Engaging smart users

OMNICOM Media Group in partnership with Epinion, recently released the results of a three-part thought leadership series it did in Malaysia called “Tomorrow Now”.
The study, “The Four Cs of Mobile Advertising”, revolved around four key areas of mobile advertising, which are channel, context, content and connect.
Conducted online, the study included a survey involving a total of 2,631 internet users between the ages of 15 and 54 from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Of the total, 531 respondents were from Malaysia.
The fieldwork was executed by Epinion in July and revealed important data on the online smartphone population in the above mentioned countries. Below are some key findings from the study.
CRUCIAL COMMUNICATION
* Malaysians have a higher dependency on chat and messaging apps compared with the other regions and 79%of the Malaysian smartphone users in the survey said they could not live without a chat app.
* Malaysians also recorded a higher dependency on navigation apps at 30%, compared with Southeast Asia’s average of 24%.

* The most effective mobile advertising channels are communication related - the highest being email (47%) followed by click through (23%).
TRUE TO CONTEXT
* Context wise, Malaysians have the strongest preference for personalised ads, or ads that they can choose to watch (82%) over entertaining ads (63%), or ads that reward for watching (48%).
* Malaysians are most susceptible to click on ads that indicate “discount”, “promotion”, “rewards” and “vouchers” compared with other SEA countries.
CONTENT PULL
* Although 71% depend heavily on their phones to ease boredom, appetite for content does not stop at just entertainment or information. Users also look for something with functional and practical value, such as self-improvement tips (45%), recipes (30%) and motivational or inspirational quotes (28%).
CONSUMER CONNECTION
* Even while watching television, 58%of users simultaneously use their smartphones, at least four out of 10 times. This is higher among the youngsters aged 15-24 (60%) and 25-24 (63%). Seventy-one per cent use their smartphone to interact with the TV content through talking, sharing or searching for programme related info (42%) or ad-related info (29%).
THE TAKE AWAY
“There is a huge opportunity for brands to enhance the utility and functionality of their campaigns by leveraging on mobile advertising as consumers have gone beyond using the mobile phone as a means of entertainment and communication,” said Epinion head of group sales and marketing Thue Quist Thomasen.
“Brands should move away from the fixation of content equates entertainment or information and reconsider or redefine what does content mean to consumers from the perspective of utilisation,” adds Thomasen.
To read the full report of the survey, visit epinionglobal.com