media update’s Nikita Geldenhuys attended the Mobile & Content Marketing Conference, which was held from Thursday, 29 June to Friday, 30 June at the Indaba Hotel, Spa & Conference Centre in Johannesburg. It was hosted by Knowledge Integration Web.

The event featured nine speakers who addressed topics such as the use of mobile as a marketing platform, content marketing, data-based marketing campaigns, and the use of new technologies in marketing.

Of the many insights shared on day two of the conference, three quotes from speakers stood out as noteworthy in their prediction of how brands will have to prepare themselves to effectively compete in the marketing space of the future.

1. “Your business needs to start playing with AR. If you wait around, it's going to be too late.”

Many businesses will face a form of digital Darwinism if they don’t change their behaviour to listen and accommodate their customers. To survive in the world of millennial consumers, businesses have to be more innovative with their marketing.

These were the topics addressed by Carmen Murray, chief innovation officer at Mobitainment South Africa. “As mobile penetration increases and consumers become more informed, they trust [brands] less,” Murray said. “They don't trust our campaigns. Ad blocking is increasing, and it's become far more challenging to communicate with consumers.”
Augmented reality (AR) is one way for brands to break through this communication barrier.

Murray explained that three types of AR exist: image recognition, experiential, and location-based.

AR campaigns based on image recognition allow consumers to scan an item like a brochure with a mobile device. Through the device, the brochure can then come to life in animated visuals.

Experiential AR campaigns are presented through AR glasses or digital boards. On these mediums, visuals are displayed on top of real-world items. This can help consumers visualise an item they want to buy before making the purchase.

Location-based AR campaigns can help consumers find things like hotels. Murray explained that AR technology could enable people to scan their environment with their mobile device and then instantly see the location of hotels around them, including information and images of the accommodation.

She noted that brands can benefit from AR because the technology is unique and noticeable. “It surprises the customers and gets the necessary buzz.” AR campaigns also get more virality because of their novelty.

“The interactivity of AR retains people’s attention. People will go back all the time to play with your AR content.”

2. “People fail at content marketing because it’s as much a science as it’s an art.”

Michael Oelschig, head of strategy at Wunderman SA, explained that any brand can easily create a content strategy. Creating a content strategy that has a measurable and meaningful impact on the company's bottom line, however, is not as easy.

Having a content marketing strategy is becoming more and more vital, he said. “Millennials don't watch TV anymore and they don't listen to radio. They choose what they want to engage with. There's no space for traditional above and below line advertising in this new world. Something has to fill its space, and that is content marketing.”

He noted that content marketing requires brands and agencies to think differently about marketing. “Because content marketing is relatively new, we take copywriters, designers, and advertising folk and put them in our content marketing department and tell them to write content. But these guys grew up in a world where marketing was all about the flashy idea.”
“They will come up with cool, creative ideas, but there are a million creative fun cool videos out there.”

Oelschig explained that, instead, there has to be science behind the content brands put out. Content has to be informed by the feedback from a business’ sales team, CRM team, call centre agents, branch managers, and customers. Without their insights, brands are “just putting out fun stuff”.

3. “Unstructured data science and memorable creative advertising is your combination.”

According to Katherine Madley, group executive of product marketing at Alexander Forbes, big data refers to datasets so complex that traditional data processing methods are inadequate in understanding this information.

She explained that structured data, like the data available in a company’s CRM system or database, helps brands to create marketing campaigns to retain their customers. This type of data lets companies defend their market share and helps them cross-sell and upsell. “All of this data science, structured and unstructured helps [businesses] defend what [they] already have,” she said.

“Do CRM, big data, and data science grow or expand your brand? No, not really,” Madley revealed. While structured data is a very valuable tool set and critical for defending your brand and market share, it does not attract new customers.

“Your brand only grows by attracting new customers that don't sit in your dataset. How do you make these people aware of your brand? Unstructured data science and memorable creative advertising is your combination.”

She encouraged attendees to step outside their structured data to help their brands grow.

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The speakers of Day 1 of Mobile & Content Marketing Conference had valuable information to share about marketing on mobile platforms. Find their insights in our article, Three questions about mobile that brands should ask themselves.