PODCAST: Brazilian Youths Speak Out On Mobile Marketing; Permission & Relevancy Are Must-Haves
In brief: In the run up to the Mobile Marketing Association MMA Forum event (September 2, Brazil) MSG has organized a virtual roundtable to interview three Brazilian millennials — digital youths that reveal what they like and don’t like about mobile marketing.
Regular listeners will know that a special focus of this series is mobile marketing – more specifically, permission mobile marketing that is also aligned with the preferences of the people at the receiving end. So far, we’ve heard from mobile pundits (this podcast with Alan Moore), practitioners (this podcast with Linda Daichendt), insight specialists (this podcast with Josip Petrusa) and agencies (this podcast with Dan Parker, CEO of the digital marketing agency Sponge).
Today I’m excited to kick off a two-part series that speaks with the most important stakeholder in the mobile marketing ecosystem: the people. In the run up to the Mobile Marketing Association MMA Forum event I have organized a virtual roundtable to interview three Brazilian millennials, digital youths that share their views on their relationship with their mobile phones and the relationships they want to have with brands and mobile operators.
By way of background, Brazil is a developed market poised for explosive growth in mobile marketing. It’s the biggest mobile market in South America with over 170 million subscribers and a whopping 85 percent wireless penetration rate. It’s also the market where the MMA counted 30 major mobile ad campaigns in 2009, a number it expects to double this year.
Lastly, according to the MMA, Brazilian advertising agencies plan to allocate anywhere between 10 and 50 percent of their budget toward mobile marketing campaigns this year.
A lot of good reasons to listen in and learn how Brazilian millennials really think and feel about mobile marketing.
My guests are Gustavo Machado (23), Liliane Pereira (23) and Ingrid Oliveira (23).
Among the highlights:
FIERCELY PERSONAL: We read it a lot and we hear it from the source. Mobile devices are personal – period. As Gustavo puts it: “I can’t live without it, I always take it everywhere and I’m always texting. I can’t live without texting my friends, my girlfriend and my family, everyone. I find it difficult to live without it or [with] the service down or something like that.”
NO SPAM: We have a confirmation that millennials are annoyed by messages that are not aligned with their lifestyles and life stages. Ingrid, for example, is open to receiving marketing (after she gives the green light by opting in). But she is adamant about the requirement for relevancy. As she puts it: “I am open to it as long as it’s something that interests me. I wouldn’t like to be placed in some sort of spam list where suddenly all products of all ranges come to me because they wouldn’t be effective….I have the feeling, for instance, that my phone company uses the information that they have [about] the kind of calls that I make, to show me some ads and send me some ads directed to my needs. They [the ads] have been very effective in that sense.”
LOTS OF BRANDS: These millennials love the brands they love. From Nike (Gustavo), to Nokia and Apple (Ingrid), to tech brands and cosmetics (Liliane), brands are part of their lives. And millennials feel being up-to-date on their favorite brands is a must. In fact, Liliane would accept mobile marketing just to be in the know. As she put it: I would like to receive permission marketing messages “because maybe I can have more information about the products I want to buy.”
MY TAKE
We’ve heard that mobile devices are personal, and we’ve learned that permission and relevancy are key criteria for a good mobile marketing experience. As Ingrid put it, asking her first ensures that she receives “effective” mobile marketing messages. And, finally we learn that digital youth do want to hear from brands they like – a welcome confirmation of what Alan Moore told us in this earlier podcast. Mobile marketing can be a service (think branded utility), not an annoyance, if brands, operators and agencies ask first and deliver messages that are relevant to where we are in our lives right now.
Listen to the podcast here. [13:15]
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In Part 2 we deep dive into what millennials really want to receive from brands and mobile operators. A big surprise here: it’s not about freebies and free minutes. A reward for digital youth is simply to have a bigger say in their products and services.
Disclaimer: Optism is an MSG client and supporter.
August 30th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
[...] upfront and honest with what you’d like to do with mobile and with whom. As heard(/seen) in a podcast MSearchgroove recently had with some Brazilian youth, all of your research and speculation doesn’t mean anything if you lose the trust of your [...]
September 1st, 2010 at 3:54 pm
[...] Knowing how Brazilian millennials really think and feel about mobile marketing is key to delivering effective marketing messages. For this reason, I have organized a two-part virtual roundtable with three Brazilian digital natives: Gustavo Machado (23), Liliane Pereira(23) and Ingrid Oliveira (23). You can hear part 1 of this popular podcast here. [...]