Smart introduces digital ads in the Philippines
Mobile service provider Smart Communications Inc. has launched its mobile advertising service or digital ad to capture its share in the P2.2-billion digital advertising business in the Philippines.
Smart Media Convergence group head Leah Besa-Jimenez said the new service called Smart Ads deliver time- and location-sensitive ads to mobile phone users.
“The medium delivers more than awareness. It drives a sustained brand experience and creates opportunities for consumers to socialize with brands. Mobile is in every step of the whole purchasing cycle,” she said.
Executed on or with mobile devices, such as a smartphones and tablets, mobile marketing has the capability to deliver to a customer time and location sensitive, personalized advertisements promoting goods, services and even ideas.
The Smart Ads service is potentially lucrative for Smart as the Philippines was cited as the fastest-growing smartphone market in South East Asia.
For decades, advertisers have devoted a bulk of their spending on primetime radio and television spots to reach the largest possible audience. But with the rapid rise in mobile phone usage globally, advertisers no longer have to wait for their target market to go home and turn on their TV sets to get their message across.
With Smart Ads, companies have the potential to reach about 72 million mobile phone users. Already, about 12 million Smart subscribers have opted-in have and been profiled for mobile advertising. The figure is continuously growing as the majority of Smart subscribers are open to receiving mobile advertisements.
Aside from giving brands a wide and targeted reach, mobile offers deeper audience engagement, said Jimenez.
With synergies with the rest of the PLDT group which includes TV5 and Sun Cellular, Smart is in a good position to offer businesses a converged or mixed media strategy.
Smart and several industry partners have commissioned a pioneering industry study that will gauge the efficiency of brands' mobile ads using text messages.
The groundbreaking research activity, to be conducted along with the Certified Digital Marketer Program, Mobext, and the Philippine Association of National Advertisers, will provide information on the effectiveness of SMS campaigns, and provide measurable and valuable insights that can be used by brands for campaigns that will be forthcoming.
"In the Philippines, a lot of brands have employed SMS marketing campaigns to reach out to their customers, but no study has ever validated their effectiveness, or whether they provide adequate return on investment,"Jimenez said.
She said the mobile effectiveness study will be the first in a series of industry-wide research that will be supported by Smart, in its efforts to further boost efficient mobile advertising practices in the country.
Recent Comments