Mobile Groove

Do you – or anyone you know – really want to be targeted? Just the term conjures up images of bulls-eyes, shooting ranges and scenes from the movie Minority Report. Little wonder that we don’t have a desire to be targeted. Yet targeting is core to marketing in all its forms, from creating and maintaining a database to developing an online/offline strategy.

And every so often – and it is becoming quite often — the discussion about targeting also triggers a debate about personal privacy. Understandably, it’s a volatile issue that raises as many tempers as it does questions. Case in point: the backlash when people learned the truth about Facebook’s privacy policies and the company’s tepid initial response.

A surge of mobile advertising interest and activity has made Africa the market to watch. We look at recent brand campaigns running on the Tigo Ads service. Tigo, a leading mobile operator in Ghana, has implemented the advertising solution to bring personalized mobile advertising to its over 3 million subscribers.

To increase revenues, differentiate services and reach a wide and willing audience with mobile advertising, Ghana’s mobile operator Tigo has become the first in the country to introduce permission-based marketing.

As more marketers move from one-off mobile campaigns focused on brand awareness to delivering ongoing campaigns aimed at driving customer engagement and loyalty, there is more emphasis on permission-based marketing as a way to kick off and continue a conversation with consumers — on their terms.

The timing of this shift in strategy is interesting, and no doubt driven by two factors: the concern of individuals about their personal privacy and the desire of brands to conduct an ongoing dialogue with people who — because they opted in — are likely to appreciate the advertising they receive.