E A S U R A B L E M A R K E T I N G I N S I G H T S I Vol 26 Issue No. 11/12 I 2008 I R25.00 incl. vat

 MarketingMix contents
I 03 I Message from the I 38 I Expert Opinion:
Mobile Marketing Association Richard Duncan
Laura Marriott, president, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). Richard finds the silver lining in the economic gloom.

I 04 I An introduction to I 39 I 7 Day [b]itch:

mobile marketing Bryan Traylor, principal photographer at Locker 14, finds photographic
Highlights from the 2008 Marketing Mix Mobile Marketing Summit. glory atop a Harley.

I 06 I SA’s leading mobile I 40 I Afrikaans Insights

marketing thinker Cultural insights into a lucrative market.
Rick Joubert, head of Vodacom Mobile Advertising & Social Media.
I 44 I Expert Opinion:
I 08 I Why mobile marketing? Stafford Massie
Reasons why marketers should be going mobile. Stafford makes SEO and SEM easy.

I 10 I Mobile in Africa I 45 I SEO and SEM

Opportunity is on our doorstep, if we can navigate the challenges. Know how to plan, integrate and measure your online campaigns?

I 20 I Planning a campaign I 48 I Expert Opinion:

A step by step guide including objectives, integration, profiling, Nici Columbine
budgets and measurement.
With the 2010 FIFA World Cup just around the corner, sponsorships
move into the spotlight.
I 26 I Mobile tools
Find out more about the mobile marketing tools available to you. I 49 I Expert Opinion:
Mark Tomlinson
I 28 I Future trends In the second article by the team at Hello Computer, Mark outlines
What to expect from the mobile marketing landscape in the coming the importance of creative excellence.
years.
I 50 I Direct Chartered
I 30 I Classifieds Marketers
The Services SETA has made this elective programme a priority for
I 32 I Mobile glossary 2009.

I 34 I Resources I 54 I Expert Opinion:

Keith Wiser
I 36 I Book review In his second article, Keith talks about the fire between marketers
Marketing Mix reviews Extreme Toyota, to find out how this brand and advertisers.
came out tops.
I 56 I Law Column:
I 37 I Expert Opinion: Rachel Sikwane
Nici Stathacopoulos Rachel discusses the impact that the Consumer Protection Bill will
Nici’s last contribution as a Jozi gal. have on direct marketing.

03 39 49 54 56
The team:
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EDITOR: Fulvia Becatti fulviab@systems.co.za ADVERTISING MANAGER: Lethabo
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Cover design:
spencerg@systems.co.za EVENT ENQUIRIES: Daisy Mulenga daisym@systems.co.za
Colin Brandt, multimedia
SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES: Busisiwe Nama busisiwe@systems.co.za designer, Siverstone CIS 3 461 Jan-June 2008

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November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 1
ed’s note
Mobile for the future
Fulvia Becatti, editor of Marketing Mix magazine
A friend of mine is adamant that she has found the
cellular deal of the century: she insists that she pays
just R9.50 a month for a contract with one of the big
three networks.
I’m sure that she’s missed something and that one of
these days she is going to receive the mother of all cell-
phone bills!
In any case, mobile marketing and media is hot and it’s
going to get hotter. SMS, MMS and voice technology are
just the beginning – video, mobile search, location based
Mobile Marketing Summits 2009:
Johannesburg 20-21 July MarketingMix
Cape Town, 23 July
Contact, Robyn, robynr@systems.co.za.
2 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008
services and mobile Internet are a few of the things we
can look forward to.
I have been to conferences and seen US and European
‘experts’ completely blown away by the mobile campaigns
that we execute in SA, and this shows me that we are at
the forefront of innovation.
Of course we have Africa on our door-step (HUGE
potential).
For marketers mobile represents massive opportunities
(for CRM, marketing, commerce and more). But it’s crucial
to do your homework first. With new marketing legislation
coming into play soon, reckless marketers will find them-
selves in hot water.
Having said that, I think it’s time for more experimenta-
tion; SMS ads are so passé! I want to see mobile videos
and mobile shopping (imagine buying your bread and milk
on your phone!) Yes, this means that retailers need to step
things up a notch. I know that the economy is not
conducive to wild experimentation, but if ever there was a
time to engage customers with something, new, different,
and effective, it’s now.
The Marketing Mix Marketer’s Guide to Mobile offers
you insight into everything mobile as well as some tips
and trends for segmentation, campaign concepts,
campaign execution, budgeting and more. We also look
ahead, to give you a peek of what’s around the corner.
And there’s more, we offer you a glimpse into Afrikaans
culture and feature a useful guide to search marketing.
This is the last issue of Marketing Mix for the year:
don’t forget to check in at www.marketingmix.co.za for
your dose of marketing news and expert thinking.
Happy holidays to all our readers!
Marketing Mix wishes to thank Vodacom for its
sponsorship of the Marketer’s Guide to Mobile.
 mobile marketing association

Marketing mobile –
the leading new media channel
By Laura Marriott, president, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

With the number of mobile phones expected to reach four

billion worldwide by 2013, mobile is fast becoming one of
the most important media channels available today.
Always on, always available and everywhere, mobile
provides personal, targeted and cost-effective marketing
communications and is an exciting medium that
marketers can no longer afford to ignore.
The emergence of flat-rate data plans, faster 3G
networks and affordable, feature-rich handsets are key
driving factors in the uptake of the mobile media channel.
As consumers become more comfortable with mobile
Internet and the services and tools available to them on
their handsets increases, receptiveness to communication
from brands continues to grow: this is a time of great
anticipation for the mobile marketing industry. Indeed,
Brian Mdluli, CEO of the Direct Marketing Association
South Africa recently stated that 50 per cent of all direct
marketing spend in the region is on mobile.
The always on, always available nature of the mobile
device presents a unique opportunity for marketers to
engage and interact with consumers, to create a dialogue
with them, allowing them to personalise marketing and
advertising messages on the basis of gender, age, past
purchasing behaviour and so on. Already, Vodacom has initiatives; mobile will become a dominant force in on
teamed up with several brands to deliver innovative SMS both the technology and media landscape.
services, paid for via advertising; a clear sign that there is With over 700 members spanning more than 40
a significant opportunity for brands and consumers to countries representing the entire mobile marketing
maximise the long-term benefits of this powerful new ecosystem, the MMA is keen to help the industry
media channel. progress worldwide as well as in South Africa. The MMA
Indeed, we believe mobile is set to become the ‘first actively works with its member companies to clear
screen’ for consumers, with recent predictions from the obstacles to market development for all players across
GSM Association (GSMA), Yankee Group and Ovum the mobile marketing spectrum, educate and evangelise
placing the value of the mobile marketing and advertising on mobile marketing by publishing educational tools
industries well into the tens and hundreds of billions of around associated technologies such as mobile search,
dollars over the next five years. Already, the evolution of implement measurement standards and create clear
mobile marketing is delivering reach and revenues to guidelines for brands wishing to implement mobile
advertisers and brands, while at the same time offering campaigns that are designed to not only ensure a positive
consumers relevance and value. If, as an industry, we user experience but also make life easier for marketers.
continue to collaborate and innovate, then it’s realistic to We are already seeing significant mobile marketing
expect mobile to represent a significant share of global creativity and innovation in the South African market, so
marketing and advertising spend. In five years’ time it will let’s maximise the success and opportunity for this
be unusual for a brand not to have a mobile campaign powerful new media. Let’s work together to make mobile
integrated with its existing digital or traditional media the leading new media channel. www.mmaglobal.com

November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 3

mobile summit
The 1st mobile marketing summit
The number of SA
adults with a prepaid
cellphone subscription
has quintupled (5x)
from 2000 to 2007. In
2000, 3 million adults
claimed to have a pre-
paid cellular phone
subscription. (AMPS
2000 and 2007)
36% of South African
adults (16+) send
SMSes daily or weekly.
(AMPS 2007 RA)
4 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008
In August, Marketing Mix hosted the first Mobile
Marketing Summit aimed squarely at informing
marketers, brand owners, media and advertising agencies
about using mobile within the marketing mix.
Paul Berney, managing director of the Mobile
Marketing Association EMEA was the keynote speaker.
His overriding theme was the versatility of mobile, but
more importantly, its ability to be completely integrated
into other advertising media. He also stressed that with
an integrated campaign that involves mobile; it must not
be an afterthought but should be tightly ingrained from
the beginning.
Berney also talked about the measurability of mobile,
which is desirable for planning media campaigns.
“Mobile is highly measurable; you can change the text
just slightly in the short code, for example, to allow you
to track entrants geographically. It allows media planners
to revise planning schedules where spikes in SMSes
after a TV ad aired with a mobile call to action, are noted.
Schedules can then be revised accordingly,” he says.
Importantly for mobile marketing, Berney announced
that a local council of the Mobile Marketing Association
(MMA), a global non-profit organisation, could be set up
in SA. If this is the case, it will help the entire mobile
marketing industry by helping to provide information and
guidance on legislation as well as mobile advertising,
content and measurement.
The MMA has also taken a leadership role in the
following areas:
 Resolving infrastructure issues
 Creating business controls
 Establishing new revenue generation models
 Developing a rich user experience for the consumer
 Leading advocacy in regards to policy issues, including
privacy.
Taking the lead in the local mobile industry is head of
Vodacom Mobile Advertising and Social Media, Rick
Joubert (see interview on page 6-7). Like mobile and social
restoring Berney, Joubert also stressed the high measura-
bility of mobile – reach, frequency, targeting and response.
Looking specifically at SA, he says that no other marketing
medium has the mass reach of mobile. Across the
continent, mobile has the potential to be the first screen.
Today, according to Joubert, advertising spend on mobile
is at least the same as online, and he expects it to overtake
online next year, especially as government and small
businesses are expected to jump on board. More and more
media owners are also expected to join the bandwagon,
thus cementing mobile as a mass market medium.
One concern for Joubert is the lack of education and
knowledge within advertising and media agencies.
Having said that, he also concedes that there are some
agencies that are setting up mobile divisions and are trying
to educate their clients. Still, he cites the fact that the
mobile advertising and marketing arena is uncluttered
and offers innovation and a competitive advantage for
those that make the decision to take mobile seriously now.
One agency that is taking mobile seriously is Trigger.
Roelof van Wyk from Trigger told delegates that mobile is
a vital part of contemporary marketing.
Importantly, he says that the marketing landscape has
changed from simply sending static content through a
single delivery mechanism with single verb interaction in
a message that sometimes hits the right spot. Everything
was content driven. Now, says Van Wyk, it’s all about
dynamic content with multiple delivery mechanisms,
multiple verb interaction, ‘always on, always on me,
always represents me’ and context driven.
The role of the marketer and brand is to deliver that
dynamic context, and mobile offers a very personal way
to do this. With mobile, consumers can call someone,
create something, check e-mail, find something, use live
text chat, SMS, community and social networking
(Facebook, MySpace etc), games, interactive screens,
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, engage with mass messaging advertising,
WAP-vertising and much more.
According to Van Wyk, the role of the brand is also to
connect the user with the world, guide the user through
context, enrich user experience, provide physical
activation and collect data. One of the strongest points
that Van Wyk made was that mobile is able to replicate
traditional media: read (print), listen to music (radio),
watch/view video (TV and cinema) and browse the
Internet. He goes on to say that a cellphone is a personal
device with a single, identifiable user and unique phone
number. It also includes a built-in payment system,
consumers can create content, and it offers accurate and
precise audience measurement.
What is for sure, is that while a cellphone is a highly
personal device and can therefore be used for precision
targeting, it can also be used to market to the mass
market, especially those at the base of the pyramid. Gustav
Praekelt of Praekelt Consulting discussed the market at the
base of the pyramid, which according to him, accounts for
30 per cent of all spend. But, he says, when trying to reach
this market, there are a number of aspects to deal with
first, namely what phones they possess, and what
technologies they are able to use. Other considerations
include: ease of use, cost to the user, cost to reach the
audience and, importantly, relevance to the audience.
According to GroupM’s Joanne Scholtz, digital media is
moving onto one device – the cellphone – but the question
is how do we integrate, amplify and prioritise digital
touch points in the communication mix?

Firstly, you have to figure out what the objectives are
(reach, PR, impact, transactions etc). Once these are
known, you must determine how you will evaluate the
campaign (number of users, click-through rate,
competition entries, brand awareness) and then
consider the channel qualities (high involvement through
interactivity, precise targeting etc).
Scholtz says that digital media can be used to amplify
a campaign by enhancing the brand experience, making
a connection with the consumer and providing a vital
social aspect.
When looking at target markets, Scholtz says it is
imperative to understand how they use digital media.
What is their digital lifestyle, participation and attitude
towards digital advertising and messaging?
She cites the Forrester Research Social
TM
Technographics Ladder, which categorises consumers
into six groups:
 Creators: publish a blog, web pages, upload videos
and music, write articles and post them
 Critics: comment on blogs, contribute to online forums
and Wikipedia, post reviews/ratings
 Collectors: use RSS feeds, vote for websites online,
add tags to web pages/photos
 Joiners: visit and maintain social networking profiles
and websites
 Spectators: read blogs, watch videos posted by others,
listen to podcasts, read online forums
 Inactives: none of the above.
The good news is that research conducted by GroupM
suggests that attitudes towards mobile advertising
and messaging change after exposure and changes
perceptions towards a more positive mindset. “You
should include digital in the beginning of a campaign and
stretch your agencies and yourself, and remain focused
on the target market,” says Scholtz.
Joachim Stratmann, senior strategist for Nokia Siemens
Networks, talked about the mobile space in SA. According
to Stratmann, the local mobile market will leapfrog some
steps of the European/US market due to the different
digitisation of media consumption.
Talking about the local advertising landscape,
Stratmann says that forecasts (Nielsen) predict that by
2012 online and mobile will grow faster than any other
media, with mobile Internet services driving audiences to
the mobile channel. It is also expected that print will slow
to a flat growth, outdoor will gain momentum for 2010
but slow down after the event and TV ad spend will grow
once competition arrives.
Stratmann continued to say that the mobile world
allows customer, ad agency and operator to be connected;
each feeding off the other’s desires.
Customer: “If I agree to receive subsidised services on
my cellphone they would have to meet my specific needs
and provide significant value.”
Ad agency: “By investing in subsidised services I can
reach my target audience more effectively and thus
improve the efficiency of my budget allocation.”
Operator: “My goal is to provide customers with meaningful
mobile summit
subsidised services as an incentive to increase their use
Around two-thirds of
of my offerings and generate more revenue.”
all adult South
Stratmann gave the following summary of the mobile
space in SA:
Africans have a cell-
 Mobile advertising is continuously evolving from its phone. The 33% who
experimental phase into a solid new business model do not are more likely
 A number of case studies in different markets have
to be 50+ in LSM 1-4.
proven which consumer requirements need to be
(AMPS 2008A)
fulfilled to grant customer satisfaction and maximum
return of ad budget spend
 SA market will leapfrog a fixed online evolution and
move directly to ad-based mobile services. Low LSM
SA prepaid
market segments will be connected to the Internet only customers/users/
via mobile subscribers are the
 The mobile channel provides high capabilities for
vast majority and
profiling and ad targeting, but with customer consent.
growing.
Proportionately
Ian James, head of New Media and Content, Ericsson, contract holders are
talked about mobile advertising potential after decreasing year on
conducting six months the viability and potential of
year. While there are
mobile advertising in SA.
far fewer contract
Ericsson rated available mobile channels based on
holders, most of the
customer reach, richness of advertisements, business
money is spent by
complexity, technical complexity and client competitive
advantage, looking at both business and customer them. (AMPS 2008A)
potential.
For business potential, sponsored ring back tones
came out tops, followed by corporate ring back tones, call
back tags, sponsored voice calls and info SMS/MMS.
According to the research, consumers accept mobile
advertising reasonably well, especially if given a discount
on the service.
With regards to channels, consumers prefer location-
based and push SMS/MMS advertising is liked the most.
This was followed by video clips on demand, mobile TV
streaming and broadcasting, pushed third party
SMS/MMS (b2p) and graphic elements on portal.
The SA consumer view:
 Cellphone advertising understanding: Cellphone
advertising is associated with being interactive and
personalised with relatively few mentions of clutter
and spam (three per cent)
 Channel acceptance: Location-based and push
SMS/MMS advertising is liked the most with no channel
identified as unattractive or disliked by majority
 Consumer perception: Overall, very few negative
connotations with traditional advertising with similar
perceptions for cellphone advertising ie few negative
associations
 User behaviour: Almost one third of users say they
might churn if mobile advertising is sent to them,
however, more than half say they might use it if given
an opt-in/opt-out option.
The overriding theme from the Marketing Mix Mobile
Marketing Summit 2008 is that mobile will become a
dominant marketing and advertising medium in the
future. And that future is right on our doorstep. Brands
and agencies would do well to use this time to test the
mobile waters and tweak campaigns to ensure future
success for standalone and integrated campaigns.
November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 5
interview: rick joubert
SA’s leading mobile
marketing thinker
Rick Joubert, head of Vodacom Mobile Advertising & Social Media
Mobile marketing is
expected to grow to
over US$24 billion
worldwide in 2013,
jumping from just
$1.8 billion in 2007.
(ABI Research)
6 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008
Meet Rick Joubert. Chances are you’ve heard the name –
but only in the past year or so. Chances are slim that
you’ve actually spent time with him to pick his brains so
as to not put so fine a point on it – he’s hectic.
Which tells you something about the strength of the
business he’s built (with his equally busy team) in a very
short time. As head of Vodacom Mobile Advertising and
Social Media, Rick has helped raise awareness and
knowledge of mobile marketing and media across the
country. And unlike some, he’s more than willing to share
his knowledge with anyone who wants to know.
And this is where we run into problems. As much as Rick,
and lots of others involved in the industry, have shared their
knowledge freely, marketers, media agencies and ad
agencies need to sit down and listen a little more carefully.
“The biggest barrier to market uptake is a lack of
understanding by the marketing, advertising and media
planning fraternity. But there is definitely a growing trend
of market acceptance; I see it in the number of agencies
and marketers that attend mobile marketing events, for
example,” he says.
Talking specifically about Vodacom’s mobile media
offerings, the market acceptance by advertising agencies
in particular, has seen a significant rise in the past year.
“In October 2007, as a percentage of revenue, 17 per cent
came from ad agencies of all sizes, including specialist
mobile ad agencies, and this October, it’s 60 per cent.
Media agencies are also definitely increasing the amount
of mobile within campaigns.”
Still, it’s understandable that marketers may be a
little reluctant to use a medium that is relatively
unexplored and for which measurement is problematic.
Rick argues that mobile is highly measurable, but the
root of the problem lies in the fact that we don’t have a
representative body to provide independent measurement
such as Nielsen or comScore (M:Metrics).
At the moment, it seems that most have followed
Vodacom’s standards, but Rick is hoping for a body such
as the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) so that
everyone involved in mobile marketing can subscribe to
the same standards, including creative formats, rate cards
and opt-in. The emerging mobile media industry needs to
self-regulate and ensure adherence to standards if it
wants to maintain control over its destiny, he says.
Just to be clear, he’s not talking about providing a client
with the results of an individual campaign – that can be
achieved very accurately. “By measurement, I mean
independent audit of the size of publisher user bases,
mobisite rankings, impressions served, active users,
mobile platform user profiles etc – in other words, the
mobile media landscape verified by an independent third
party.” He admits that the lack of independent verification
means advertisers rely on the operators, publishers and
agencies to provide that credibility.
Still, the potential of mobile is huge, not just for SA,
but for the continent. Rick sums it up in one sentence:
“Mobile marketing in continental Africa is going to be the
ad medium of the future.” One of the biggest challenges
for mobile in Africa is that it’s virtually impossible to run
 interview: rick joubert
the same campaign across multiple countries at the same
time. Rick says that this will change in time.
Locally, according to Rick, mobile as a medium, will be
as big as online (AdEx) by the end of this year (see graph).
Talking specific mobile media, Rick offered some
surprising and not so surprising answers. MXit is for the
teenage market. Please Call Me is a huge lead generator
and appeals to lower LSMs and the mass market.
Vodafone Live! is popular with the up-and-coming urban
black market aged 20-35. Mobile as a medium, generally
speaking, is primarily for those under 45 as those over
45 don’t tend to use their cellphones for mobile Internet,
for example. But, as the Internet mobilises, it will appeal
to the more mature audience through offerings and
content that meets its needs such as financial services. For
now, to reach this audience, mobile still has to be integrated
into an ATL channel as a response channel.
“Mobile is very complementary, especially as an ATL
response channel. You can also do standalone mobile
campaigns with great success but the sustainable role for
mobile for most brands will be as part of an integrated
campaign, both for delivery of the brand message as well
as for response and interactive brand engagement.”
Rick warns that marketers must understand that you
look at the mobile publishers and their offerings in exactly
the same way that you would compare magazine
publishers, for example. He also adds that while rich
media applications are ‘nice to have’, it’s still the
ubiquitous and simple mobile Internet and text offerings
that are making mobile so effective at the moment.
For marketers to really succeed in mobile marketing, a
WAP site (or mobisite) must be present alongside the
original website. “In terms of WAP, there are around
10 million active South African users of WAP sites, that is
those that visit regularly and this number will continue to
grow. Crucial to understand though is that about 70 per
cent of these users do not have easy access to the fixed
Internet,” says Rick. This is especially important to note
A survey from the
as mobile search will become hugely popular in the
future. Another counter-intuitive insight is that less than Direct Marketing
10 per cent of current users of the broader mobile Association in the US
Internet are under 18 – the younger generation tends to says nearly 70% of
confine the bulk of its activity to mobile games and IM respondents in a test
services such as MXit. reacted to SMS
messages sent from
The mobile future suppliers, compared
Other trends we will see shortly include location-based to only a 30%
advertising, which will allow for more targeted
success rate for
advertising as well as make mobile media more
e-mail.
accessible to the ‘long tail’ of the advertising market,
primarily small businesses.
Mobile games are also expected to become even more
accepted. “Ad-funded content, especially games, are a Worldwide sales of
massive growth area for mobile, we have 800 free cellphones will reach
ad-funded games in AdMe, for example, and they are 1.28 billion units in
hugely popular,” says Rick.
2008 – up from 1.15
Other trends to look out for include mobile coupons,
billion units in 2007 –
vouchers and bar codes. According to Rick, this is
an 11 per cent
hampered by a lack of standards and involvement on the
part of retailers. “South African retailers are not yet
increase from last
geared up to use mobile vouchers at the point of year. (Gartner, Inc)
redemption. However, various stakeholders are working
on solutions and I think we’ll see some interesting
announcements during the next 18 months,” he says.
Using mobile for branding purposes is certainly
gaining popularity, although much of the interest still lies
with direct response that is a call to action to ‘win or get
something’, for example. “But, the percentage of interest
for pure play brand building, awareness and recall over
the coming years will surpass direct response,” says Rick.
And when high-powered brands such as Nike, Toyota
and Coca-Cola use mobile for high brand association
campaigns, you know it won’t be too long before it hits
the mainstream.
November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 7
why mobile?

Mobile – the ultimate one-to-

one marketing tool
The US, UK and Italy
are leaders in mobile
Internet penetration
As research houses avidly tot up the numbers on how
many billions of dollars mobile advertising will be worth
in three years; how many millions of users will download
videos from mobisites and browse the Internet; and how
big mobile TV and mobile ticketing will become; it is clear
that mobile marketing is going to be huge.
Mobile marketing and advertising is growing at a
ridiculously fast pace, and is likely to become the
marketing tool with the biggest reach across the globe.
Cellphones are touted as the seventh mass media and
the third screen, although it is considered the first screen
across the African continent.
“For a marketer in South Africa, mobile is definitely the
second screen and the cellphone will become the primary
screen – with the largest audience ever,” says Adrian
Hewlett, managing director of Habari Media and chairman
of the Online Publishers Association.

(Nielsen Mobile)
“There are two reasons marketers should be interested
in mobile: it really does perform and it’s a personal
medium,” says Andy Smith, sales director, AdMob EMEA.
According to renowned mobile expert Tomi Ahonen,
High-end phone
three times as many people have cellphones than have
owners are the
PCs and twice as many people have a cellphone subscription
heaviest mobile than own a TV or a credit card.
Internet users. The cellphone has the ability to replicate all of the
(Forrester) main six mass media – print, recordings, cinema, radio,
TV and Internet.
Ahonen has even more startling figures. Currently there
are more cellphones than PCs, Internet users or TVs in
most countries in the world; in 59 countries there are
more mobile accounts than the total population; and in
leading countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy and Israel,
mobile penetration is about 140 percent per capita
(Informa 2007).
The benefits of mobile
 It has the most extensive reach. There is no other
medium that reaches the number of consumers like the
cellphone – it’s the ultimate one-to-one marketing tool.
 It is extremely cost effective and allows for affordable
mass marketing.
 It has precision targeting, which Russel Hawkins,
director, Top Friends (formerly 3Gees Mobile) believes
is a solid reason why every brand should invest in
mobile marketing.
 The cellphone has a myriad of useful applications and
functions including games, ring tones, SMS, MMS,
banner ads, mobisites, social networking, community
portals, camera, radio, Internet to name a few. More
applications are being developed such as DVB-H,
which is the ability to watch TV on a cellphone.
 Mobile attains a higher than average ROI.
 Cellphones offer the ability to integrate into all other
traditional media and become the glue that binds them

Unique benefits of the cellphone

1. The cellphone is the first personal mass media channel so content is consumed almost totally in private. A wired 2006 survey
found 63 per cent of the population does not share a phone even with their spouse.
2. Cellphones are permanently carried – no one can imagine going through their day without a cellphone. Morgan Stanley
reported in 2007 that 91 per cent of the population keeps their cellphone within a one metre range 24 hours a day,
including when they sleep.
3. Cellphones always allow the fastest news delivery. So fast that other broadcast media, such as TV and radio, use cellphones
to offer news alerts through SMS.
4. Unlike other media, cellphones provide a built-in payment mechanism. Today older media collect payments through
cellphones.
5. Cellphones are available at point of creative impulse, enabling user-generated content. The camera phone (which is also
our video and podcast recorder) is in our pocket ready to snap images and clips.
6. Cellphones are the first media with near-perfect audience data. Each individual phone user is identified on cellular networks
worldwide. AMF Ventures revealed in 2007 that on one per cent of a TV audience is measured; 10 per cent of the Internet
audience is measured; and on mobile 90 per cent of the audience is measured.
7. Unlike other media cellphones capture the social context of media consumption. A radical new dimension to customer under-
standing emerges as social sharing, commentary and influence are accurately measured – only through mobile marketing.

Source: Tomi Ahonen Consulting, AMF Venture, Xtract, SMXL 2006-2008. www.tomiahonen.com.

8 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008

 why mobile?
all together. “Mobile is how a brand’s audience is going The good news
to interact with their brand, so they should get used to According to the
Get your mobile marketing and advertising right and
it,” says Smith.
you’ve got one of the best marketing tools around. DMASA, SMS and
 Mobile reach has high measurability.
 Mobile is viable as a tool for customer service support, Besides the huge uptake of SMS among South African MMS already con-
advertising, interactivity and direct sales, as well as consumers, mobile communications has become part and tributes more than
response fulfillment, brand building and CRM. parcel of business communications. 50% of total direct
 Mobile adds another avenue for marketers to ply The main reason for this is that most people have a marketing spend and
their products, offer discounts and build brand cellphone, and so they are more easily accessible on a mobile advertising
awareness. Mobile gives ad agencies a unique cellphone that another communications medium such as
opportunity to be creative with new mediums. spend is at least as
landline or email.
While media planners may use mobile to tweak a large as online
“Also cellphone users typically answer a mobile call or
campaign and allow for faster campaign management media.
than ever before. SMS immediately,” says Dr Pieter Streicher, managing
director, BulkSMS.com.

Warning: use with care

Using the cellphone as a marketing tool doesn’t come
without a caveat however. It is the most personal of
devices and this must be respected. The consumer is in
control and you must speak to him only when he wants to
be spoken to – in the right voice, saying the right things,
at the right time.

Challenges
South Africa is in some ways ahead of the US and Europe
in terms of the really ‘cool’ mobile advertising stuff.
Despite this contributing factor to the slow uptake of
mobile marketing and advertising, are the lack of
education and the slow adoption of this media by
advertising and media agencies.
A new industry has been created in the form of
boutique mobile marketing and advertising agencies. But
brand managers, marketing directors and agencies have
to step up to the mark.
“The more a brand is familiar with in terms of criteria
and understanding of mobile, the better the ideas that
can be pitched. Brands should instruct the ad agencies
on this,” says Ahmed Kajee, managing director, Cellsmart
Technologies.
Media planners need to come up with a way of
incorporating mobile data into measurement systems to Even better news is that the mobile world is rapidly
create reporting and analysis systems. evolving from all sides – improvements to cost, handsets,
“Media agencies ought to provide specific mobile new applications and methods of measurability to
campaign objectives, so that mobile agencies can help to name a few.
create the required systems for reporting and analysis,” As mobile marketing is still relatively new, you can
says Raymond Buckle, co-founder, SilverstoneCIS. Buckle expect the pace of development to go at a rate of knots.
also suggests the creation of dedicated mobile divisions For example, the iPhone 3G or the Google Android phone
within media and advertising agencies to facilitate education that have been designed to browse the Internet and
and knowledge, which can be filtered through to their clients. receive fabulous MMSes and videos. These smart phones
Education should focus on best practices, rules and are the next generation of cellphones that enable the
regulations, available applications and the myriad of immense development of mobile advertising and allow for
channel options. greater creativity.
“The purpose of media is to gain more eyeballs on Local ad agencies can tap into the mobile agencies for
their brand and mobile is an appropriate medium to content and produce creative ideas for clients, especially
achieve this. However there is little propensity to change for branding purposes.
and there needs to be someone dynamic to drive this “It is the biggest channel in South Africa and Africa.
forward – preferably a mobile division, which should be a Cost or access is no longer an issue, it’s now down to
key feature,” says Kajee. content,” says Eddie Groenewald, CEO, Multimedia
Solutions.

November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 9

 africa matters
Mobile in Africa: the land of opportunity
Africa is the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Aside from growing competition, there are significant
According to a May 2008 Wireless Intelligence report, challenges to be faced in these markets, including the
African mobile subscribers were set to pass the 300 limited network coverage, affordability of products and
In August this year million mark by the middle of this year (which sees the services, technical barriers, limited urban infrastructures,
AdMob released the continent surpassing North America in terms of sub- uncertain legislative environments, illiteracy, unreliable
results of their July scriber numbers). “When fully exploited, this is a billion electrical supply, and so on. “There are many problems
Mobile Metrics dollar industry, which contributes 5.4 per cent to the global with governance and skills shortages in Africa, but the
Report and it finds revenues – a figure close to US$34.4 billion,” says Travis opportunity is there,” says Ahmed Kajee, managing
that mobile Internet Mulenga, a consumer insights expert working in the director, Cellsmart Technologies. Yet subscriber numbers
usage is growing African mobile communications industry. “With 95 per are growing, and there is an increased demand for services
cent of subscribers on pre-paid platforms, this is a cash and products.
across Africa.
business with good revenue streams.” “Since revenue growth has reduced, they are now
Since the first quarter
Africa is an emerging market for mobile and there is a pushing for the uptake of data-based products such as
of 2008, there has
real opportunity with accelerated growth, says Andy SMS, MMS, Mobile portals, GPRS/EDGE, asides other
been a 21 percent
Smith, sales director, AdMob EMEA. multimedia services,” says Mulenga. He adds that the
increase in traffic; Africa still has a way to go before its penetration rates forecast growths in the mobile industry at a global level
Nigeria and Egypt match those of European states, but this is good news for are in developing countries, where the majority of
were found to have those looking to enter the market. “There is massive subscribers are categorized as low ARPU (average
the strongest growth. potential simply because of the mass of the population revenue per user) users. “This entails that alternatives to
In terms of devices and lack of penetration, as well as an absence of voice will now become increasingly important in their
and handsets, Nokia traditional media,” says Eddie Groenewald, CEO, contribution to revenue,” he says.
dominates in Africa Multimedia Solutions. Chris Rolfe, CEO, Mobilitrix, stresses that text services
capturing over 50 “The greatest potential lies in higher-income, high are the way to go, but you need reliable partners to do
potential and greater mobile phone penetration this. “Text isn’t necessarily the cheapest. Unstructured
percent of the market
countries,” says Mulenga. In particular, Nigeria, Kenya, Supplementary Service Data (USSD) is the cheapest as
Namibia and Uganda are earmarked as viable markets. long as it’s not WAP. USSD with SMS means the receiver
“Ghana’s stability and good governance is ideal, while the takes it with them,” he says.
English speaking West African countries are also viable,” Botha insists that voice is still the most predominant
says Groenewald. And in countries with a large youth service that is used, followed by SMS. “The use of SMS is
market, says Mulenga, we can expect to see a higher increasing with the introduction of new products and
number of mobile content users (research has shown that services,” she says.
youths access the Internet via their mobile for MMS, A lack of media channels and education means that
e-mail, mobile video, ringtones, etc). MMS is set to play a large role in Africa, especially as
illiterate people own cellphones according to
Groenewald. He adds that there is huge potential for
downloadable content. Groenewald says that it is
The GSMA quarterly reports indicate the growth of mobile important to integrate basic models, such as WAP and
subscriber connections, worldwide text messaging. However he warns that without GPRS, it
will be difficult to roll out media rich content
Subscriber connections: Q2 figures Q2 2008 According to Mulenga, FMCG retail outlets are among
Subscriber connections % of total the leading mobile content providers, as well as cosmetics
World total 3 665 389 343 makers, luxury goods retailers, music labels, movie
theatres, and so on. Can local brands and companies look
Africa 323 645 136 8.83
forward to multiple country campaigns? They can be
Americas 412 728 725 11.26 done, says Groenewald, but language barriers and the
Asia Pacific 1 547 096 428 42.21 variety of regulatory issues from one country to the next
have to be taken into account. “Bottlenecks may exist as
Europe: Eastern 413 777 285 11.29
data speeds vary across the continent, carrying different
Europe: Western 492 990 358 13.45 customer experiences,” says Mulenga.
Middle East 194 863 290 5.32 With 188.5 million additional subscribers forecast
for 2007-2011, the potential for Africa’s mobile
USA/Canada 280 288 121 7.65
communication industry is immense, says Mulenga.

10 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008

 plan a campaign

How to create a mobile campaign

Mobile is a fairly complex landscape to navigate when it
comes to creating a campaign, simply because there are
so many options available.
A mobile campaign – as with any advertising and
marketing campaign – has certain objectives that need to
be met.
“The first questions to ask are, what are the objectives,
strategy and tactics?” says Ahmed Kajee, managing
director, Cellsmart Technologies.
The first aspect of using mobile is to figure out if it is
appropriate for the marketing campaign in the first place.
If it is then the objective of the campaign needs to be
thoroughly investigated and it may be a good idea to
consult a specialist mobile agency at this point.
Next decide if the objective is to increase leads, build
brand awareness, serve as part of an integrated
campaign for call-to-action or if you want to send traffic
to your website or mobisite.

Identify objectives Build concept and strategy

There are so many variables and various ways to use
mobile in a campaign, and without the proper guidance, it
simply won’t be as effective as it should be.
Mobile can be used as a standalone campaign, or as
part of an integrated campaign, which is regarded by
experts as extremely effective.
The most important part is to ensure that mobile is put
into the budget from the start of a campaign and is it fully
integrated, unless you are running a standalone mobile
campaign.
There are many considerations to take into account.
These include:
 Time: Be organised; the creative idea, the format and

purchasing short codes all take time.

 Rules of engagement: Be aware when the right
The mobile advertising basics
message will have the most impact on your target market.
Currently there are four major types of mobile advertising:
Remember that most people have their phones with
 Messaging: SMS and MMS. SMS is limited to text messaging but
them all the time and may not appreciate being woken
offers the biggest opportunity for advertising as all handsets are
at 4am with a promotion no matter how exciting it
capable of receiving these messages. SMS is useful for branding
may be.
opportunities, call-to-action, vouchers and driving traffic to
 Viral marketing: Whatever the objective, design a viral
mobisites. MMS is limited in that not all handsets offer the facility to
mobile advertising campaign by encouraging
receive the messages, but they offer far more scope for creativity
customers to forward the message.
and interactivity than SMS by the use of animation and sound.
 Technology: Consider what is available and when
 Mobile Internet advertising: This involves browsing the Internet
would be appropriate to use it. For example, instead of
on a cellphone that allows for mobile search and banner ads, as
sending mobile vouchers simply SMS your customers
well as call to action.
to tell them where they should be to partake in a
 Downloadable applications: Includes games, productivity tools,
promotion. If you have a cool soundtrack for your new
communication tools, multimedia and utilities. Applications are
ad, send it to consumers as a ringtone.
perfect for branding and ad placement within applications.
 Ad networks: Publishers and ad network companies
 Mobile video ads: Ads can be shown before or after the viewing
such as AdMob, are extremely useful for banner
of content or downloadable applications. But, this is not as popular
advertising and reach.
due to bandwidth, handset and cost restrictions. This is expected to
 Keep it simple: Tell consumers exactly what mobile
become a major advertising source in the future and is valuable for
content they will receive such as ringtones, news
viral marketing.
alerts, vouchers, free stuff and so on. Users need quick

Will consumers reject any advertising intrusion?

Just as with any advertising medium, you have to hit the right target market
with the right message in the right way at the right time. Research shows that
consumers are receptive to mobile advertising especially if it offers them
value, for example paid to view ads in return for free airtime. In addition
there are industry regulations that monitor mobile marketing and advertising.

20 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008


access to digestible snippets of information due to the
small screen size so scale everything down.
 Pulling power: A mobile campaign based on pull not push
is key to the long-term success of your campaign.
Legislation, rules and regulations must be adhered to,
especially for push advertising. (Guidelines are available
from the Direct Marketing Association of SA and WASPA.)
“Mobile offers the four new ‘Ps’ as well as the
traditional seven Ps. These are peer-to-peer (word of
mouth); predictive – or taking consumer insights and
creating models based on experiences; personalisation;
and participation,” says Kajee.
Identify target market
For a mobile marketing campaign to work effectively, the
target market has to be defined. SMS can be used for
pray ‘n spray, but its success depends on your objectives.
There are specific mobile considerations over and
above the traditional target market information that is
used within a campaign. Knowing which handsets your
target market is using is helpful to know that they are
able to support the advertising and media options you
plan to use.
Other important factors include the networks that
consumers are using and the content they are viewing,
using and engaging with. It is also important is to know
what mobile media the audience is using and interacting
with: is it SMS, MMS, downloadable applications, social
networking or Internet browsing?
Once a few mobile campaigns have been executed they
should provide plenty of new leads and more information
to allow for deeper and more targeted profiling for the
future. Mobisites are particularly good for this therefore it
is recommended to include CRM as part of your strategic
initiatives.
Infuse creativity
Mobile can be extremely creative; it’s simply a case of
finding out what can be done. MMS, downloadable
applications and video are the most creative ways of
providing mobile content, as is the creation of an effective
mobisite. SMS requires a great copywriter that can work
magic with words, bearing in mind that text messages
have a limit set by the handsets.
“Ads should be lightweight so they load quickly and ad
Is mobile marketing effective?
Almost everyone in South Africa owns or has access to a cellphone but not
everyone at any one time has access to a newspaper, magazine, radio or TV.
Unlike other media channels a cellphone is a very personal device, it is
always on and the consumer usually has it with them.
plan a campaign
agencies must invest in creative people that specialise in
mobile creative campaigns,” says Chris Wilson, head of
Business Development, Independent Online.
Providing amazing creative input requires that mobile
is included at the start of a campaign to gather the necessary
images that correlate with the rest of the campaign.
As there are so many handsets available and there are
varying media formats, unearthing information about
your target market’s handset is vital.
The use of video also has technical issues that need to
be addressed. In addition the mobile web needs the same
considerations, and while it can be an extension of a
normal website, the technical specifications have to
first be addressed. Total mobile TV and
video advertising
Integration revenue, including
Ensuring that agency partners are equipped to integrate Call to Action adver-
mobile into a campaign is priority. Adding short codes to tising, will exceed
billboards, print ads, TV ads and radio along with a call- $1 billion by 2012.
to-action is preferable. By encouraging consumers to visit
(MultiMedia
mobisites where content can be accessed or downloaded
Intelligence)
allows mobile to become the glue that binds together an
entire campaign.
“Integration is the single most important message for
mobile right now and should be incorporated in all
mediums of advertising. This allows the consumer to
interact and request more information to connect with the
brand,” says Chris Rolfe, CEO, Mobilitrix.
Look at where your target market is found, ie taxi
ranks, bus stops or train stations where posters or bill-
boards with short codes and mobisite addresses allow
them to respond instantly.
If you’re using e-mail in your campaign make sure that
you mention they can access updates, news alerts and
newsletters on their cellphones too.
The use of mobile media to enhance the
interactivity such as polls, quizzes and competition
entries, is now widespread. By simply asking viewers to
link to your mobisite, or join a community or social
network, or SMS their vote, can be very successful.
The same goes for radio, which is primarily used for
call-to-action.
Overall the simplest way to integrate mobile is to ensure
that your mobisite is up and running, and to use all the other
communication to direct the user to it.
November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 21
 plan a campaign
How to create an advertising budget and
what you should expect to get from it
By Raymond Buckle, SilverstoneCIS.com
Pricing for acquiring or renting lists varies depending
Whether you strive for brand awareness, driving traffic,
on the provider, quality, profiling attributes and age.
generating brand interaction, leads or sales – mobile
Expect to pay 50 cents to R2 and more for quality list
advertising through cellphone technology is one of the
rentals.
most powerful media tools currently available.  SMS volume and delivery management drives pricing,
Once you’ve experimented with the first couple of cam-
therefore expect between 23 to 35 cents. A good
paigns and crunched the numbers, you may realise that
provider will poll numbers to ensure that they still exist
mobile media offers marketers effective reach, targeting,
at an additional charge.
measurement and interactivity. In addition, it can be
extremely cost effective. The next stage of your budget is to allow for creative
The first part of your budget should cater for activation, execution, short code rental, mobisite development and
such as driving traffic (or user interaction) and brand hosting. As follows:
exposure.  Banner ad design: Assuming all the brand components

Consider the basic options open to you that include: are in place and the creative concept is done, you will
 Mobile Internet banner advertising: is primarily used

for exposure and acquisition, and is available in two

flavours: CPC and CPM.
– CPC (Cost per Click) is usually delivered through blind
advertising networks with prices ranging from as little as
70 cents up to R3 or more. Price largely depends on
availability, targeting parameters and whether it is a text
or graphic banner campaign.
– CPM (Cost per Mille or 1 000 impressions) range from
R40 to R250 and upwards. Premium sites and advertising
networks are more expensive. Operator portals such as
Vodafone Live! is free to browse for their users and
premium placement, content sponsorship packages, the
volume that is booked and targeting parameters may also
affect the CPM.
 Text tags: For example, Vodacom’s Please Call Me

service where ads are served to the sender and

recipient of a Please Call Me message.
Advertisers book bulk exposure slots of about one million
impressions a day. Cost ranges from R5 up to R20 for
1 000 impressions, depending on the size of the
campaign. If your brand is already engaged in SMS or
MMS communication you may tag on your own CRM
communication messages, which can be valuable for
retention and cross selling.
 Push Messaging – SMS or MMS: This involves a contact

base with cell numbers and you have their permission

to send them messages.
There a few factors to consider as follows:
 If the contact list is your own and you have permission

then you are set. If not beware, by sending your brand

messages to an unsuspecting consumer you are spam-
ming them, which is not good for the brand.
 Qualify the source of the list if looking to buy a list.

22 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008


Basic budget framework
need to cater for the application of the concept to
mobile banners that will be rendered in various stan-
dard sizes (at least four different sizes and formats). R2
000 to R4 000 should cover this.
 Short Code rental: R500 to R3 000 to set up, with a
monthly cost from R500 or more depending on
whether this is a shared or dedicated number.
Normally the service is provided with a basic rules
engine where you can define keywords and auto
response messages. You may need to cater for consult-
ing, development and integration costs. Short codes
are one of the most effective ways of integrating
mobile into your traditional media campaigns.
 Mobisite development and hosting: You can get away
with as little as R5 000 for a template based mobi or
microsite leveraging someone else’s CMS and hosting
platform; around R10 000 to R25 000 for a basic
mobisite with brochureware type content; or R50 000
to R150 000 or more for database driven content,
interactive components and personalisation.
A basic requirement is that the mobisite is rendered
according to the user’s phone capabilities, such as screen
size and browser type. Remember that a mobisite is not a
website and online mechanics do not translate well to a
mobile experience. So it’s worthwhile to engage specialists
who understand the medium. Hosting is dependent on
the type of site and volume of traffic. You can expect to
pay R1 000 or more per month and even more if it’s your
own infrastructure.
 Campaign management: Once the basics are in place,
you’re ready to place insertion orders for media, but
are you ready for the day to day real time management
Are cellphones and the mobile web only for the youth market?
Well just about everyone has a cellphone and while it’s true that some
applications and features are used more heavily in some age groups than
others, everyone is connected. It really is a case of finding out who your
target market is and what they prefer.
plan a campaign
of the campaign strategy, trafficking, consolidation of
data and reporting? It can be a full time job and specific
to each brand or campaign. Either charged as a flat fee,
retainer or percentage of the media budget, it can
range from 10 to 25 per cent depending on the size of
the campaign and level of service required. If possible
it should be built into the agency commission for
placing the media.
Assuming a budget of R200 000 to splash out on your
first mobile campaign – to maximise brand exposure,
drive traffic to your mobisite and start building up a base
of consumers who want to engage with your brand on
their cellphones – above is a basic budget framework.
A good benchmark for mobile banner click through rates
is 1.5 to 2.5 per cent, on tagged text such as Please Call
Me, and response rates vary between 0.1 to 0.3 per cent.
If your message and call to action is clear, your
mobisite is well thought out from a cellphone user’s
perspective and works as it is supposed to, you should
expect an action rate of between 10 to 30 per cent of
visitors to the site.
You also need to think about the CRM database you
are building up through the mobile strategy and
campaign. This that data has to be collated so you can
analyse, manage and learn about your database.
Bank the information that you gain from each
campaign-creative-audience and group-medium-channel
and use it in planning your next campaign and use it to
improve your mobile strategy.
How much of your total budget should go towards
mobile you may ask? As much as possible! But plan for at
least 10 to 25 per cent.
November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 23
 plan a campaign

Measurement and analytics

There is some concern that mobile cannot be measured,
but this is not the case. Mobile is a highly measurable
medium and information can come from two sources:
analytics from the mobile web and analytics from the
cellphone.

Cellphone measurement
An operator or agency that runs a mobile campaign
should be able to offer certain information that include:

 The number of actual recipients of your message.

 The number of consumers that responded.
 A list of the phone numbers that are invalid.
 The number of people who clicked through to the
mobisite.
 The type of handset used.
 The type of media used.

All this information is layered onto traditional segmentation

or market data, such as LSMs, age and gender, which
should have been used in the initial stages of campaign
targeting.
Pull campaigns are vital for gaining analysis as well as
acquiring new customers, sales, leads and retaining
customers. Mobile operators have databases that provide
targeted marketing, but an existing database of
customers may also be used. In addition data must be
incorporated into existing CRM tools.

Mobile web measurement

A campaign that includes mobile should always include a
mobisite.
This can also be one of the easiest ways to gain deeper
analysis of consumers and it is here that a campaign can
turn 360-degrees. For example, a push from an SMS
campaign to a mobisite where registration is required is
one of the best ways of profiling the audience and
tracking movement.

Is accurate reporting on campaigns available?

Actually it is. Specific data is provided by mobile operators for handset

campaigns and reports are also available on who visits mobisites. But there
is room for improvement and, as more tools are developed, the reporting
will improve.

24 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008

 plan a campaign
However the same measurement tools that are used
for websites should not be used for mobisites.
“It’s very easy to measure WAP and mobisites with
Partner selection
Almost 71% of clicks and links,” says Adrian Hewlett, managing director, Marketing:
 Suppliers
companies do not Habari Media. Hewlett is also the Online Publishers
 Logistics
track mobile-based Association (OPA) chairman, and says the OPA is definitely
 Message management
traffic to their web- behind mobile and getting measurement standards into
 Cost for messaging

sites – with half the market by way of an independent research house

 Alerts/reminders
such as Nielsen.
admitting to not  Database management
“The OPA could measure WAP sites and provide good
even knowing how  Call centre engagement notification
statistics for this. We plan to launch this at the end of
many unique users  Measuring conversion and retention
the year.”
visit their sites from Hewlett believes that measuring the mobile web
a mobile device. should include: a number of unique visitors, page Media:
 MNOs and their portals
(Omniture) impressions, engagement, location of visitors and the
 Aggregators selling ad space
devices used to access mobisites, where traffic comes
 Cost per impression/click/conversion
from, referrals, banner tracking, downloads and
 Integrated branding
conversion rates, among others.
 Content
Using analytic tools from ad networks are an excellent
 Contacts
way to measure mobile campaigns.
 Competitions

Source: GroupM

“Mobile analytics are specifically designed for mobile

and can deliver the information that is needed. However,
a lot has to be understood post-click,” says Andy Smith,
sales director, AdMob EMEA.
Mobile analytics is maturing and the next wave of
measurement tools are already on their way. Reach,
frequency and demographics are easy to track, but
deeper analysis of the audience is required.
“Audience profiling data is the next step, and this can
be achieved by watching a user on a mobisite to see
where they are going. Content can be tailored for the
future based on their preferences,” says Smith.
Another step forward for measuring mobile is the
introduction of location-aware tools, which will allow for
messages to be sent to consumers based on their
location at a given time.
Combining cellphone and mobile web data, along
with location data, purchase information, personalised
data and traditional data provides a much greater
scope for precision targeting in the future. This will
make mobile the most measurable medium available
in a campaign.

Is there significant ROI with mobile campaigns

There are plenty of local case studies that dispute this. Mobile assists in

pushing traditional ad campaign ROI higher through its ‘call to action’

function.

November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 25

 mobile tools
Inventory
Ad-funded social net-
works will provide
the bulk of revenues
in the mobile user-
generated content
(UGC) space by 2013.
(Juniper Research)
According to
MultiMedia
Intelligence, global
mobile video fetched
less than US$200
million in 2007; by
2011, revenues are
expected to total $2
billion. Mobile TV will
also be worth $3.9
billion by that date,
with two-thirds of
this figure raised in
Europe and Asia, and
the rest in the US.
26 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008
There is so much available in terms of mobile media,
applications and mobile channels, that it’s hard to know
where to start. The following offers a quick guide to
what’s out there. Please note that the following only provides
an overview – a local mobile agency should be able to
give details of all options available at the moment.
Opt-in advertising model
AdMe
www.adme.co.za
Permission based mobile marketing and advertising
platform and service. Brands can take part by targeting
SMS and MMS campaigns to a profiled base of over 250
000 opt-in members and by offering consumers prizes
and benefits through AdMe’s competitions and
promotion platform.
Eyeballs
www.eyeballs.mobi
Eyeballs is a payback advertising model. The premise is
that consumers who sign up for the service get paid in
rewards (MXit moola, prepaid airtime etc) in return for
watching advertising.
Social networking/social media
Social networking on a cellphone is expected to be
huge as more consumer’s use their cellphone for chat,
instant messaging etc. You only have to look at the
popularity of MXit in the teenage realm to understand its
power locally.
The Grid
www.thegrid.co.za
A location-based social network for mobile and online
users. You can see when friends are in the area, and you
can leave notes for friends to find. Also includes instant
messaging and uses Facebook to help set up parties etc.
MXit
www.mxit.co.za
One of the most popular social networking sites on a cell-
phone. Mostly used by teenagers, it allows instant chat at
cheaper rates than an SMS.
Mibli
www.mibli.com
Mibli is a communications application that offers chat
which allows a user to import contact from other instant
messaging platforms. Downloadable content is also avail-
able with feeds.
Facebook and MySpace
www.facebook.com / www.myspace.com
The biggest social networking sites have both recently
launched mobile applications to allow users to access
their profiles on the cellphone.
Mobile Internet portals
Vodafone Live!
Probably South Africa’s premier and largest Mobile
Internet Portal with over two million unique mobile
Internet users and 18 million plus page impressions
every month. VLive offers advertisers both rate-carded
mobile Internet banner and sponsorship opportunities as
users are able to browse the portal without incurring any
data charges.
MTNLoaded
www.mtnloaded.co.za
MTNLoaded offers content organised according to
interests such as music, sport, games, news & information,
entertainment and fun. It also offers downloadable
content including games, songs, wallpapers etc.
Mobile advertising portal
Top Friends
www.topfriends.co.za
Top Friends (formerly 3Gees Mobile) offers brands a free
platform for their own communities with rate-carded
advertising systems built-in. “Channel partners can add
their own services, use Top Friends’ existing ones such as
news, weather etc, and other channel partner offerings,”
says Russel Hawkins, director, Top Friends.
There is also a chat service available as well as photo
sponsorship, polls and e-mail and fax notification is being
investigated. “Top Friends is great if you have a customer
base already and you want to use SMS and communicate
with your own customers,” says Hawkins.
Mobisites (publishers/
content aggregators)
If you have a website, you should have a mobisite if you
want people to be able to browse your content on a
cellphone. There are some mobisites that offer content
from their own stable of media and also content from
other places. Below are just a few examples:
 Independent Online
www.iol.co.za / http://m.iol.co.za
 24.com
www.24.com / http://mobile.24.com
 iMob
www.imob.co.za
 Highveld Stereo
www.highveld.mobi
 Standard Bank
http://standardbank.mobi
 mobile tools
Mobizines Gaming
Mobizines are bite-sized magazines and newspapers that Gaming is a phenomenon with millions of downloaded
are downloaded to a cellphone. games onto cellphones. There are many available for free,
or there paid-for games to download. Finding a specialist
Magazines gaming agency, and you could develop your own branded
 Seventeen game.
 Saltwater Girl Pbel Mobile Gaming
 SA Paddler www.mobi2me.com
 Shape Electronic Arts
 Men’s Health www.ea.co.za/mobile
 Bicycling SA
 Sports Illustrated SA SMS/MMS
 Kickoff One of the stalwarts of mobile, SMS offers the opportunity
 Car to reach millions of South Africans, while MMS doesn’t
 Hip2B? have as much reach due to phone capabilities, it does
 Mining Weekly offer a far richer environment for advertising.
 Heat
 FHM BulkSMS
 PC Format www.bulksms.co.za
 Golf Digest BulkSMS can provide many different types of SMS services Google is the preferred
 Getaway including web to SMS, desktop to SMS, e-mail to SMS and brand for browser-
 SA India can send out massive amounts of SMSes at the same time. based searches with
 Taste a 60 per cent share of
 You Please Call Me mobile searchers
 Top Car www.on-the-line.co.za
(‘mobile searcher
 NAG Vodacom’s Please Call Me SMS service is a free service to
penetration’) in all
 M-Net TV Guide subscribers and is an effective tagged text advertising
countries measured
medium, especially in the lower to mid LSM groups.
Newspapers Around 600 million Please Call Me messages are sent (comScore M:Metrics)
 Beeld between over 23 million unique users per month.
 Cape Argus
 Cape Times Mobile TV/mobisodes
 Daily News MultiChoice
 Isolezwe www.multichoice.co.za
 The Mercury MultiChoice is in trials for DVB-H for South Africa which
 The Star will bring live TV to cellphones.
 Pretoria News
 Mail & Guardian Vodafone Live!
 The Post www.vodafonelive.co.za
 Independent on Saturday Vodafone Live! offers over 14 channels of TV available
 Sunday Independent on cellphones either through pay-per-view or standard.
 Sunday Tribune
 The Citizen
 The Times

If I already have a website, do I need a mobisite?

Have you tried browsing your website on your cellphone? If you have, then

you will see that you need a mobisite especially if you want to attract

advertising on the site and make it easy for consumers to find and browse

your content.

November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 27

 mobile trends
The mobile future
‘Call to Action’
advertising, spawned
by a combination of
mobile TV and a
cellular communica-
tions backchannel –
and virtually non-
existent in 2007 – is
expected to grow to
$419 million in world-
wide revenue by
2012, according to a
MultiMedia
Intelligence study
The number of active
users of mobile social
networking sites is
expected to rise from
54 million in 2008 to
nearly 730 million in
2013. (Juniper
Research)
28 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008
Mobile is a relatively new space for marketers and brands
to work in and it is no surprise to see that there are
increasing applications, channels, tools and advertising
opportunities being launched on a daily basis.
Here’s a taste of what’s to come.
In terms of technology and extending the functionality
of cellphones, Asia – namely South Korea and Japan – are
light years ahead of other markets.
These markets have been watching TV on cellphones
for a few years and ‘mobisode’ soap operas are some of
the most popular TV shows available. This is also helped
by advances in integrating projectors on cellphones that
increase screen size and viewing pleasure.
But it is more than just using cellphones with the
usual; according to various news sources the cellphone
even provides access control. Check out FeliCa, which is a
‘contactless IC card technology’ developed by Sony, for
more information on ID/access control, electronic wallet,
electronic ticketing, e-commerce etc.
Across the world cellphones are key players for
payments, including parking meters, public transport, fast
food restaurants, speeding fines and much more.
M-commerce is expected to be big business and in
South Africa there are many m-commerce projects on the
go. For example, mobile banking for the mass market
courtesy WIZZIT Bank (a division of the Bank of Athens).
Brian Richardson, CEO, WIZZIT Bank, says that 13
million rural consumers in South Africa earn an income
but do not have access to a bank. The WIZZIT solution is
mobile based and – with 40 million active SIM cards in SA
– it works across all networks and phone types.
With WIZZIT customers can make real time payments,
obtain balance enquiries, buy airtime, pay pre-paid
electricity and so on. This activity is supported with a
debit card but Richardson says that the uptake of this
product is limited by the lack of ATMS and point of sale
devices in rural areas.
“The cellphone is the POS device,” he says. Registration
What to look out for:
 Location-aware data
 Social media
 Social networking
 Media owners becoming mobile
publishers and content providers
is via cellphone and the service is available in all 11 official
South African languages. The customer support call centres
also offer all the languages. There are no transaction fees
and there is no required minimum balance.
Other new local products include Vodacom’s Short
Voice Service (SVS), which is a voice-based message
service that enables Vodacom customers to send a 30-
second voice message to any other Vodacom customer’s
cellphone without talking to them. The recipient receives
an SMS alert to retrieve their SVS free of charge.
But the future of mobile isn’t just about new products;
it’s also about consumers choosing mobile to connect
with each other using social media, social networking and
mobile advertising portals such as Top Friends. The success
of MXit and Facebook mobile is testament to just how
much South Africans love being able to connect to
communities with their cellphones – and there are more
and more people choosing to do so.
Location-aware mobile services are the next leap
forward. Locally Vodacom has The Grid and more
location-aware services will be integrated into mobile
services and campaigns in the future.
Mobile search is an up and coming advertising medium
that is worth keeping an eye on, especially as more
mobisites are introduced. Local media owners such as
Media24 and Independent Online have mobisites and
expect many more media owners to start rolling out their
own sites.
“24.com is taking mobile very seriously. In the future,
mobile websites will be bigger than their traditional
desktop counterparts as mobile offers access to a
broader, mass audience not constrained by cost or
mobility issues of the web as we know it today in this
country,” says Matthew Buckland, GM of Publishing and
Social Media, 24.com.
Currently there is so much happening with mobile that
in the future the marketing industry will be far busier than
ever in the mobile environment. Watch this space.
 M-commerce
 Mobile video
 Mobile TV
 Mobile search
 classifieds
3rd Interactive Marketing Summit
According to a GroupM study, (Interaction: Addressable, Searchable, Social and Mobile), interactive media’s share of
worldwide advertising expenditures is expected to hit 15 per cent in 2009 (almost double from 2004), and will remain the
main source of growth as ad spending in traditional media continues to decline.

Learn all there is to know about cutting edge messaging, website construction, search engine optimisation, and mobile
marketing. Find out how to integrate, optimise and measure interactive media, for direct marketing and CRM campaigns that
deliver ROI and customer engagement.

For more information, visit www.marketingmix.co.za. To make enquiries and bookings,

contact Daisy Mulenga (011) 234 7008.

30 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008

 classifieds
MobileCredit from TransUnion
Traditionally, credit account applications have been complicated, paper-intensive and time-consuming processes – for both consumers and
businesses. Now, TransUnion is pleased to introduce a better way.
Our provisionally patented MobileCredit solution allows consumers to submit an application for credit using mobile technology, immediately and
conveniently opting in to a credit check by submitting key pieces of information to a SMS short code, WAP site or other mobile linkage. A message
stating whether the applicant is accepted, declined or referred is returned within seconds. All required application information is specified by the
credit provider in their marketing material, and an RSA identity number, gross income and expenditure are mandatory fields for NCA compliance.
TransUnion clients already make use of sophisticated data and analytics in their application processes, and MobileCredit carries these resources
to the next level by making them accessible in the convenient world of mobile. MobileCredit can be customised with rules that fit your unique
business requirements, which, combined with TransUnion data and analytics, creates an application process that is streamlined for you and
convenient for consumers. Each client may specify its own next steps for approved applicants, such as providing a reference number used to
complete the application at an outlet or fulfilment via a call centre process.

Case study
One of South Africa’s largest credit providers in the retail market approached TransUnion to add new innovations to their direct marketing processes.
Their goals were to:
 Drive response rates to higher levels
 Improve customer experience of the application process
 Raise return on investment through increased conversion rates
 Reduce costs and time associated with application processing.

The retailer initiated a campaign that would employ MobileCredit by conducting a pre-screen data cleansing process on a selected marketing list.
This pre-screen provided a preliminary affordability assessment as required by the National Credit Act for all credit-related marketing campaigns.
Because this pre-screen was not sufficient for an affordability assessment, the direct-mail call to action asked recipients to submit financial details via
MobileCredit SMS short code. Accepted consumers received reference numbers and an invitation to complete their applications in-store, where all
details would be validated.
The campaign was a resounding success – both response and conversion rates increased by a significant percentage above the norm and a large
amount of related new-account revenue was secured during the three-month campaign that exceeded both past campaigns and expectation.

TransUnion Offerings
TransUnion is a global information solutions provider with strong capabilities in data, analytics and decisioning services and technologies.
Businesses in a range of industries employ our solutions in multiple key areas including marketing, risk and fraud solutions. TransUnion’s marketing
solutions and capabilities are powerfully leveraged to provide value throughout the marketing process.

Insight through Data

TransUnion provides valuable data products designed to offer more powerful options in strategy, segmentation and campaign implementation – all
while meeting the requirements of the NCA. The TransUnion Credit Bureau database represents a comprehensive resource that can give you, the
marketer, a more complete picture of your customer.

Intelligence through Analytics

TransUnion Analytic and Decision Services offers marketers the potency of marketing analytics and model development to bring interpretation to
huge reams of data. TransUnion can assist you in analysing various sources of data and translating the results into strategic and tactical drivers.

Impact through Decisioning

TransUnion brings both data and analytics capabilities to help guide your marketing decisions. Whether its understanding new markets or analysing
and segmenting your existing base for campaigns to retain and upsell, TransUnion can help you reach the right decisions for your marketing needs.

Contact details
Derek van Wyk, Manager: Analytic & Decision Services
TransUnion Credit Bureau, 011 214 6290 – 083 457 3150
dvwyk@transunion.co.za – www.transunion.co.za

November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE 31

 glossary
This is not an exhaustive list, but it
details some of the more common
terms you are likely to come across and
need to know in mobile marketing. This
list is from the Mobile Marketing
Association, and the full list can be
found at www.mmaglobal.com.
Acquisition Rate
Percentage of respondents who opted
in to participate in a mobile
initiative/campaign. Acquisition rate =
total participants/total audience.
Aggregator
An organisation that acts as a middle
man between application and content
providers, and mobile carriers. Provides
traffic message throughput to multiple
wireless operators or other aggrega-
tors; provides mobile campaign initia-
tive oversight, and administration, as
well as billing services.
Application aka Downloadable
Application
Software solutions that power the
business logic for mobile marketing
initiatives.
Background Audio Ad
A background audio clip that is played
throughout the MMS message. An
example is a jingle.
Binary Runtime Environment for
Wireless (BREW)
An open-source application develop-
ment platform for wireless devices. It
allows users to download applications
such as text chat, enhanced e-mail,
location-positioning, games, etc.
Bluetooth
A communication protocol that enables
mobile devices equipped with a special
chip to send and receive information
wirelessly over short ranges.
Broadcast Video
Video content is ‘broadcasted’ over a
network to a consumer’s handset. This
allows consumers the freedom to select
which content to watch. With broadcast
or multi-cast video, content is ‘one too
many’ experience and does not suffer
from the buffering or downloading
issues of other mobile video platforms.
Similar to ‘traditional’ TV, advertising
opportunities exist within commercial
breaks. Personalisation technology
regarding the ad experience will
generally be located nearer to the
consumer’s device (eg handset
application) rather than within the
video delivery. Currently there is no
global de facto broadcasting standard.
Click
The act of when a mobile subscriber
interacts with (highlights and clicks on)
an advertisement (banner, text link) or
other actionable link, that has been
served to their screen.
Click-through
The process that takes a mobile
subscriber to a jump or landing page
once the mobile subscriber has clicked
on a link.
Click-through Rate (CTR)
A way of measuring the success of an
online or mobile advertising campaign.
32 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008
A CTR is obtained by dividing the
number of users who clicked on an ad
or web page by the number of times an
ad was delivered (impressions).
Combination Ad
A potentially clickable ad consisting of
an image and text.
Common Shortcode (CSC)
Short numeric numbers (typically 4-6
digits) to which text messages can be
sent from a mobile phone. Wireless
subscribers send text messages to
common short codes with relevant key-
words to access a wide variety of
mobile content.
Complete MMS Ad
This ad unit assumes that the entire
MMS is the ad. This MMS ad could be
the result of a WAP banner click or a
free message sent to subscribers who
have opted-in to receive news about
the advertiser.
Confirmed Opt-in
The process used for verifying a mobile
subscriber intention, and for gaining the
subscriber’s explicit agreement to participate
in a mobile programme/initiative.
Content Aggregator
An organisation that contracts with
an array of content providers, and
redistributes licensed content.
Content Preview
An ad where a sample of mobile
content is included. This is very similar
to a movie trailer, but, for all digital content
including ringtones and wallpapers.
Content Provider
A company that creates and offers con-
tent eg graphic products, ringtones,
games, news, information and enter-
tainment services etc.
Cost per Thousand (CPM)
A metric used to price ad banners. Sites
that sell advertising may guarantee an
advertiser a certain number of impres-
sions (number of times an ad banner is
served and presumably seen by visitors)
and then set the cost based on the
guarantee, multiplied by the CPM rate.
Cross-carrier Mobile Phone
Voting Application
A software solution that processes the
votes cast by mobile subscribers from
multiple mobile carriers.
Data Charging
The cost of using the mobile network
for data services. The two main charg-
ing models: pay-as-you-use, which is
effectively metered billing because the
charges increase in proportion to the
amount of data used by the user; the
second method is charging at pre-set
rates (over a monthly usage period) for
pre-determined amounts of date that
can be consumed. These charges
become significant in the distribution of
rich media that drives large amounts of
data across the networks.
Digital Multimedia Broadcasting
(DMB)
A digital radio technology for sending
multimedia (radio, TV and datacasting)
to handsets.
Digital Video Broadcasting-
Handset (DVB-H)
The technology that drives mobile TV,
which is a combination of conventional
digital video, and IP that scales for
smaller devices.
Dynamic Ad Delivery
Based upon predetermined criteria,
Dynamic Ad Delivery is the process by
which a mobile ad is delivered, via a
campaign management platform, to a
publisher’s mobile content.
Graphic Banners
A graphic mobile ad represented by a
banner featuring an image. Similar
to a web banner but with lower size
constraints.
Image Ad
An image on a mobile website with an
active link that can be clicked on by the
wireless subscriber. Once clicked, the
wireless subscriber is redirected to a
new page, another mobile website or
other destination where an offer resides.
Impressions
A business metric for counting the
number of times mobile subscribers
have viewed a particular page, mobile
ad on a mobile Internet site or embedded
within a text message or a similar
mobile medium.
Interactive TV (iTV)
Interactive TV refers to TV programming
and technology that allows the viewer
to engage in two-way interaction with
the TV/programming.
Keyword aka Prefix, Suffix
A word or name used to distinguish a
targeted message within a Short Code
Service.
Landing Page aka Jump Page
A secondary page to which a user is
directed when they click on an ad,
where they are provided additional
information and/or mechanism to make
a purchase. The user is often driven to
a landing page via an ad banner, link, or
other offer-related communication.
Location Based Services (LBS)
A range of services that are to provided
to mobile subscribers based on their
geographical location of their handsets
within the cellular network. Handsets
have to be equipped with a position-
location technology such as GPS to
enable the geographical trigger of
service(s) being provided. LBS include
driving directions, information about
certain resources or destinations within
current vicinity, such as restaurants, ATMs,
shopping, movies, etc. LBS may also
used to track the movements and locations
of people, as is being done via parent/
child monitoring services and mobile
devices that target the family market.
Locator
An ad or service through which advertiser’s
brick & mortar location can be identified
based on the proximity of the consumer
or their preferred location (can be
GPS/LBS or user defined postal code).
Mobile Advertising
A form of advertising that is
communicated to the consumer/target
market via a handset. This type of
advertising is most commonly seen as
mobile as a Mobile Web Banner (top of
page), Mobile Web Poster (bottom of
page banner), and full screen interstitial,
which appears while a requested
mobile web page is ‘loading’. Other
forms of this type of advertising are
SMS and MMS ads, mobile gaming ads,
and mobile video ads (pre, mid and
post roll).
Mobile Content
Entertainment, sports and news
information and games delivered via
any wireless media type in an non-
advertising format. Location, delivery
and technology of content is irrelevant
and can include both on and off deck.
Mobile Content Advertising
This is typically an SMS message that
either: a) contains advertising text; or b)
points mobile subscribers to a print, web
or TV ad that promotes mobile ringtones,
games, applications, subscription
services and other mobile products.
Mobile Games
A game created for and played on a
handset or handheld computer. The
majority of games are downloaded to
the handset. Some games are designed
to be played using the communications
technologies present in the device
and/or provided by the service
provider/carrier, such as SMS, MMS or
GPRS location identification. Mobile
games are authored on Java, Symbian
or BREW development platforms.
Mobile Greeting Card aka
Truetone, Realtone
A mobile greeting card comprised of
media file/s such as a graphic or video
clip, which may either contain pre-
composed text message/sentiment, or
provide the sender with the ability to
add a personalised message (text)
before sending to mobile recipient.
Mobile Internet aka Mobile Web
The mobile web is a channel for
delivery of web content, which offers
and formats content to users in awareness
of the mobile context. The mobile
context is characterised by the nature
of personal user information needs (eg
updating a blog, accessing travel
information, receiving news updates),
constraints of mobile phones (ie
keypad input, screen size) and special
capabilities (ie connection type such as
3G or WLAN, location).
Mobile Marketer
All companies within the mobile
ecosystem, including: advertisers,
aggregators/distributors, carriers,
content providers and publishers.
Mobile Marketing Association
(MMA)
The MMA is the premiere global non-
profit trade association established to
lead the growth of mobile marketing
and its associated technologies.
Mobile Marketing Programme
Any marketing or advertising pro-
gramme distributed by via a handset.
This includes, but is not limited to, a
Mobile Messaging Programme, one or
more ads delivered on WAP sites, or

one or more ads delivered via games on
mobile devices.
Mobile Messaging Programme
Multiple mobile messages, usually delivered
as part of a coordinated campaign.
Mobile Search
Executing a search via the Mobile
Internet.
Mobile Shorts aka Mobile
Episodes, Mobisodes
Original, made-for-mobile program-
ming/episodes. Usually created by TV
networks and movie studios to cross-
sell popular TV and film
properties/franchises. Not the same as
mobile video clips (Mobile TV).
Mobile TV
TV/video programming formatted for
the mobile screen. Programme is
streamed or broadcasted via various
platforms, DVB-H for example.
MP3 Tone
Ringtone created from MP3 formats.
Can only be utilised on MP3 supported
handsets.
Multimedia Messaging Service
aka MMS
Standard for telephony messaging
system that enables the sending of
messages that include multimedia
objects (images, audio, video, rich text).
May or may not include normal text.
Multiplayer Mobile Game (MMG)
aka Massive Multiplayer Game
Mobile game that can be played
simultaneously by several players at
the same physical location on one
handset, or offsite, on different handsets.
The latter must be network-enabled.
Non-personally Identifiable
Information (Non-PII)
Information that may correspond to a
particular person, account or profile,
but is not sufficient to identify, locate or
contact the person to whom such
information pertains. Non-qualified lead.
Offer Based Ad
A clickable ad with a discount/offer for
a product/service.
Online Preference Marketing
Process whereby information is typically
collected over time, and across
websites and WAP sites, to determine
or predict subscriber characteristics,
behaviour, and/or preferences for use
in ad delivery on the mobile web.
Optimisation
Process of modifying/refining an adver-
tising campaign so that it will perform
more favourably for the advertiser, and
extend reach, boost clickthroughs and
conversion rates, etc. Usually, done by
more qualified data about target market.
Opt-in
The process where a subscriber
provides explicit consent, after receiving
notice from the mobile marketer.
Opt-out
The process through which a subscriber
revokes consent after receiving notice
from mobile marketer. An example of an
opt-out process includes, but is not
limited to, a subscriber replying to an
SMS message with the phrase ‘stop’.
Paid View
Unit of measure that tracks the number
of times users loads a particular web or
WAP site/page.
Partial MMS Ad
This ad unit assumes that the
advertisement is inserted into an
existing MMS message that is being
viewed by the consumer. This MMS is
requested or opted-into by a subscriber.
Participation TV (PTV) aka
Interactive TV
The use of mobile interaction and other
media (mobile, landline, web) to allow
viewers of a TV broadcast to engage
with the content in order to have an
impact, express an opinion, or other
types of viewer interactions.
Personalisation Content
Any content that serves to ‘personalise’
the handset or service for the owner,
often based on the owners personal
style and entertainment preferences.
Includes all graphics (wallpapers,
screensavers, phone themes, etc) and
certain audio (ringtones, ringbacks,
alerts, greetings) and video products
(video tones etc).
Picture Message
An SMS that is designed with QWERTY
text to form a picture, and is sent via SMS.
Placement
The area where an ad is displayed
/placed within a publisher’s mobile
content.
Post Roll
The streaming of a mobile advertising
clip after a mobile TV/video clip. The
mobile ad is usually 10-15 seconds.
Post-slide Full Screen Image
A full screen advertising image is
inserted after an MMS Message. This
will be displayed as the subscriber is
viewing the complete MMS Message.
Pre-roll
The streaming of a mobile advertising
clip prior to a mobile TV/video clip. The
mobile ad is usually 10-15 seconds.
Pre-slide Full Screen Image
A full screen advertising image is
inserted before an MMS Message. This
will be displayed as the subscriber is
viewing the complete MMS Message.
Progressive Video Download
Here a video file is downloaded to a
handset and starts playing the video
when a certain percentage of the video
file has been received. This technology
combines the benefits of streaming
video (quick to play the video) and
download video (high quality).
Although most progressive video
technologies are still proprietary,
standardisation bodies are making
efforts to include progressive down-
loads as a new standard.
Publisher aka Content
Aggregator
A company that provides WAP sites
and/or facilitates the delivery of adver-
tising via one or more WAP sites. Also a
publisher of mobile content, such as
games and personalisation products.
Pull Messaging
Any content sent to the wireless sub-
scriber upon request, shortly thereafter,
on a one time basis. For example, when
a customer requests the local weather
from a WAP-capable browser, the con-
tent of the response, including any
related advertising, is Pull Messaging.
Push Messaging
Any content sent by or on behalf of
advertisers and marketers to a wireless
mobile device at a time other than
when a subscriber requests it. Push
messaging includes audio, SMS, e-mail,
multimedia messaging, cell broadcast,
picture messages, surveys, or any other
pushed advertising or content.
Reply Actions
The mobile subscriber may respond by
replying to the MMS message.
Screen Characteristic
The pixel size and colour of device
screen that can display advertising.
This would include text limit for SMS
messaging.
Screen Real Estate
Pertaining to the quality and size of the
handset screen ie the area of which
advertisers can utilise for banner placements.
Shared Short Code
A short code that is utilised to run
multiple mobile services and/or
marketing campaigns simultaneously.
Short Code Programme
A marketing campaign that utilises
short code as the primary means of opt-in.
Short Message Service (SMS)
A standard for telephony messaging
systems that allow sending messages
between mobile devices that consist of
short messages, normally with text only
content.
Single Player Games
A mobile game that is played by one
player.
Site Tagging
The process of inserting advertisement
tags into a mobile web (WAP) site that
allows a mobile campaign management
platform to deliver ads to the site.
SMS Chat
A feature, mostly embedded in newer
handsets, that allows the mobile
subscriber to ‘chat’ via the SMS protocol.
SMS to TV
An interaction between the TV broad-
caster and mobile subscriber, where the
mobile subscriber texts in a
message/vote which is either displayed
on Tv screen or affects the outcome of
the programme being aired.
Streaming Video
When a mobile video is ‘streamed’ to a
handset it starts streaming when the
first bits of the video stream are
received. The technologies used allow
ad servers to track the viewing of a
November / December 2008 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE
glossary
video ad placed at the beginning, mid-
dle or end of a mobile video. Commonly
used video streaming ad severs would
be able to provide advertisers with
detailed stats on how many sections or
what percentage of a particular video
ad had been viewed by a unique indi-
vidual. The most popular underlying
technology is RTSP. It should also be
noted that the video file is not usually
stored on the receiving handset.
Symbian
An advanced open standard operating
system for data enabled handsets.
Text Link
Creative use for mobile ads – represented
by highlighting and clickable texst(s)
with a link embedded in the highlighted
text.
Transcoding
The process of making multimedia ads
appear and sound best on various
handsets based on which formats are
supported by the handset.
Transmission/transport Cost
Cost of the SMS used to deliver the
billing charges incurred by the mobile
marketer/billing aggregator.
Unique User
A specific mobile subscriber. Every
mobile subscriber has some sort of
alpha and/or numeric code (not personal
subscriber name or phone number) that
is sent with each ad request. These
unique identifiers are used to determine
how many ‘unique users’ view each ad.
Vanity Short Code
It usually spells out a content provider’s
name, brand or associated word or is
an easy to recall number sequence ie
DISNEY 347639 or 88888.
Wallpaper
A piece of graphic content that is
formatted to fit the screen of handsets.
WAP Landing Page
A secondary WAP page that a consumer
is taken to once they click on an MMS
link to order to give or receive additional
information.
WAP Pull
Where the user directly requests a
mobile WAP site by entering a URL, or
by entering a phone number on a con-
tent provider’s web page.
WAP Push
A specially encoded message which
includes a link to a WAP address that
allows WAP content to be pushed to the
handset with minimum user intervention.
WAP Site
A website that is specifically designed
and formatted for display on a mobile
device.
Widget (mobile)
Third party lightweight web application
that can be embedded in a 3G mobile
phone.
Zero Rated Message
Brand or marketer assumes payment
for the standard message fee on behalf
of mobile subscribers.
33
 resources
Analytics Habari Media MTN SAARF (AMPS)
Bango www.habarimedia.co.za www.mtn..co.za www.saarf.co.za
http://bango.com Grapevine Interactive
Marketing Vodacom Other useful resources
TransUnion www.grapevinemarketing.co.za www.vodacom.co.za 24.com
www.transunion.co.za http://mobile.24.com
Mibli Mobile TV
Ad networks www.mibli.co.za MultiChoice Mobile Google
AdMob www.multichoice.co.za www.google.com/mobile
www.admob.com mo-B
http://mo-b.co.za Research Independent Online
Associations ABI Research www.iol.mobi
Direct Marketing Association of www.abiresearch.com
South Africa MobiClicks Limbo
www.dmasa.org www.mobiclicks.co.za Africa Mobile Factbook 2008 www.limbo.com
(Blycroft Publishing)
GSM Association (GSMA) Mobilitrix www.blycroft.com Mobile Marketer
www.gsmworld.com www.mobilitrix.co.za comScore (M:Metrics) www.mobilemarketer.com
www.comscore.com/
Mobile Marketing Association Multimedia Solutions www.mmetrics.com Nokia
(MMA) www.multimediasolutions.co.za www.nokia.com
www.mmaglobal.com eMarketer
MXit www.emarketer.com Sony Ericsson
Online Publishers Association www.mxit.co.za www.sonyericsson.com
www.opa.org.za Forrester
Opera Interactive www.forrester.com Tomi Ahonen
Wireless Application Service www.operainteractive.co.za highly recommended
Providers’ Association (WASPA) Gartner www.tomiahonen.com
www.waspa.org.za Praekelt Consulting www.gartner.com
www.praekelt.co.za WIZZIT Bank
Mobile advertising portals GroupM www.wizzit.co.za
Top Friends (formerly 3Gees) Shake Interactive www.groupm.com
www.topfriends.co.za www.shakeinteractive.com/ Yahoo
www.bluesouth.co.za IMS Research http://mobile.yahoo.com
Mobile media and www.imsresearch.com
marketing SilverstoneCIS
BulkSMS www.silverstonecis.co.za Juniper Research
http://bulksms.2way.co.za www.juniperresearch.com
Thumbtribe
Cellsmart Technologies www.thumbtribe.co.za MultiMedia Intelligence
www.cellsmart.co.za www.multimediaintelligence.com
Trigger
Clickatell www.trigger.co.za Nielsen Mobile
www.clickatell.com www.nielsenmobile.com
Mobile operators
Eyeballs Cell C Omniture
www.eyeballs.mobi www.cellc.co.za www.omniture.com

Will consumers use cellphones for commerce?

They already are. Although mobile commerce isn’t huge yet, it is expected to

grow considerably as more applications are introduced. Mobile banking is

the start of m-commerce.

34 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008

by chris kyparissis BOOK REVIEW

Extreme Toyota
How business contradictions can lead to
brand success.
Ever wondered how Toyota became a
global leader and how it pushed the Lexus brand
from ‘unkown’ to ‘must-have’ status? If so, this is
the book for you.
The authors make it their mission to write
about every strategy ever put into play by Toyota,
and after six years spent interviewing over 200
employees, distributors and dealerships, they
deliver what is unquestioningly an intimate
glimpse into the operations of this company.
For a start, you’ll understand that the design
teams did their homework: “In August 2002,
Obu [chief engineer] and his team began visiting
different regions of the United States; they went to
logging camps, horse farms, factories and
construction sites to meet with truck owners. By
asking them face-to-face about their needs, Obu
and Schrage [project manager] sought to under-
stand preferences for towing capacity and power;
by silently observing them at work, they learned
things about the ideal placement of the gear shift,
for instance, or that the door handle and radio
knobs should be extra large, because pickup
owners often wear work gloves all day long.” It other things, quality and dependability. Yet Contained in these pages are important
was this face-to-face interaction with the users of entering the luxury segment with the Lexus brand lessons for all marketing leaders especially as
the brand that really gave Toyota the edge over in 1980’s required the company to build a new most brands find themselves bound by contradiction.
their competitors. brand from scratch. This book sheds light not only on the
The book is built on the concept of They also had to overcome the “but it’s just a company’s operations and products, but also on
contradictions and we discover that the workings Toyota” perception. Toyota spent US$1 billion in the relationships, people and personalities that
of this company are more akin to a mess of developing the Lexus and by reinventing shaped the brand’s development. It gives insight
contradictions. In the words of the authors: everything from the sales approach to the into how hiring skilled professionals with a
”..unearthing Toyota was like peeling an onion dealer and spare parts network. passion for brand success and customer
and never reaching the centre. After peeling a Everything about this successful brand was satisfaction is key, and hiring those same
number of layers, we came to realise that Toyota built around their very first marketing campaign professionals and encouraging them to get wildly
thrives on paradoxes, harnessing opposing slogan: “The relentless pursuit of perfection.” creative is also crucial.
propositions to energise itself.” Another fine example of their marketing Toyota clearly has an extremely unique
Six contradictory forces were identified that prowess is the 1999 launch of the Yaris in corporate culture and the kind of approach to
appear to keep Toyota on the move, and the bulk Italy where the market was flooded to maximise marketing that truly sets its brand apart.
of the book is devoted to explaining these forces. exposure. This is easily the twenty first century guide to
They are: About 400 demonstration models were made creating a flourishing global business. 
 The force of impossible goals available for journalists, compared to the usual
 Eagerness to experiment 30, and the vehicle was advertised in 37 national Extreme Toyota: Radical
 Local customisation and sports daily newspapers, in 311 television Contradictions That Drive Success at the
 The founder’s philosophies spots, 600 radio spots, 4 300 billboards and on World’s Best Manufacturer
 Toyota’s nerve system – A human version of website banners.
By Emi Osono, Norihiko Shimizu, and
the WWW In this book the best is certainly kept for last in
Hirotaka Takeuchi
 Up-and-in human resource management. the form of the final chapter called: What your
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
If you think back to the 70’s and 80’s you will organisation can learn from Toyota: Ten powerful
R325
agree that the Toyota brand stood for, among contradictions.

36 MARKETER’S GUIDE TO MOBILE November / December 2008


It cannot be a myth,
but maybe a legend!
Another month, another deadline; but
this is my last article written from Jozi. Standing
on my balcony in Hyde Park, the jacarandas are
ablaze, the sun is high and bright, and I know
there will be days when I wonder why I swapped
the world’s most treed city for rain, wind and a
half-finished mountain.
What I am not swapping out is what I am
passionate about; I am just crossing the
mountain, moving from my beloved advertising
agency into a major South African retailer. To
answer the question, simply because my ‘aha’
moment afforded me the shift, and since I
haven’t been on the other side of the fence
since 1995, I could do well to go back in and
learn again!
I refuse to believe, as many of my clients in the
past have told me that customer relationship
marketing is not as important as traditional brand
building and that as long as you have a brand
out there that’s well known, you will sell the next
car. Acquisition is as important as retention, and
stemming the leaky-bucket syndrome has proven
that you keep your communication costs down. I
am still mystified when a client tells me our
programme has not been successful because we
only got a 22 per cent response to our direct mail
or digital campaign. Seriously, in today’s age,
that’s actually phenomenal. Ask them if they know
how many responses their two-minute television
commercial pulled and you get the typical blank
look. I have often wished I couldn’t be so scientific
and measure my campaigns, perhaps then I would
be more off the hook and less accountable. But it’s
not in my nature.
One customer’s shocking experience with a
brand might be the total opposite to another’s.
My successor at the agency drives the same
make of vehicle as I do. I love my brand – it’s the
4th BMW I have owned and, to be honest, bar a
couple of below adequate service issues not seri-
ous enough to remember, I am a customer for,
well, maybe life. Brendan, on the other hand, has
had such shocking product issues and service he
won’t touch them again. BMW needs to investigate
how to channel complaints into their owners’
circle management and deal with them – it is
EXPERT OPINION by nici stathacopoulos
are great customers? That kind of complacency
leads to fickle buying behaviour. And the adage
holds that when they have one good experience,
a customer will tell one friend about it; but one
bad experience and at least 10 people are told.
For me, BMW is a legend, not so for Brendan!
Brands that offer more than just a transactional
experience will for sure benefit, because the
brand environment is about emotional
connections. We as marketers and advertisers
need to engage the consumer on a journey and
not just through pretty pictures. We need to
engender dialogue – that’s a two-way stream of
communication. Pushing and pulling, not just
talking at our consumer.
My younger son shops at Toys“R”Us, not for
toys but for games. When we go to Sandton
City, he is not remotely interested in the other
stores. When I ask why, it’s simply because he
knows he will find what he is looking for at
“
Toys“R”Us, and someone will assist him. I am
assuming that when he is 30 and is shopping for
Brands that offer more diapers he will stay loyal to the same store.
than just a transactional Toys“R”Us are legends, and I know exactly where
they are in Cape Town.
experience will for sure The poor level of service at the South African
benefit, because the brand universities astounds me; they are ignorant of
their growing customer base. Have you tried to
environment is about navigate around the UCT website? I gave up.
I couldn’t find a form to download or a help
emotional connections. section. Eventually, together with my matriculating
We as marketers and son, we went through hard copies of books.
Perhaps the universities should get with the digital
advertisers need to engage age, stop cutting down trees, reduce fees and
the consumer on a journey service their potential customers. No one applies
to one university, they apply to many, and at
and not just through
”
some point bad service and an uncaring attitude
will creep up on them. CRM at UCT is a myth.
pretty pictures.
CRM is not a myth, it should be legendary!
Nici Stathacopoulos is the outgoing managing
partner of proximity#ttp, and is joining
Woolworths as acting head of Customer
after all Brendan’s second BMW, and he has the Marketing. 
potential of being a customer for a long time.
Drill down into the issues, and it’s the dealers Nici Stathacopoulos
and the manufacturer that are at fault. Does this 082 4559 868
mean that as long as we have no problems, we nici@thetippingpoint.co.za
Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008 I MarketingMix 37
 by richard duncan EXPERT OPINION
New horizons
They say that great things can come from
adversity. Let us hope that this is the case as we
face the side effects of a world recession, or
perhaps more accurately, a global economic
stagnation. For once, being on the periphery
of world politics has probably helped SA to
dodge the full force that is being felt elsewhere
in the world.
One such example is the UK which is facing its
worst banking crisis in years with the collapse of
various Iceland banking institutions who heavily
borrowed across the British business community.
The impact of this will be felt for years. In the US,
since October last year, investors have lost US$8.3
trillion from pension funds, college savings funds,
self-retirement funds and other investments.
Yet Janet Yellen, the chief of the San Francisco
Reserve Bank has only recently commented that
“the US economy appears to be in a recession.”
Perhaps she should run in place of Sarah Palin
alongside the equally lacklustre McCain.
The knock-on effect of the US sub-prime
mortgage crisis a year ago continues to be felt
the world over and has resulted in a bleak out-
look for some countries, such as China and
India, which are likely to see the loss of millions
of jobs before this year is out. For other
countries this has resulted in some unprecedented
moves by financial institutions and governments
such as in Malaysia where they recently
announced they would guarantee all bank
deposits for the next two years, following similar
moves by Hong Kong and Singapore amid fears
about the health of banks.
So what does all this mean for marketers in
SA? For some, the impact of the world economic
downturn has resulted in the direct contraction of
consumer spending. This in turn has directly
translated into budget cuts as boards scramble
to assure profit targets and meet market
expectations. This may well cost some marketers
their jobs. For others, it will simply get a lot hotter
in the kitchen. But then again, when wasn’t it hot
in the kitchen? The term ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ may be
the name of a popular reality TV show, but for
South African marketers, this has been the name
given to one of the world’s most dynamic,
challenging and exciting marketing battlegrounds.
Looking in from the outside and listening in to
the boardroom conversations and hallway
whispering on this side of the world, I think South
38 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008
which will carry SA forward. In fact, while the rest
of the world struggles to regain its composure,
now might be a very good time for local
companies to adopt a more aggressive outlook.
As their multinational competitors may be
tempted to batten down the hatches, pull back a
little or disinvest out of some areas, this should
present the many local brands with a unique
opportunity to capture unprotected ground
relatively easily. This has been proven by history;
when the likes of BP, Shell and even Caltex and
Total faced economic hardships and cutbacks in
the last decade, it was the likes of Sasol and
Engen who gained market share.
There is another business opportunity
facing the advertising fraternity and that is the
development of new markets whose interests,
sophistication and scope has been stimulated by
the economic pressures as they have been forced
to look for new ways to generate business. Many
of them have relied on an ongoing pipeline of
tenders and government contracts, but with these
drying up and the market becoming far more
competitive, they have finally woken up to the
“
potential of marketing as a sales tool. Industries
I The Chinese use two in the business-to-business sector like professional
services players – lawyers, accountants, architects
brush strokes to write the and the construction industry – have all started to
word crisis. One brush flex their marketing muscles and show their
capabilities to compete.
stroke stands for danger; So perhaps rather than heading for the
proverbial hills or giving in to the popular
the other for opportunity.
headless chicken variety of panic, the time has
In a crisis, be aware of the come for marketers to show their mettle and do
what we have known for years we’re capable of;
danger – but recognise the
”
smart thinking and smart solutions. For some the
opportunity. time may be one of recession, whereas for
others, it represents the early stages of an
economic boom.
As President John F Kennedy said in a speech
in Indianapolis in April 1959, “The Chinese use
two brush strokes to write the word crisis. One
brush stroke stands for danger; the other for
opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger –
but recognise the opportunity.” 
African marketers will fare much better than their
European, American and Australian counterparts. Richard Duncan
The central reason for this, in my opinion, isn’t founding partner, The Partnership
the geographical isolation of SA as the web has Sydney, Australia
levelled the playing fields. Rather it is the +61 41 1549 791
entrepreneurial flair and ‘never-say-die’ attitude richardd@thepartnership.com.au

Bryan Traylor, founder and
principal photographer at
Locker 14
17/09/2008
It’s 7:30am on the last of a three-day studio fashion shoot for Cavendish
Square’s Christmas guide. This has been a relaxed shoot, thanks to my
great team.
We’re looking at the past day’s shots and making final selections. My art
director and producer, Gaelyn, is taking every shot as an option, which
means that I’ve got loads of processing work to do.
At 6pm the famous last words of the day are announced – ‘that’s a
wrap everyone!’ I always let the client say it (it just sounds cooler coming
from them).
My assistants head back to the studio with me at 7pm to prepare for
tomorrow’s shoots and start processing hundreds of images.
18/09/2008
I’m in the office by 7:30am to prep today’s Ford shoot, for Sports Illustrated.
Cars and girls in swimsuits… need I say more.
We get to location at 1pm and wait three hours for the models to arrive.
What started out as a summer’s morning is now a winter’s afternoon. Oh
yeah, and to top it off I was brought a white car to shoot.
Bad weather wraps the shoot up at 5pm. It’s one of those days when you
do the best with what you have and pull something out of nothing.
19/09/2008
It’s 8:30am and I’ve just finished processing photographs and backing up
work. I need to finish preparing for a four-day press run/shoot up the
Garden Route with Harley Davidson, which starts on Monday.
My team is setting up the studio for tomorrow’s shoot for Beat It! – a
television show.
20/09/2008
I’m up at 7:30am and replying to an e-mail from a client in France,
who’s thrilled with the photos I took for the Orange Communications
launch in Kenya.
At 9am I head to the studio. My client is already in the studio.
I end the day having dinner with friends. The chatter calms my nerves and
I soon relax.
21/09/2008
After a 6:30am gym session, I pop into the office to reply to e-mails and
finalise preparations for tomorrow’s Harley-Davidson trip.
I head home at 3:30pm to cook up a storm – stuffed chicken breasts
with ricotta, steamed vegetables with a light lemon butter marinade and a
very nice bottle of red wine.
I then doze off on the couch in front of the TV. Eventually, I get up
to pack.
7 DAY [B]ITCH
22/09/2008
I meet the Harley-Davidson team at 7:30am; we grab some coffee, get
acquainted and discuss the game plan for the day. We’ll travel up to PE
over the next two days with four motorcycle journalists. Once in PE, we’ll get
five journalists from Johannesburg to travel back down to Cape Town over
two days.
We hit the road with nine Harleys and a support vehicle driven by our
medic and me. After a lunch stop in Hermanus, I put on a jacket and
helmet, and get onto the back of one of the Harleys to get some bike-to-
bike shots.
At 4pm I download the photos: between the wind, vibrations, everyone
and everything moving I managed to get some awesome shots.
We’re an hour away from Oudtshoorn and the sun has just set. I roll
open the van doors to take a few night shots; and photograph the riders
while my body is suspended over the road.
We arrive at an amazing lakeside lodge at 9pm and sit down for dinner.
23/09/2008
I get up early to shoot the sunrise at a nearby dam. There are a few hippos
around, so I decide to set up for my shots closer to camp to keep it safe.
By 7:30 am, everyone is up, and we’re treated to something incredible –
it’s elephant feeding time and we’re invited. Oh, yeah and I got some killer
shots too!
We hit the road at 10am and travel through the Baviaanskloof mountain
pass (some great shots of the riders cruising alongside the van), before
stopping in at the Wolf Sanctuary for a quick lunch.
At 4pm we’re driving down an amazing pass into PE. We enjoy a well-
deserved drink at a bar before I download the photographs and hand them
out to everyone. I finish up at 2am, wash my teeth, brush my face and fall
into bed… I’m exhausted.
Tomorrow we’ll meet the journalists from Johannesburg and head back to
Cape Town over two more days. Awesome – I get to do it all over again! 
Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008 I MarketingMix 39
 AFRIKAANS INSIGHTS

Afrikaans insights
The Afrikaans market should be increasingly important to marketers
According to the AMPS 2007B report Sondag readers own a car,” he says.
South Africa’s 2.3 million Afrikaans people This market enjoys relatively high levels of
make up 59 per cent of SA’s four million whites. disposable income and enjoys buying luxuries.
In addition about 79 per cent of coloured “This market may have learnt its lesson with the
people speak Afrikaans as their first language, previous high interest rates and is therefore more
and 34 per cent of LSM 7 to 10 are Afrikaans
speakers.
“According to the latest AMPS and census
information, the Afrikaans language is the third
most spoken home language in South Africa.
It is also the first or second most spoken
language in six of our nine provinces,” says
Louise Jooste, marketing manager, RSG. Jooste
adds that 14.2 million South Africans read or
understand Afrikaans, and about 4.6 million of
these are Afrikaans.
“Although the Afrikaans market accounts for
only 14.9 per cent of the SA population they hold
almost a quarter (23.5 per cent) of spending power.
Over 48 per cent are more than 40 years old
and more than half are found in LSM 8 and 10.
So a significant number are Prime Timers,” says
Gavin Rheeder, Marketing Manager, Beeld.
The Afrikaans market is well worth marketing
to and is often underestimated. Retail, food and
clothing are big spend items for this market.
“Large and small appliances, furniture, clothing
and jewellery are items of note,” says Willem
Pretorius, Editor, Sondag. This is also a tech savvy
market and Pretorius points out that Sondag
readers, for example, show a high tendency for
hi-tech behaviour. “Eighteen per cent of SA’s total
population own a car, while 43 per cent of

40 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008

 AFRIKAANS INSIGHTS

disciplined with spending and credit. They seem

to be able to absorb current increases with
greater ease,” says Rheeder.
However this market is not recession proof,
says Festus Masekwameng, McCann Erickson
creative director (the agency behind the
Pendoring-winning RSG ads). “The reduced
capacity to use credit, the defaulting on house
bonds or car repayments shows us that everyone
in the middle class has generally felt the impact
of the downturn,” he says.
Cashing in on the loyalty of this market starts
with creating the right connections. Experts say
the best way is for marketers to speak to them in
their language – and respect is key.
Treat this market with respect by doing away
with stereotypes and do not underestimate the
complexity of this market. Campaigns that feed
false perceptions that Afrikaans people are
uneducated, large and angry are going to fail to
attract this market.
It is also important to recognise the nuances
that differentiate niche markets. “White and
coloured people have different attitudes and
different political views. Age is another differentiator
with white Afrikaans youth who are generally
more positive than older generations. The
coloured 50+ generation has similar views to the
white youth,” says Pretorius. He adds that the
most economically active whites between the ages
of 25 and 49 are often the most negative, while
coloured people of this age are more positive.
“Afrikaans speakers are more likely to account
for one in five of an advertiser’s target market,”
concludes Pretorius.

Afrikaans media
The Afrikaans market is a major media consumer
especially the Internet, says Rheeder. Although,
when compared to other groups the radio is
less important.
“Ten per cent of Afrikaans people accessed
the Internet yesterday,” he says and he believes
that Afrikaans consumers tend to be online.
For example, the Beeld.com website is the
second-largest newspaper website in South Africa
and in August 2008 the site welcomed 318 000
new users.
Mobile media is also taking off nicely.
“Beeld.mobi is also very popular when our readers
don’t have access to either the printed or online
versions of Beeld, such as when they are away on
holiday or business trips,” says Rheeder.
Newspapers
“More than 1.8 million Afrikaans speaking
people read a daily newspaper every day, which
is 39.2 per cent of the market. This figure was
just 1.2 million – or 26 per cent of the market in
2002,” says Rheeder. Beeld is one of the top five
daily newspapers in SA, according to the AMPS
2008A data. The paper reaches 1.8 per cent of
the population and its regional reach is 1.6 per
cent in Gauteng.
Sondag, the tabloid Sunday paper that has just
marked its first birthday, has undergone a
makeover to highlight the paper’s content and
positioning. According to its publishers RCP
Media, they commissioned Australian layout
specialist Peter Ong for advice on how best to
amend the layout. The paper now has an
international tabloid look with more colour,
larger graphics and celebrity and entertainment
news, making it easier reading for today’s time
starved audience.

Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008 I MarketingMix 41

AFRIKAANS INSIGHTS
Magazines
Meanwhile one Afrikaans magazine is closing.
Mooiloop’s December 2008 issue will be the last
as it is failing under intense financial pressure.
Publisher Jacqueline Lahoud says in hindsight
she would do things differently. Originally, the
magazine was launched as Wegbreek – a
translation of Getaway but the market, which has
a core readership of 35+ Afrikaans readers LSM
9 and 10, wanted a standalone product. So the
magazine responded with a distinct offering.
A re-launch in May this year saw the magazine
adopt its current title, which was in response to
research that showed the market was still
confused by the magazine’s old title. In
spite of efforts to keep the publication afloat,
42 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008
a lack of advertising support is forcing
publishers Ramsay, Son and Parker to close the
magazine. Lahoud says that part of the demise of
the title was the fact that the magazine did not
occupy a high enough spot on the media schedule.
She highlights the need for niche market
publications to market themselves more
proactively and for media planners to look
beyond the numbers. “There are not too many
Afrikaans planners in the industry,” says Lahoud,
“and they book and plan for those titles that they
like, read, and have an affinity to.”
While the print title will close, the Mooiloop
website will remain and it will be tested as a new
medium. The digital platform allows bloggers
and writers to continue to contribute, while loyal
readers will have the opportunity to interact with
an online format. Lahoud hopes that this will
draw on those readers who travel and share their
experiences online and she is confident that they
will garner sufficient advertising support for the
digital platform.
Radio
“The Afrikaans market tends not to listen to radio
and they are less likely to do so than other
language groups, says Rheeder.
AMPS data shows that the national and
regional Afrikaans stations are attracting
audiences that are in their mid-thirties or higher.
So what are young Afrikaans people listening
to? How are radio stations going to attract
younger audiences and build relationships with
future markets?
TV
Viewing channels like kykNET and MK89 are
drawing in Afrikaans viewers.
“On average the Afrikaans consumer views the
same amount of television as any other popula-
tion group. They are more loyal viewers when it
comes to local Afrikaans programming,” says
Theo Erasmus, general manager: Afrikaans
Channels (M-Net).
kykNET has seen a year on year increase in
advertising spend and in September this year,
kykNET had 73 000 viewers, which constitutes
a share of almost 16 per cent of DStv’s
Afrikaans market.
The DStv Afrikaans adult viewership grew by
25 per cent year on year while ratings were 59
per cent. This resulted in an overall 99 per cent
growth in the number of people watching.
Top Afrikaans programmes over the last
few months include Villa Rosa (AR 24.5); Kwela
(AR 22.8); Roer (AR 22.7); Doen Met n Miljoen;
Kruispad; Fiesta; Dis Hoe Dit Is Met Steve; Glam
Guru Make-Over; and Hester & Ester Bester. 
 by stafford maisie EXPERT OPINION
Search engine marketing
The world of search is dynamic and fast
moving. Companies that put search at the core
of their business and marketing strategies are
best placed to win consumers negotiating their
way around the Web looking for particular
products or services through Google, Yahoo
and other search engines.
Search can generally be broken down into two
areas: ‘natural’ search listings and ‘paid-for’
listings or ‘sponsored links.
Natural:
Google PageRank algorithm
The order of these search results is determined
by the Google PageRank algorithm – or
mathematical formula – and is unbiased and
unpaid for, that is you cannot ‘buy’ your way into
the natural search results. Without going into
great detail, PageRank ranks sites according to
hundreds of different factors, the most prominent
factor being how many other websites the
particular site is linked to and the importance of
the sites it is linked to. For example, if a particular
mortgage website is linked to leading newspaper
sites or prominent financial trade bodies’ websites
or those of other leading mortgage brokers,
Google may consider those links more important
than, say, a number of financial blogs with
relatively low readership.
Sponsored:
an auction-based system
These results are advertisements triggered by the
query entered by the user and are generated
entirely separately in an auction-based system.
AdWords, Google’s advertising program, allows
advertisers to bid to appear next to a particular
query with their related message. For example,
brokers looking to target first-time buyers may
wish to appear against queries like ‘first-time
buyer’, ‘mortgage offers for first-time buyers’ etc.
The ranking or positioning of these ads is
determined not only by how much an advertiser
is prepared to pay for a particular click (cost per
click or CPC) but by the relevance or quality of
the particular ad. The more users that have
clicked on the ad in the past (click through rate
44 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008
“
The dynamic nature of
the Internet means users
are only a click or two
away from a competitor,
and if the experience of
your website is poor,
then consumers will
turn elsewhere. Web
users value speed,
relevance and functionality
”
above all else.
or CTR), a measure of the usefulness of the ad to
the user, the lower the CPC will become for the
particular ad. This ensures that ads are not
ranked solely on monetary terms but usefulness
to the user as well. Advertisers cannot buy their
way to the top of the sponsored links.
Combination is optimal
Although both sides of the search page are
governed by different algorithms and ranked
separately, it would be overly simplistic to treat
both as independent strategies. A recent
piece of research from Enquiro, a search engine
marketing company, confirms the significance of
managing your position in both natural search
and sponsored listings as a means of driving the
optimum number of visitors to your website. Both
components, after all, are fundamental for the
user and advertiser experience on Google;
natural and paid listings are entirely
complementary.
The Enquiro findings look at a number
of areas: click-through rates, and ad and
brand recall. To take click-through rates, for
example, there is shown to be a larger gain
in the number of natural clicks when a brand
is in both the sponsored and natural listings,
rather than simply the natural listings. This
complementary relationship is also mirrored in
ad and brand recall.
Importance of website experience
Although search marketing is a great driver
of customer acquisitions, online advertisements
are only as good as the websites they direct
users to. The dynamic nature of the Internet
means users are only a click or two away from a
competitor, and if the experience of your website
is poor, then consumers will turn elsewhere. Web
users value speed, relevance and functionality
above all else. 
Stafford Maisie
country manager for Google in
South Africa
adwords.google.com

Understanding
search
The (virtual) sky’s the limit for online
search activity as Search Engine Optimisation
(SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) rapidly
continue to gain momentum.
In a nutshell
The two different forms of online search activity –
SEO and SEM – have become increasingly
important for the online business community in
the past few years.
SEO is the process of increasing the volume
and quality of traffic to a particular website, to
improve the website’s ranking in a search. SEO
also optimises websites to make them more user
friendly to search. “Search engine friendly means
informative text content that is accessible through
an intuitive, consistent navigational structure,”
explains Dr Carl Perry, head of Search Marketing
at Shake Interactive. “It’s about continuously
adding unique content to make your site the
definitive ‘resource’ in your chosen niche so that
your peers and clients will link to your site. “These
links are counted as votes by the search engines
and a website with more links will tend to outrank
a site with fewer links,” he says.
Natural or organic search, which is the search
marketing that is based on SEO, is a process that
takes longer to implement (between 3-6 months)
and produce results. “It’s not a quick fix and
should be seen as an investment in the long-term
health of an online strategy,” says Diane Charton,
general manager, Acceleration Media
Factors that affect natural listings include: The
number of important websites that link to yours;
the ranking in other search engines; how often
you update your site; whether all the links in your
site work or not; the condition of your meta tags,
ie. the information on your website, which is built
into the HTML and is visible to search engine
crawlers, and/or the relevance of the content on
your site, or the value of the site to the user.
On the other hand Search Engine Marketing
(SEM) is the buying of paid search listings on a
pay per click basis. This allows companies to
drive the success of their websites and also
means that they only pay when someone clicks
on their ad, which means budget is not wasted.
This is also referred to as paid search. The
Google AdWords programme ranks these
advertisements according to the relevance of the
ad, as well as the amount that the advertiser is
prepared to pay. In this case the advertiser pays
each time someone clicks on their ad, in what is
called the Pay Pay Click (PPC) model.
“PPC also relies on keyword research and
content, but usually the content for a PPC
Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008 I MarketingMix 45
SEO
Questions to ask
your online agency
 Share examples of previous work
to gauge their experience in your
particular market. Indications of
clients’ ROI are helpful.
 Does your agency deliver the
basics – improving spidering and
content discovery, information
architecture, keyword research,
content optimisation, link building,
analytics and so on?
 Does your agency follow Google’
Webmaster guidelines, which
provide benchmarks giving
webmasters an understanding
of SEO. These guidelines are
regularly updated by Google.
 Does the agency use Black Hat
techniques, ie spam etc. Search
engines blacklist those sites that
implement these techniques.
 What additional services does your
agency offer that may help the
organic search listings, such as
blogs or linking strategy?
 What results can you expect to see
and in what time-frame?
 How do they measure SEO
success? Your agency should
provide you with reports of log
files, illustrating increases in traffic
or conversions.
SEO

there are plenty of good reasons why, as follows:

Seven search engine marketing tips from Google  It is cost effective.

1. Create an attractive homepage with clear links to other parts of your site.  It allows for targeting by relevance.

2. Direct potential customers, don’t just send them to a generic homepage and “Searching is the most common way users
expect them to find the relevant page from there. find sites online,” says Charton. “A user
3. Supply clear content that is well laid out, with titles relating to the content and declares his intention by typing his query or
ensure you develop a ‘sitemap’ so people can easily navigate the site. Or embed key word into the search engine. For this
a search box from a search engine to help users find relevant content on your reason search gives marketers the opportunity
site. The text on the website should read naturally and avoid trying to ‘spam’ the to place their messages in an environment
site and trick the algorithm by ‘stuffing’ keywords within the text. that is relevant to the user,” she says.
4. Include helpful sections such as ‘Contact Us’ or ‘About Us’.  It allows for targeting consumers more

5. Constantly update your website. Message boards and community forums are a precisely. Rob Stokes, CEO, Quirk
great way of keeping the site engaging, while building up a community around eMarketing, says that while we may only have
your brand. News feeds and relevant video or audio content (in moderation) a 10 per cent Internet penetration, there are
also interest users. still more Internet users than the population of
6. Keep the user’s perspective. A simple measure is to host a feedback section or Ireland. And these users are working full-time
forum on the site, or for smaller or independent businesses ask colleagues, or have the disposable income to afford con-
friends and family to try out the site and give you feedback. nectivity at home.
7. Engage in deeper analytics. There are many tracking programmes available that  Has high measurability.

tell you how many visitors you get, where they come from and what they like  Can be integrated into online and offline

about your site. Make sure the site can be adapted easily for the visually campaigns.
impaired and those users searching for your site from a mobile or other
handheld device. Creating a campaign
The following steps must be taken to create and
manage a campaign:
campaign can be more concise, with a clear and “PPC also brings targeted traffic within a few  Define your business objectives and ensure

much more direct call to action,” explains Dr
Perry. It is not unknown for PPC ads to take users
directly to an application form, whereas it’s
unlikely that an application form would rank in
Google’s natural results for any useful keywords.
minutes after you’ve turned the campaign on, but
as soon as you stop bidding the traffic flow
stops,” he adds.
Why search marketing?
Globally marketers are buying into the medium and
that your online agency understands these
upfront. Define the key success events you
hope to achieve through your search
campaign. Remember that it requires long
term planning. “Unlike traditional media,

46 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008


search is an ongoing process that needs an
ongoing, long term commitment,” says Charton.
 Consider how you acquire online users and
then attract them to your site.
 Conduct keyword research to find the right
keywords. This link:
http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordTo
olExternal – can be used to find volumes of
searches for products or pages. This will also
help you to select a short list of key phrases
that are based on search volume, competi-
tion, propensity to convert and value of leads.
“Also for alternative searches you can target
sub-pages. These niche searches will often
drive traffic quicker than mainstream search-
es, because the latter tends to be less compet-
itive,” says Dr Perry.
 Review your site’s SEO ratings and optimise
your site. Build links, suggests Stokes; a large
volume of relevant links from quality websites
is key.
 Develop and implement a paid search
campaign. You can commission a suitable
agency, if you don’t know how to do this your-
self. “The best search campaigns are those
that use both natural and paid search,” says
Charton. Keep in mind that Google states
that they take into account around 200 fac-
tors when deciding how well a site features for
organic searches. However most of these fac-
tors are hidden in the website code, so unless
you have extensive server architecture knowl-
edge and web programming skills, you will
need the help of an SEO agency to help you
optimise your site to maximum potential.
 Demonstrate your worth to Google. Usage
data is increasingly important and by demonstrat-
ing to Google that your site is popular and well
used is important. This can be done through
Google Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, Website
Optimiser and even the Google Toolbar.
 Make sure that once users are at your site
they act in the manner that is best suited to
your business objectives, says Charton. This
depends on a solid understanding of how
users engage with your site, and also by
improving the user experience and usability of
the site.
Integration
Branding and marketing go hand in hand with
SEO and SEM. “Top of search is top of mind,
and being top of search enhances the perception
that your brand is at the top of its game,” says
Stokes. Integrating online campaigns with
traditional campaigns creates buzz around the
URL and the brand to generate more brand
SEO
Five tips for success with Google AdWords:
1. Target: marketers can target ads to a captivated consumer, and they only pay
when someone clicks on their ad.
2. Test: Start with a small budget and see what works for your business. Experiment
and optimise your campaign as you go.
3. Control how much you spend: Programs like Google AdWords allow you to
lower and raise your daily spend with a simple click.
4. Analyse: Rather than simply looking at the volumes of traffic arriving to the site,
analyse conversions and the customer journey through your site, which allows you
to improve your campaigns and their profitability.
5. Mix: Support offline campaigns with online. Ensure consistent brand messaging
across all platforms.
awareness in blogs, forums and so on. “These views, time spent on the site, and how well all
will be picked up by the search engines and of this converts to sales.
 Landing pages – are visitors finding their way to
result in more searches for your brand, which is
something that will be picked up by Google,” the appropriate pages or are they leaving your
says Dr Perry. The better the ranking the less site?
 Sub-landing pages, which will increasingly get
you need to bid for a particular position on the
Search Engine Results Page (SERP), says Charton. hits as SEO campaigns mature.
 Conversions.
Integration is also about linking all creative
messaging online ATL, and ensuring that
customers see that your brand has one voice The future of search marketing
across all mediums. There are a few major trends to watch out for.
Dr Perry points out that the problem with traffic The first is the move towards usage data as a
arriving through an offline campaign, ie it is not determinant of ranking. “It is the most accurate
the result of an online search, is that people will method of accessing a website’s actual value,”
appear as direct entries to the homepage with no says Stokes. Dr Perry believes that SEO will
other features to discern source and so track the become more content driven than it is now. At
effectiveness of the campaign. present in competitive markets, Google tends to
Branding campaigns entail a ‘longer tail’ of rely on offsite factors, particularly back links,
keywords and the use of a content network. The their relevance and degree of authority. “The
focus is as with traditional branding campaigns: problem with ranking sites more on their content
achieving critical mass or reach in a cost effective is that webmasters can easily manipulate their
manner. “A sales-driven campaign is more targeted content to make it look attractive to search
with a strong ROI focus. The success of the engines, even if it is unattractive to humans,
campaign is measured against the number and whereas back links are more difficult to
cost of leads it generates,” says Charton. manipulate,” says Dr Perry. He also believes
that Google will refine the paid-for model to
Tracking and measurement increasingly score the paid for sites according to
Measuring online campaigns is key. “Every time their content and value. This may see a move
you do any online campaign you must link the towards TrustRank, which is the degree of
results back to your online objectives,” says trust that Google has in a site. This trust is
Charton. If you understand your own business obtained by having links from other sites that
metrics it is easy to set benchmarks that make have a high level of trust in Google, such as
business sense to you. ROI is significant but government sites.
Stokes says there are other important factors that The second trend is mobile search, which
also need to be evaluated. These are key phrase segues with geo-search. “Mobile search is
rankings; the number of unique visitors from fundamentally different as it is often driven by
search; the time spent viewing each page and location. As a result local search tactics become
the pages viewed by the unique user; and the increasingly important,” says Stokes. Likewise,
number of conversions. integration of localised search tools with Google
Maps, for example, will also grow.
Here’s what you need to track: Overall we can expect the online space to
 Keywords that people use to find your site and become increasingly competitive and far more
how well these convert to additional page advanced. 
Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008 I MarketingMix 47
by nicci columbine EXPERT OPINION
The art of sponsorship
In today’s highly competitive and global
markets, sponsorship has become a necessary
concern for companies that seek to achieve
prominent visibility and gain recognition within
their target markets.
Sponsorship however goes far deeper than
investing large sums of money in an event,
endorsing an individual or even funding a cause
to gain recognition for a sponsor’s brand.
Effective sponsorship seeks to associate the brand
with an entity that captures the hearts, minds and
imagination of the customer.
In other words sponsorship enables a brand to
become part of the consciousness of the
customer. It’s about creating a vital emotional
connection between the customer and the
sponsoring entity, and this connection should
be sustained by engaging the customer through
the sponsorship.
To develop a strong emotional synergy
between a brand and its customers, companies
must tap into the values of its target market,
which are key drivers in achieving a high level of
affinity between the target market and the
sponsored entity. This can be a sports team, a
social benefit organisation or a music event.
In addition sponsorship must create loyalty for
the sponsoring brand by leveraging the emotional
experience that the target audience has through
their interactions with the brand.
Sponsorship seeks to fulfil the aspirations or
affirm the values of the target audience and in so
doing the emotional response to the sponsor’s
brand becomes personal. So the sponsor’s brand
goes beyond recognition to become integral to
the emotional support the audience has for the
national cricket team, for example. Therefore this
emotion is leveraged to full capacity to achieve
mass support for the brand.
Sponsorship triggers emotion that ignites the
passion for a brand by delivering experiences that
add value and meaning to peoples’ lives. It takes
them on a journey with the ultimate goal of
feeling part of the brand itself.
To maintain this audience connectiveness with
the brand, new experiences must be introduced to
the audience to keep the brand alive in their
consciousness. To achieve this imagination,
creativity and innovation are required to create
those ‘magic moments’ that allow the brand to
touch people and achieve resonance with who
they are and what they want from life.
48 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008
“
Whenever companies
build a relationship
with consumers on a
personal level through
direct communication, it
triggers a positive emotion
in the hearts and minds of
the individual, time and
”
time again.
Sponsorship is truly about the art of making
magic – rather than the science of selling. It is
about emotion rather than big budgets. It is about
making people think and feel and act in response
to their experience with a brand.
But how can a company make this magic
happen? And how does artistry play a role in
weaving a tapestry in the overall sponsorship
marketing mix?
First, a brand must be good at its core. If a
brand has bad reputation in the market, no
amount of money through sponsoring good
causes will fix it. A brand must be authentic,
autonomous and credible. Sponsorship must
deliver on a brand promise to retain its integrity.
It is important that a company understands and
appreciates the magic of its brand depends largely
on how it lives the values of its brand. This must
be demonstrated by its leaders, lived by its
employees and endorsed among its stakeholders.
For a brand to be lived by the people it aims
to represent companies must have positive
relationships with their people and the values and
ethics of the company must be lived internally and
externally. A brand should empower and motivate
people to live the company’s purpose and fulfil its
mission and vision. It is pride and passion for a
brand that makes the magic happen.
Over and above the power of any sponsorship
campaign, it is the connection on a personal level
that makes or breaks the effect that a brand has
on its audience. The artistry of this resides within
understanding people and responding to their
emotions. Companies need to tune into what will
make the difference to an individual person, while
broadly striving to cater to the emotional drivers
of their target market.
Whenever companies build a relationship
with consumers on a personal level through
direct communication, it triggers a positive
emotion in the hearts and minds of the individual,
time and time again. They are likely to gain
the on-going support of that individual and
everyone they know. Once cemented, the bond
that the person has with ‘their’ brand is unlikely to
be broken. 
Nicci Columbine
managing director
Columbine Communications
(011) 880 8137
info@columbine.co.za

Creativity online and
everywhere-in-between
This is the second in a series of articles written by the Hello Computer team outlining the core competencies
which are the essence of website creation
Over the years I’ve discovered that the
real success of creativity online is not in creating
one amazing webpage or widget that users
interact with, but rather in creating engagement
with the user. It’s that moment that the user has
decided to interact with your brand. They’ve
experienced something that resonates with them
and now you’ve got a limited time to present
them with something that’s memorable, unique
and appealing enough to retain their attention.
This is the moment when technology
becomes more human and subsequently so do
the relationships forged with your brand. To do
this we must produce experiences beyond what
the users have seen before, or believe possible.
A golden thread is stitched through every
element of a campaign, leading up to the
pinnacle of interest where the user is most
receptive to your proposition.
A word on creativity
Creativity online is no different to creativity
in other media: there are constraints. The
difference online is that the constraints are often
misunderstood. We’re limited by file size
(bandwidth remains a significant hurdle for
everyone in SA), local software requirements (if a
user doesn’t have the latest version of Flash, they
may miss some of your work entirely or view an
incorrect display), local display options and other
factors beyond our control.
Creativity, regardless of the medium, will
always adhere to certain criteria; striving to be
original, fresh and mind-blowing is a given.
Online, however, there is the added dimension
that technology brings, which can either be
misunderstood or leveraged to your advantage.
In fact, very often the best creativity online is
displayed in overcoming these hurdles in
innovative ways, resulting in original executions or
amazing experiences. Simple, well-executed ideas
can work wonders.
The big idea – what’s the point
if nobody sees it?
Every campaign has one and it’s pivotal to the
success of a campaign, but it’s not the only factor
EXPERT OPINION by mark tomlinson
that you should consider. Traditional advertising
plans honour the big idea above all else – times,
they’re a changing.
The channels the idea is delivered through can
often be as unique and creative as the ‘big idea’
itself and can contribute more to the success of a
campaign than you realise, if you make smart
and original use of them. Online activity has the
potential to deliver so much more then a micro-
site which facilitates online entries and database
building. The trick is in knowing when to push the
technological boundaries creatively and when to
settle for an SMS notification.
Get the most out of your
creatives and your campaign
The biggest problem South African digital
agencies face is being brought into the creative
process near the end of the allotted timing plan.
Invariably, an ad agency will brief the digital
agency on behalf of a client and expect their off-
line campaign to be replicated flawlessly online
and still deliver creative excellence.
If you’re willing to acknowledge the importance
of the digital component of your campaign then
involve your digital agency in the first conceptual
Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008 I MarketingMix 49
or planning meeting. A good digital agency will
be more than willing to chat through a potential
project with no initial commitment in order to
decide on what’s possible.
Not many in the marketing world will actually
plan all of their communication from a central
place. Not doing so means one of two things:
they either have an in-depth understanding of all
the skill sets that will be involved in every aspect
of a campaign or they’re doing it wrong.
Questions that will annoy bad
agencies and please good ones
If I was a client, these are the things I would want
to know from my digital provider.
1. What are you doing differently on this
project, especially for me and my brand?
2. How relevant is that ‘something different’ to
my consumers? (You can end up bouncing
between questions 1 and 2 for a while, but if
you’ve got a good agency you should reach
a happy place soon enough.)
3. What additional online elements are you going
to use to enhance my primary digital offering?
4. How measurable are these additional
elements? Can you give me a good ROI and
attractive cost-per-user acquisition figures?
(Bouncing between questions 4 and 5 can
also be frustrating. You’ll find a balance
where your online media spend is best
balanced to minimise your cost-per-user
acquisition.)
5. Do you understand my brand and the
consumers that it appeals to? Brands spend
thousands of rands supplying traditional
old-school agencies with brand guidelines or
bibles, but those same brand manuals
seldom see the inside of a digital studio.
If you want an online experience that
personifies your brand, make sure the people
doing it understand your brand. 
Mark Tomlinson
creative director and co-founder
Hello Computer
(021) 488 1380
mark@hellocomputer.net
 SERVICES SETA
Direct marketers qualify
Direct Marketers will be glad to know that
they will soon be able to qualify as
Chartered Direct Marketers, through the
Services SETA.
According to Ivor Blumenthal, CEO of
the Services SETA, the Direct Chartered
Marketer specialisation is a priority devel-
opment for the Services SETA, and should
be established by June/July 2009.
However, Blumenthal encourages direct
marketers to sign up now, to the
Chartered Marketer programme, as they
will be bridged (at no additional cost to
Brian Mdluli, chairman of the DMASA
themselves) into the DM elective as soon
50 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008
as possible. “One would qualify as a
Chartered Marketer, with a focus on
direct marketing,” explains Michelle
Perrow, CM Communications Consultant.
“The DMASA is extremely excited at the
impending introduction of Chartered
Marketer status with an elective in direct
marketing. Increasingly, direct marketers
are experiencing the integration of all
media, through-the-line, into our
environment. It’s not good enough for
direct marketers to only understand the
discipline of direct marketing. They need
to be able to contextualise DM – when,

where and how are our various channels
applicable and why are they the best
solutions in solving a given communica-
tion problem? Direct marketers who are
Chartered Marketers will instill in the
market and in employers the confidence
that not only do we have the deep,
hands-on experience in direct, but also
fully understand the traditional marketing
mix,” she says.
Brian Mdluli, chairman of the DMASA,
agrees. “As marketers in South Africa,
we have to start to move towards
professionalising our industry and recognise
that our discipline is not just a business
activity but a crucial part of the economy
and for us to do that we have to start to
place emphasis on education and profes-
sional recognition of our industry,” he
says. The DMA is playing a major role in
supporting the CM programme, and will
be encouraging all direct marketers to
continue to improve their skills through
the courses offered by the Services SETA.
“The DMA believes in lifelong learning
programmes in order to keep up with
global counterparts, and it is through
programmes like these that we can safely
say we are on par with them,” says
Mdluli.
“I encourage marketers whom are
interested in the Chartered Marketer
programme, and the specialised fields, to
get into the programme as soon as
possible, because it’s those who are first
in it that will really get the most out of the
association,” says Blumenthal. “We will
cover the cost of bridging chartered mar-
keters to this elective, because we believe
that the industry, and the country, need
chartered direct marketers.”
Chartered direct marketers will be
accountable to the specialists who
monitor the direct marketing industry, and
SERVICES SETA
Understanding CPD in 2009
According to Dr Michele Serfontein, (an independent consultant who has been
appointed as CPD Project Manager) the Continuous Professional Development
(CPD) includes three main pillars.
1. The first is the obligatory CPD workshops (of which there will be four sessions
next year, two of these facilitated by international speakers). Each of these
will cover one of the four areas of specialisation in the Chartered Marketer
programme. As yet, the Services SETA is investigating what’s hot in marketing,
to determine the most suitable topics for the 2009 sessions; once these have
been finalised, and the appropriate speakers and contributors secured, a
CPD calendar will be finalised. Preliminary dates will be set in March, June,
August and October 2009. Each of these obligatory sessions will be repeated
in the main city centres of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, making
each of the sessions available to marketers across the country.
2. The second major pillar of CPD is the various activities that contribute toward
CPD including short courses (such as those offered by the DMASA) and
membership of professional bodies, such as PRISA. Course leaders can
register with the Services SETA, and when participating in these activities,
Chartered Marketers can earn CPD points. Over the next few months, says
Dr Serfontein, the Services SETA will be working hard to promote and raise
awareness of the courses, and the CPD activities. Furthermore, membership
of professional bodies, and subscription to the relevant media partners (as
well as enrolment to the courses and workshops that these media partners
might host, eg Marketing Mix’s marketing workshops), will also earn the
Chartered Marketer CPD points.
3. The third pillar of the CPD activities includes evidence of all other professional
marketing – related activities, which the individual marketer carries out on a
daily basis, on the job. For instance, the management of a marketing team
or the mentoring of individuals that are employed within that team, all form
part of continuing professional development. Verification of these activities is
included upon request, when the CPD record card is submitted annually.
“In terms of the feedback we have got from members this year, we find that
people derived great value from both the content of the CPD workshops, and
also the fact that these allowed them to meet regularly with other Chartered
Marketers, or their mentors, to network, and ask questions. Plus,
I found that those who had attended the CPD sessions submitted their CPD
record cards, and generally performed well. Those who did not skipped
off the radar,” says Dr Serfontein. She adds that the Services SETA is considering
adding an assessment programme around the CPD activities
(ie assignments based on the content of these sessions, for assessment).
This would be ideal for those members whom are wanting to complete
higher degrees in Marketing – as was the case with the agreement with the Da
Vinci Institute. However, she stresses that this will not be implemented as yet,
since such punitive approaches tend to dissuade members from participating in
the compulsory sessions. “Our members get so much value from these sessions
that they schedule these dates at the beginning of the year to ensure that they
don’t miss out,” says Dr Serfontein.
Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008 I MarketingMix 51
 SERVICES SETA
Ivor Blumenthal, CEO of the Services SETA
will therefore be accountable to a contin-
uous high level of ethical behaviour and
practice. They will also be recognised as
having the highest level of competence in
their field, says Blumenthal. The Continuous
Professional Development (CPD) that is
required of all Chartered Marketers
ensures that they are always at the
leading edge of best practice. “The
‘direct’ focus in respect of Chartered
Marketer lies in the context. This means
that each and every aspect covered within
the CM process and exam will allow for a
direct marketers to follow a ‘direct
pathway’. Importantly, however, this focus
52 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008
will be housed within the bigger context
of marketing. In a nutshell, our CMs will
be both specialists and generalists,”
says Perrow.
In terms of the specialised electives,
and the required CPD activities,
Blumenthal says that around 30 per cent
of these will be related to the elective or
specialisation, and therefore relevant.
The Services SETA is developing a
programme of CPD initiatives for the
new year, which will serve the specific
needs and requirements of the direct
marketer. “The case studies and activities
revolving around CPD will obviously
include aspects and opportunities in the
direct sphere, eg a case study that
demands, in whole or part, a direct
solution or in the CPD space, active
participation in the DMASA, lecturing or
writing articles on aspects of direct
marketing, mentoring of junior direct
marketers and so on,” says Perrow. She
goes on to say that the appointed
provider to the Services SETA – RPML
(Recognition of Prior Marketing Learning)
– has extensive experience in direct
marketing, so she is confident of the
level of experience and expertise that
they will be able to offer direct marketers.
Until now, there has been an absence
of a standard process of recognising
marketing leaders in South Africa. “There
has been leadership in spite of the system,
but not because of the system,” explains
Blumenthal. “The Chartered Marketer
designation gives the industry a way of
recognising leaders.” The requirements
and stipulations of the Services SETA
programme have done a lot to weed out
those CMs who should not have qualified
in the first place. As Blumenthal points
out, under the now-defunct MFSA,
individuals who were not even marketers

(nevermind being practicing marketers)
qualified as Chartered Marketers, and
enjoyed the perks of this status and recog-
nition, with no benefit to the industry.
With the backing of the South African
Qualifications Authority (SAQA), the
Services SETA has established certain
standards and requirements (one of those
being that the individual must be a cur-
rent marketing practitioner). Through
these regulations and requirements, the
Services SETA holds these marketers
accountable for their conduct and their
ethical behaviours, and thereby uplifts
and upholds the highest of industry stan-
dards, as recognised on a global scale.
“This is not for the paper chasing, glory
seeker,” says Blumenthal. In fact, he
stresses that the criteria that the Services
SETA has stipulated as requirement is
challenging; it’s about evidencing current,
strategic practice. For this reason, they are
expecting a certain number of applicants
to drop out of the programme; however,
it is expected that between 50 and 70 of
the 100 individuals that express an
interest in the programme on a yearly
basis, will become registered. “It’s not an
automatic status – the registration and
qualification is a thorough process,”
says Blumenthal.
According to Perrow, the content and
the focus of the direct marketing elective
will cover both the art and science aspects
of direct marketing. CMs will cover data
and all related aspects, from database
building to scrubbing techniques and
analytics. Digital media and its structure
and direct characteristics and usage will
be explored, as will the operational and
campaign implementation aspects. “In
short, at senior level, CMs will delve into
all components, channels and outputs,
from direct integrated campaigns to
SERVICES SETA
measures, metrics and ROI,” she says.
Long serving marketers will soon be
recognised by two new designations,
namely that of Honorary Chartered
Marketer, and Lifetime Achievement.
The empowerment of the Chartered
Marketer status goes beyond recognition
of high standards and ethical practice. It
also has to do with a high exposure to
CPD activities that extend and develop
existing knowledge and skills. “Chartered
Marketers also benefit from being
networked, so via the European
Marketing Federation, they are recognised
as being players on the same level as
those across 17 countries. Plus, they are
registered with the European Union
National Records Database, and are
recognised as possessing high levels of
competence,” explains Blumenthal. This
Michelle Perrow, CM Communications Consultant
means that when these qualified
marketers tender for international briefs
and projects, they are doing so on a
basis equal to those of their European
counterparts. “The standards of
international direct marketing in respect of
strategy, data-ability and campaign
execution are to be admired. Carrying
the CM status demonstrates mastery in
direct marketing, and will place our CMs
in a sought-after position,” explains Perrow.
“Our Chartered Marketers are amongst
the best marketing practitioners in
South Africa. Through this programme,
they are recognised as such, and
encouraged to continue in that vein,”
says Blumenthal. Our CMs with a direct
focus are those individuals who will lead
direct marketing into the future, says
Perrow. “Based on the rate of new
For more information, visit
technologies we will shortly be using, the
http://www.serviceseta.org.za, or contact
future of direct marketing will look quite Dharmisha Govind, tel (011) 276 9600
different to direct marketing as we know it e-mail dharmig@serviceseta.org.za
today,” she says.
Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008 I MarketingMix 53
by keith wiser EXPERT OPINION
Putting out fires with
chocolate fire engines
This is the second in a series of direct marketing articles by Keith Wiser.
At the end of my last article I wrote that
over the next few issues I hope to demonstrate
that we as mainstream marketers and direct
marketers have far more in common than we think.
So let’s start with some of things that we ought to
be able to agree on. Both groups want lots of
customers to spend more money more often. They
hope that not too many customers will defect.
They also hope that some of these customers will
tell their friends about their good experiences. You
can summarise this under the heading of
Customer Acquisition, Retention and Growth.
The chances are also good that you want your
customers to like you. That falls under the heading
of Customer Relationship Management. So
whether you are a mainstream marketer or a
direct marketer there shouldn’t be too much to
argue about there.
So what’s the big deal? And why are these two
groups often so polarised?
Marketing today is analogous to driving with a
GPS, a handy tool for getting from point A to
point B. But as anyone with a GPS can tell you,
you can select the shortest or the most direct
route. The point being that there are many ways
to travel from A to B. So let’s start by agreeing
that much of the debate between the two schools
of thought ought not to be about where we want
to be but how we intend getting there.
I am talking here about the marketers... the
guys and gals who need to flog all those products
and services that surround us every day of our
lives. We mustn’t confuse the marketing guys with
the advertising guys. I’ll get back to them shortly.
At the beginning of this article I put a few ideas
on the table that we ought to be able to agree
on. Here’s something else that ought not to ruffle
too many feathers. We should pursue those
objectives that I articulated with optimal leverage.
Leverage is the application of minimum input to
achieve maximum output. In the case of marketing
this means looking to optimise budget use. Or as
an old boss of mine used to say: “Any bloody fool
can spend money. The trick is to be smart.”
Now let me turn to the ad guys. The reason
they call a shoe shop a shoe shop is because it
54 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008
“
I don’t believe it
should ever be about us
(direct marketers) and
them (the ad guys). And it
probably ought to start
with clients asking question
like how are we going to
get more customers to
spend more money
more often at the lowest
”
possible cost?
sells shoes. No one makes any value judgements
about that. I think it is safe to infer from this that
an ad agency is called an ad agency because it
creates and sells advertising. That is what it does.
Here’s the bit that may get some of the ad
guys upset. There is an old saying: ‘If you only
have a hammer everything looks like a nail.’ I
can push that thought a little further. Making an
assumption that advertising is the sole solution to
all communication problems is like having a tool
kit with only a hammer in it. What about the
spanners, pliers and screwdrivers?
There will always be a need to build brand
identity and brand equity. Someone has to be
the brand custodian. In most instances I am
comfortable with the ATL guys playing these roles.
There are instances where these roles could be
executed by a direct agency (for example, where
the target audience is easily defined and small or
when the client’s budget cannot achieve critical
mass with ATL media). There are also occasions
when the audience can be identified, when the
margins are high and the product or service
offering can be differentiated. This I believe is
DM territory.
Using the wrong tools for any job is akin to
putting out fires using a chocolate fire engine.
What I am proposing here is called Integrated
Marketing Communication (IMC ). It was first
mooted by Don Schultz in the late nineties. It was
subsequently described by Laura Lake as: “A
process that is designed to make all aspects of
marketing communication such as advertising,
sales promotion, public relations and direct
marketing work together as a unified force.”
I don’t believe it should ever be about us
(direct marketers) and them (the ad guys). And it
probably ought to start with clients asking ques-
tion like how are we going to get more
customers to spend more money more often at
the lowest possible cost? 
Keith Wiser
MD, 5th Dimension
(011) 781 6396
keithw@5thdimension.co.za
by rachel sikwane LAW MIX
The Consumer Protection Bill’s
war on direct marketing
The third draft of the Consumer Protection
Bill was approved by Cabinet in December 2007.
Almost a year later, it is still a topic of discussion
as consumers and suppliers await its promulgation
into law. The Bill, once enacted, will have a
major impact on marketing as we know it and,
specifically, direct marketing.
In terms of the Bill, direct marketing means to
approach a person either in person, by mail or
electronic communication for the direct or indirect
purpose of promoting or offering to supply, in the
ordinary course of business, any goods or servic-
es to the person; or requesting them to make a
donation of any kind for any reason.
One of the purposes of the Bill is to improve
access to and the quality of information that is
necessary so that consumers are able to make
informed choices according to their individual
wishes and needs. In chapter 2 of the Bill, certain
fundamental consumer rights are set out. These
include the right to privacy, the right to choose
and the right to fair and reasonable marketing,
all of which contain provisions which relate to
direct marketing.
There are three main ways in which the Act will
seek to protect consumers from direct marketing.
Firstly, by enabling consumers to ‘block’ direct
marketing; secondly, by implementing time
periods within which direct marketing may be
conducted; and thirdly, by providing consumers
with a cooling-off period.
Blocking
The new Act will introduce a commission which
will establish and keep a registry for consumers to
register pre-emptive blocks, either generally or for
specific purposes against communication from
marketers that is primarily for the purpose of
direct marketing. Furthermore, a consumer who is
approached for the purpose of direct marketing
will be able to demand that the marketer desist
from initiating any further communication.
The Minister of Trade and Industry will be
responsible for prescribing regulations for the
operation of the registry. However, the marketer
will also be responsible for implementing
appropriate procedures to facilitate the receipt of
such demands from consumers as well as to
ensure that it does not direct or permit any
person to deliver communication for the purpose
56 MarketingMix I Vol 26 No. 11/12 I 2008
consumer at home for any promotional purpose
during a prescribed prohibited period. This is the
case unless the consumer has expressly or
implicitly requested or agreed otherwise. These
prescribed time periods will only be set once
regulations have been promulgated. However, it
is assumed that they will fall during the early hours
of the morning and the late hours of the night.
Marketers who intend avoiding these new
restrictions by leaving products with (potential)
consumers should be warned that goods left with
consumers during any direct marketing exercise
without requiring or arranging payment for the
goods are considered unsolicited. The consumer
will not be liable for any loss or damage to these
goods while they are in their possession and may
keep the goods if unclaimed.
Cooling-off period
Finally, the Bill introduces a cooling-off period. A
consumer may cancel a transaction resulting from
“
any direct marketing without reason or penalty by
notice to the supplier, in writing, or in another
The Bill introduces a recorded manner and form. This should be done
cooling-off period. A within five business days after the date on which
the transaction was concluded or the date on
consumer may cancel a which the goods that were the subject of the
transaction were delivered to the consumer,
transaction resulting from whichever date is later.
any direct marketing A supplier must return the monies paid by the
consumer within 15 business days after receiving
without reason or penalty notice of the cancellation or after any goods
by notice to the supplier, in supplied to the consumer are returned. Although
the supplier may not collect any payment in terms
writing, or in another of a cancelled transaction, they may collect
payment in respect of goods that have been
recorded manner and
”
changed, the amount of which will depend on
form. the severity of the change to the goods.
These protection measures are to be welcomed
and will, no doubt, assist in the decline of spam,
unsolicited phone calls and text messages. It will,
of direct marketing to a consumer who has made however, make it more difficult for marketers who
such a demand or registered a pre-emptive block. rely on these forms of communication and, more
Marketers are prohibited from charging consumers importantly, this form of marketing. 
for complying with the above provisions.
Time periods Rachel Sikwane
The second manner in which the Bill seeks to Associate, Bowman Gilfillan Inc
protect consumers is by preventing suppliers from (011) 669 9624
engaging in any direct marketing directed to a r.sikwane@bowman.co.za