DigitalFilipino Talks Blog Contest: Mobile Marketing Opportunities in the Philippines

Mobile Marketing Opportunities in the Philippines

Today, February 18, 2011, DigitalFilipino Talks about Mobile Marketing Opportunities in the Philippines. Interviewee Mr. Manny Fernando, President of MegaMobile (http://mymegamobile.com/), talks on opportunities in mobile marketing and that a growing number of brands are utilizing. Megamobile is a mobile content and applications developer and aggregator focused on delivering services to mobile communities.


Mobile Marketing Opportunities in the Philippines from Janette Toral on Vimeo.

Mr. Fernando talks about the growing trend in the digital marketing sector, specifically the mobile marketing department. He mentions that there is a growing number of mobile users who are now tapping the internet through their mobile phones.

He attributes this to the current trend in sales of newer and cheaper smart phones. Because smart phones are relatively affordable today, many mobile phone users are replacing their legacy phones with the new ones. That is why he believes that there is a lot of marketing opportunity in the mobile sector.

He mentioned that in a recent survey from AdMob, around 42% of mobile phone users are 'smart phone capable' or around 32 million mobile phone users are ready to use the internet through mobile phones. However, he says majority of us Pinoys do not know that their phone is 'internet ready'. But for the 5 million regular mobile users who do know, they use their mobile phones to connect to Facebook and do web browsing.

He attributes the lack of usage to the fact that most mobile phone users have prepaid accounts. For users who have wifi access on their phones, mobile users do take advantage tapping the net when a mall offers free wifi service.

Mr. Fernando mentions that many mobile users use Nokia phones. With that in mind, Nokia Ovi store was established to promote Nokia mobile applications. This is evidence that mobile marketing is on the rise.

Marketing Strategy on Mobile Phones

So far, majority of Filipinos can still be reached through SMS or text marketing. Mr. Fernando added that if you are a company who wants to reach out to the masses, then use SMS. If there is a certain demographic you want to target, you have to take into consideration what type of mobile phones this certain demographic use, so that you can properly decide what kind of applications you want to create to effectively reach out to them.

Cost of development of mobile applications

Ms. Janette asked Mr. Fernando if developing a mobile application for her web content is expensive. He answered that it depends on the type of application and the amount of time it will take to complete one. If it a simple application, they can use a template they already made, and it will come out cheap. But if your app is complex, it will take more time, effort and money. So, it is possible that developing applications for mobile can be expensive.

Mr. Fernando also mentions that Filipinos are globally competitive when it comes to developing mobile apps. He mentions that we have a pool of I.T. professionals who are capable of developing them.


My view on Mobile Marketing Opportunities in the Philippines

This interview with Mr. Fernando is related to the previous interview of Mr. JV Rufino in Opportunities in Mobile Content Development.


Opportunities in Mobile Content Development from Janette Toral on Vimeo.

One thing is common in them - mobile phones. Mobile content and mobile marketing go hand-in-hand to promote business opportunities. And this is where mobile app developers come into the picture.

Enriching the pool of mobile app developers

For one thing, when one mentions the I.T. sector, it is actually a big community that can specialize in many different fields. There are some in the I.T. who specialize in database management, the internet, PC applications, games development, and for this instance mobile app development.

In order to have a bigger pool of mobile app developers, I.T. professionals are invited to seminars and training courses to familiarize themselves on mobile app development. Some training courses are free, while some are paid and takes weeks to complete.

Previously, I mentioned in my blog on Opportunities in Mobile Content Development that it is not that simple to create a mobile app because you have to consider what type of phone where you want you app to be deployed. The interview with Mr. Fernando validates what I previously said.

Still, there are some developments in the field of mobile apps development.

Recently, I attended a seminar sponsored by Globe Labs about a simple mobile developing tool called JMango. For starters, this developing tool allows mobile app developers to quickly develop a mobile app for their web content. What's good about this is that when you compile your application (in layman's terms finalizing your app for deployment), you can choose what type of phone you want your app to be deployed. With this, you do not have to master a lot of developing tools for each phone's brand and model. The only down side of this developing tool is that you can only build simple apps and menus with it.

Mobile Apps competitions

Another reason why I think we have a stable pool of mobile apps developers is that big telecoms like Samsung, Nokia and Globe hold mobile apps competitions annually. For example, there was a previous contest from Samsung where the winner also gets to receive bonuses if ever his winning application gets a lot of sales. Every time someone downloads his application, a certain royalty fee will also be awarded to the developer.

To sum it up, there really is a lot of opportunity in making money in the mobile marketing sector. Either if you are planning to deploy your ads through mobile phones to promote your web content or product, or going to create a mobile application for your client, it is definitely a win-win situation.

This is my entry to DigitalFilipino.com's Talks Blog Contest. Be part of the conversation. Visit the contest page to join. Feel free to comment on my blog post about My view on Mobile Marketing Opportunities in the Philippines.