Mobile News South Africa

Make mobile central part of marketing strategy

Research on how mobile ads need to be part of an integrated marketing strategy to drive consumer engagement, and other key insights from the Effective Measure/IAB South African Mobile Report have been released. The research also indicates that Samsung will be the smartphone leader in the near future.

This new report highlights the increasing mobile usage among South African Internet users with a great majority using a smartphone to access the Internet.

Make mobile central part of marketing strategy

Mobile based ads

According to the survey of desktop Internet users in December 2013, almost 50% of smartphone owners have been exposed to mobile-based advertisements. Despite the fact that SMS text messages dominate the kind of advertisements Internet users are exposed to, advertisements through websites and applications look to be gaining traction in the South African market.

Vodacom appears to be the market leader in South Africa (53.3% of survey respondents use Vodacom data plans), followed by MTN (29.9%) and Cell C (12.9%). Other key providers in the market are 8ta and Virgin Mobile. Despite the fact that 8ta is a relatively new entrant (2010) into the market, results from the EM survey suggest that its market share is estimated to be greater than the market share of Virgin Mobile, which entered the South African market back in 2006.

"Businesses that make mobile a central part of their strategy will benefit from the opportunity to engage the new constantly connected consumer. Extending advertising strategies to include mobile and developing integrated cross-media campaigns can more effectively reach South African consumers. Making mobile ads a part of an integrated marketing strategy can drive greater consumer engagement," said Alan Morrissey, Effective Measure's South African country MD.

Key insights

    • Blackberry is the major mobile phone provider. Samsung and Nokia take the second and third ranking while Apple ranks at number four.
    • The smart phone purchase intentions of South Africans show that Samsung will be the market leader in a relatively short period of time with about 40% market share.
    • 37.2% of the mobile owners have had their devices for a less than a year and almost 24% indicated that they plan to replace their phones in less than six months.
    • South Africans mostly use Internet accessed via their mobile phones for the purpose of instant messaging, emails and social media networking.

    • WhatsApp, Facebook messenger and BBM are the most commonly used instant messaging applications.

"These findings suggest a fast-adopting consumer group in South Africa, providing opportunities for mobile phone distributors for sales maximisation. Facebook's $16 billion acquisitions of WhatsApp will make Facebook the market leader in instant messaging market in South Africa. This could mean that Facebook will be the dominant advertising platform in the instant messaging market," concluded Morrissey.

To download a copy of the report, click here.

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