Sunday, May 13, 2007

How to do mobile marketing in China

I'm no expert on the Chinese market but I spotted this article on Contagious by Kaiser Kuo explaining the ins and outs of using mobile marketing in China and it seems solid advice and comment to me. Some key takeaway points for me are:
  • Mobile phones have really taken off in China (no big surprise there - there are more mobile phones in China than there are people in the US) and it's commonplace to use SMS as a response mechanism to adverts.
  • Wap advertising is also on the increase with several Admob-a-likes sprouting up as well as a raft of mobile search companies. The mobile advertising and marketing industry is poised for growth.
  • 100m Chinese subscribers have tried wap and about a third of them (30 million) use it regularly.
  • Chinese mobile subscribers suffer more from spam than we do here and that the authorities have not [yet] clamped down on this.
To sum up, Kaiser Kuo comes up with 10 top tips for running mobile marketing campaigns in China (or anywhere else for that matter - it's all pretty good advice):

10 Tips for Mobile Marketing Campaigns in China
1. Target with maximum precision: Leverage available user data, and aim by time, place

2. Hard sell turns off more users than it switches on

3. Play by the rules, and don’t anger operators or regulators

4. Keep it simple: WAP destination sites should be idiot-proof, with limited choices

5. Know the technology’s capabilities, and play to those: Technology can drive creativity

6. Pull is better than push: avoid spam as much as possible

7. Know when to get on a fad—and when to get off it

8. Use mobile to access user info, and own that data: mobile ad is relational marketing

9. Reward users for viral behavior

10. Mobile alone doesn’t work: make it part of a bigger campaign
I especially agree with point 4 - and not just for wapsites - make it all easy and idiot proof! Not sure that you need to reward users for viral behaviour if it detracts from your message and sometimes mobile only campaigns can work.

2 comments:

  1. hi helen, i just want to thank you for bring my attention to Kaiser's blog whom i had used it on my blog where i had added a few more points at mobchina.blogspot.com. Your blog has been insightful and keep up the good work. I have also added your link in my blog.

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  2. Thanks for the comment Alvin - much appreciated.

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