Outside providing subscribers access to internet as well as rolling out enterprise solutions for corporate customers, mobile network operators are also provided with the opportunity of maximizing the use of their technology through mobile advertisement.

Mobile network operators in Nigeria today have the required technology to deliver short message service, video and picture messages.

One then wonders why they are not exploring mobile advertising option to enhance their revenue base which invariable could help in driving down voice call tariff.

Mobile Marketing refer to one of the two categories of marketing refer to one of marketing, first and relatively new, it meant to describe marketing on or with a mobile device, such as a mobile phone.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the total value of the global real-time mobile location-based advertising and marketing (LBA) market will grow from EUR 192 million in 2011 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 91 percent to EUR 4.9 billion in 2016.

This will then correspond to 28.3 percent of all mobile advertising and marketing.

This means that location-based advertising and marketing will represent more than 4 percent of digital advertising, or 1 percent of the total global ad spend for all media.
The report predicts a rapid uptake of location-targeting among mobile advertisers after having remained on an experimental stage for several years.

“The growing attach rates of location technologies in handsets and the increasing consumer acceptance of location-based services in general are the main game changers”, said Rickard Andersson, Telecom Analyst, Berg Insight.

Targeting by location in combination with other contextual and behavioural segmentation greatly enhances the relevance of mobile advertising.

“Major brands are progressively embracing location-based advertising across the range of mobile formats, and LBA also opens up the mobile channel for new advertisers such as local merchants”, said Mr. Andersson.

He added that SMS, mobile search and coupons have emerged as important high-volume LBA formats.

The LBA value chain is still forming and there are a large number of players involved in the ecosystem.

Since the value chain is fragmented and the industry has not yet reached maturity, many different roles are involved.

 Major digital and telecom players such as Google, Apple and Nokia are competing to gain market shares in the space alongside mobile operators, LBS players, location-aware apps and media, mobile coupon providers, mobile search companies and proximity marketing providers.

There is further a range of specialised LBA actors, including Placecast, xAd and Xtify. The traditional mobile advertising providers have also intensified their focus on location targeting, in some cases even through acquisitions.

Further consolidation is expected as small players with innovative advertising solutions are absorbed by larger players in the industry.

Location-based services (LBS) are offered by some cell phone networks as a way to send custom advertising and other information to cell-phone subscribers based on their current location.

 The cell-phone service provider gets the location from a GPS chip built into the phone or using radiolocation and trilateration based on the signal-strength of the closest cell-phone towers (for phones without GPS features).

Ugo Okoye, managing director of Iconcepts Limited, said that introduction of proximity marketing into the mobile marketing industry will no doubt make a big difference in the way brands reach their consumers with tailor-made messages that suit their purpose.

According to Okoye, ‘for the first time, brands using proximity marketing technology can ensure that they reach their target audience at a time and place that put their messages in a direct and relevant context to the consumer’s current activity.

“The ability to communicate with consumers bases on their presence in a fixed time and place is one of the great features of proximity advertising technique as it makes it possible to access people at various points with tailor-made offers precisely to suit them,” he said.

 Advertisement through mobile phones offers operators another avenue of revenue source to complement that of voice and data service. In this time of drop in revenue from voice service as a result of harsh economic condition, operators need to create awareness on the use to be able to maximize the benefit.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathering that Nigeria marketing communications is worth over $4 billion. Nigeria Marketing Association, Apcon said that the sector became vibrant with the liberalization of the telecommunications sector which witnessed a boost as a result of operators’ use of the medium to reach their subscribers in one promotion or the other.   

The association which is presently using television viewer ship mostly in their advertising campaigns is considering mobile marketing because television viewer ship is declining at a fast rate for some reasons, such as influx of cheap Chinese pirated movies, electricity failures, absence of prime time TV shows and absence of national Television stations.

Radio, the association said, has its own challenges too and outdoor is location specific.
According to a report by Apcon, mobile is the only medium with anywhere and anytime advantage with possibilities to accommodate all array of features like video, Multimedia Messaging Service, pictures, Short Message Service, internet and among others.

Mobile is a more powerful personal medium than any other, and it is time that Nigeria Brands exploited the opportunity.

Possible Channels
Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular ever since the rise of SMS (Short Message Service) in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia, when businesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send off wanted or unwanted content.

Marketing communications companies in Nigeria lately are using SMS to send advertising content to mobile subscribers.

It has become a common experience for one to receive SMS from companies on the prices of their product.

One key criterion for provisioning is that the consumer opts in to the service.

The mobile operators demand a double opt in from and the ability for the consumer opt out of the service at any time by sending the word STOP via SMS.

These guidelines are established in the MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines which are followed by all mobile marketers in the United States. This has not started working in the country.