Telefonica Digital strikes first pan-regional ad deal
MWC 2014: Telefonica Digital has struck its first ever pan-regional mobile advertising deal, targeting male smartphone owners across Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia.
The six-figure SMS and MMS campaign promotes the Clash of the Clans smartphone game, created by Finnish games developer Supercell. Consumers will be able to download the game straight from the ad to their smartphones.
Each market will conduct an ad effectiveness study for Supercell shortly after the messages have been sent.
The campaign, which launches on 27 February, was negotiated by mobile marketing agency Fetch.
Shaun Gregory, managing director of Telefonica Digital’s global advertising business, told Marketing Week at Mobile World Congress the South American market is “quite nascent” which has the advantage of many marketers in the region skipping other formats in favour of booking mobile first. It also means the advertising market has avoided some of the mistakes made by UK advertisers, such as ineffective pop-up banners, he added.
Mobile expertise among UK marketers has increased dramatically over recent years, Gregory said, as marketers work more closely with media owners like Telefonica Digital as well as specialist agencies, to book campaigns.
He referenced the amount of marketers in attendance at Mobile World Congress and the recent influx of brand marketers on the Mobile Marketing Association’s board as a demonstration of how skilled marketers are now becoming at mobile.
Noting Unilever’s deal announced at Mobile World Congress today (27 February) to create a “Bloomberg Terminal for marketers” to engage with consumers in emerging markets via their mobiles, Gregory said the trend of brands creating in-house advertising technology units will ramp up over the coming years.
He added: “It will be about the marketer taking control in what is a fragmented ecosystem. Marketers want an end to end mobile marketing solution and many will say they want to do it themselves because they don’t want to be forced by the market in terms of price and location and measurement.”
On Telefonica’s stand at Mobile World Congress, the mobile operator was displaying its smart metering system having won a £1.5bn contract to help meet the UK government’s goal of two thirds of UK homes containing a smart meter in the next 15 years. Elsewhere it was also showcasing a smart connected car concept in partnership with Tesla.
