Óscar Fernández is General Director of ADFONIC, Portugal & LATAM, founder and CEO of VIYOI (The Crazy4media group) and General Director of MMA. Previously, he was Director of Development of New Digital Projects in the Telecinco Group. He is one of the professors of the III Professional Program of Markting Mobile and Advertising of KSchool.
With him we have talked to discover the latest trends, present and future of advertising and mobile technology.
As Adfonic’s General Manager, Portugal & LATAM, as well as the MMA do you think that advertisers are betting on mobile communication?
There are many advertisers betting by this means so effective, although we believe that there should be even more that we know they have it in their communication plans. The volume of investment anyway is still very low with respect to what the medium contributes in time consumed. This gap must cover as soon as possible among all: Advertisers, Agencies and media. It is only allocated 1% of the media investment when the consumption of the mobile (phone or tablet) is up to 25% of our media consumption time. In fact there is a study of the MMA that tells us to allocate at least 7% for now from our budget to be much more effective even, but this will be achieved little by little.
What is the essential element for you in any media campaign?
As an element, common sense. As a medium, the mobile. It is not because I have to say this, it is because the cell phone we did not let go almost to sleep, and we consulted and used more than any other medium nowadays, and much different from the others. We must think that we are not constantly watching TV, listening to the radio or reading the press, watching a marquee, not even in front of a PC, but instead we have the mobile within reach of the hand consistently and is the most personnel that exists today. We can leave a newspaper, a magazine, share the TV, the radio, but we never leave our cell to anyone.
Everyone talks about Mobile Marketing, what role does MMA play in all this?
As an Association we promote 5 fundamental pillars: Education and training, Measurement of consumption and investment, Regulation, Protection of both users and publishers and be a reference guide to unify market criteria. In short we try to make the mobile environment where it corresponds to its values within the field of communication. The MMA seeks to drive market intentions towards greater investment by agencies and advertisers in mobile support, as a matter of efficiency of investment in communication. It seeks to help the efforts that developers, creators, producers, agencies and advertisers make because mobile communication can be carried out with better performance is possible.
Tell us about the new trends in Mobile Marketing.
New possibilities come up with mobile phones and tablets every day. All our interrelation with others and with the world is passing increasingly through these supports, social networks, daily tasks, communication, managements, entertainment, information, buying … I would speak more than “new trends”, “new attitudes and habits”. We can stop watching TV, but not to use our terminal on a daily and continuous basis. The new trends of both consumption and habits allow technology to match what society demands. Vice versa is always more risky, trying to make society adapt the capabilities of new technologies, but the success stories that are given are long-haul.
Mobile media have changed our day to day companies have been able to understand this change?
They are beginning to be aware, but there is still a long way to go. This path should be carried out with new professionals and those who already are who need to learn how the mobile generates more benefit to companies. Any potential impact through the mobile or tablet in a web that is not adapted to the mobile, can be frustrating, who does not adapt to the medium, loses the position. It does not require a great investment to adapt our company to the mobile world, it is more an effort of conceptualization and of mental adoption by the company. Everyone in the company should be aware that they are going to consume us for the mobile or the tablet, that is, many of their purchases will be made through this type of devices, and therefore from a warehouse, to a service department to the client, going through the administration itself should be aligned to this new way of relating to its audience. In short, it is not only an advertising medium, it is also a channel of relationship in the entire value chain with the customer. Therefore, companies must be aware that the future of shopping is mobile.
In November begins the third edition of the Mobile Marketing Professional Program at KSchool. What evaluation do you have since the MMA of these two editions?
Very positive of course. It has contributed to generate more professionals in the sector and to reaffirm the knowledge of those already introduced. Feedback is positive. We found people who were advertising communication, did not yet master the medium and now can feel confident in planning, negotiating and executing it, or we have also had professionals from other marketing fields who needed to see the possibilities of business development that the mobile offered them, having found new ways for it, and even recently graduates who wanted to consolidate in the support of greater growth today, as well as professionals in areas that were not of communication but understood that they had to know the medium to see if their company could take benefit of the support.
What role does mobile play as a tool in the advertising media plan?
Essential. Somehow I have already explained that it is the most effective means to be consumed constantly throughout the day, and therefore should be considered in the marketing mix, as a vehicle of any strategy. Do not forget the personal support and also that combines all the possibilities of communication and possible relationship concentrated in a single terminal: TV, voice, data, video, internet, apps, mail, messaging, entertainment, information, gadgets, etc …
MMA encourages and promotes Mobile Marketing training. Which one do you advise?
All those that provide a global vision of all the possibilities that the medium offers and that shows how it should be integrated into the marketing strategies of the companies, besides deepening enough in each one of them to understand the conditions or requirements that imply. In Kschool this training is found and from MMA it is endorsed both professionals who teach classes (all of the sector) and the syllabus that is also reviewed by the MMA.
Given the current economic situation that is important for a SME Mobile Marketing.
Mobile Marketing is very suitable for the SME because it does not need big budgets to be able to carry out actions of immediate success. Also the Mobile allows us actions of personalized and local relationship that help those companies of more limited action. Any action well executed on the mobile, will always return success.