Featuring Kwame Addo
In this episode of Colours of Social Media hosted by Enoch Robot Boy Appiah Jr., we dive into the future of mobile advertising with all-around marketing expert Kwame Addo.
[0:00] From Bildx Studios, this is Colours of Social Media, the podcast for Biden digital marketers and small business owners who believe in digital markets. I'm your host, Enoch RobotBoy Appiah Jr.
[0:11] Today, we'll be talking about the future of mobile advertisement, and I have a very good friend of mine to help me have this conversation. He's in the presence of Kwame Addo. But before we dive into the conversation, I just wanted to thank a very good listener of my Clarissa. And because of Clarissa, for the first time on this podcast, I'll be able to refresh my guest, my friend who come on the show.
[0:38] So if you are there, Clarissa, thank you. And also for new listeners of this show, if this is your first time listening to this podcast, consider subscribing wherever you are listening from, whether on Spotify or YouTube, because that is the only way you can get all the episodes that I'll be putting out in the subsequent months coming on. And it's also the only way you can support the show. I mean, one of the ways you can support the show. So yeah, without further ado, I want us to dive into the conversation about the future of mobile advertisement with Kwame Addo.
[1:18] All right. So Kwame, let's dive in. One of the questions that I asked on this show is the expectation of guests. So I want to ask you, what do you want to come out of this episode?
[1:32] All right. Thank you so much. You know, I mean, I've seen what you started doing. I mean, with this particular show, I think I watched the first episode and a few other ones, you know, subsequently. And I think it's worth commenting. So just to say congrats. I mean, we know that what you started would blossom and, you know, become some very good resource for all of us, you know, to learn from ourselves and then even from the other colleagues who also come on the show.
[2:00] Particularly on this show, I'm hoping to share the knowledge that I've acquired over the years, you know, running media, doing media activities and media related services in the country and in the sub region. Of course, with much more focus on mobile advertising, I actually want me to speak all right. So then yeah, so speaking primarily on mobile advertising, just sharing the knowledge.
[2:23] I mean, of course, also, you know, learning from you as well. And hopefully we get to, you know, better the industry and get the best out of everybody.
[2:32] All right. All right. Now, before we dive in, I want to first question will come with a number, right? And looking at data reports, you know, the report that comes out every year for media practitioners, you know, the digital landscape of various countries, Ghana included. Looking at the GSM intelligence talks about over thirty eight point nine five million organic population have access to cellular mobile, meaning these people have mobile devices. And since mobile advertisements, did you say it's advertising advertising advertising is inclusive of SMS marketing.
[3:18] And yet people are always complaining about data, you know, data being expensive. Do you think with this number, just huge number and in connection with the cost of data, do you think there is a future for mobile advertising in Ghana? Yes, very, very much so.
[3:40] I mean, data costs, I mean, it's one of the hindrances to mobile, you know, data consumption and mobile usage across across, you know, I mean, the subraging and even globally. Right. I hear and I mean, I need to check this fact, but I'm here. I hear I've had a number of people state the fact that even Ghana has a cheaper mobile data cost per data usage versus other markets and all that. But regardless of the costs, you know, for for a particular product or service, I think it's more about the need for the service.
[4:19] Right. So because of how impactful and how glued a lot of us are to the Internet, you know, and how it benefits us in several ways, regardless of the cost, I'm sure definitely, you know, the growth over the years. If you look at the numbers, it's been going high and high every time. And I mean, I don't see it coming down in any way. Kwame, if you are being called to give the state of the mobile advertising reports like Ryan right now, we've called you. So instead of you to talk about state of the union, you are going to talk about the state of the mobile advertising. What would you say? All right. So I mean, mobile advertising has been on an upward upward journey. I mean, over the years, over the years, I mean, I remember when you used to run campaigns, you'd see a very huge number of the impressions and views and all that coming from, I mean, desktop records. And I mean, that was that was the biggest channel for advertising back in the day. But over time, we've seen mobile takeover, you know, from 50 percent in back in the day to our run campaigns and you see like 90 percent, even when you don't even limit it to mobile. You see display campaigns giving you like a 90 percent plus of banner that's being saved, you know, on to on to mobile. It's even worse when when you go into social, you know, because most of us access these platforms from from our phones. Even when we are working on our on the on the desktop, you know, most of the time you defer to taking your phone to even have access to to social. So so mobile advertising, broadly speaking, I mean, has been on an upward upward journey, specifically from the time where it was it was primarily based on SMS. Right. Because then so it I mean, it started surging, you know, I mean, on the right on the wave of when mobile devices, you know, I mean, came into the system and the primary form of communication for mobile devices then was SMS and then voice. Right. And I mean, that was the case back in the day. So then we used to have just bulk SMS, I mean, partners as the main means of when it comes to mobile advertising from a mobile tech platform perspective. Right. So then it was used to be just bulk SMS. But then it's evolved over the years to now have targeted, you know, mobile advertising partners, you know, delivering targeted mobile advertising. So instead of just collecting first party data and sending like a bulk SMS to people, now you're able to tap into telco data and then used to save, you know, mobile advertising to audiences right from their mobile devices. Right. And it's evolving even much more now with AI, you know, enabling targeting to be much more precise, being able to even predict how audiences are going to react to particular content based on their search data, their browser data, you know, all that feeding into platforms for advertisers to be able to use to reach the right audiences at the right time.
[7:35] And of course, one big area which has, which has now evolved, not fully yet, but you know, in a very large extent is RCS, rich communication service, which enables SMS to become as savvy as you have your typical, let's say like your WhatsApp, or are you about platform, right?
[7:57] Because then you're able to send like videos right from inside SMS, you're able to send emojis, you're able to actually create groups, and all that, you know, to interact with audiences without having to download an external app. So we typically say RCS is SMS on steroids.
[8:16] Let's let's stay on RCS, right? Can you show me? I mean, I've been getting a lot of SMS, right? But then if I show you an SMS now, what makes it an RCS? Right, so RCS still comes in the, it comes as a message in your SMS feed. That is one. That's, I mean, it's the basis, right, for both SMS and RCS. But the difference is this is rich, rich communication service, right? So then this allows you. Hey, are you going there? I want you to explain. So this allows you receive rich formats or rich media messages right from inside your SMS feed. So rich media messages could be a display banner ad. So instead of getting a display banner ad, or only when you go on, let's say a Google website or a generic, you know, page, you can literally get it asked, you get a notification, like a message. You can probably think it's Momo. Yeah. But I mean, it can be a brand, you know, banner display being displayed right from right inside your SMS feed. It could be a video, you know, message that could be sent to you. And then it could actually even be, has several, several ways that it's been native arts and all that, being deployed from an RCS perspective. So, but then talking about this rich, right? Rich, that means it can only be shown on premium smartphones. But then aren't you limiting yourself? What about these other dumplings? Yes. So, so that's where, um, you know, that's what I was saying about AI, you know, enabling advertisers and all that to be able, and, and mobile tech partners like ourselves to be able to tell the devices that users are using, right? So then because you're able to tell the device people are using, uh, when you're sending a message to, um, a smartphone, um, or a very high end device, you're able to send the full blown off video and all that with all that rich content, right? But then you're able to do like renditions for, uh, maybe a feature phone, you know, because you know, it's just a button that the person will be using to access it. So maybe you can send a regular SMS, but it has a button in there that you can click and it takes you to a website, right? And then you can engage on it, or you could send like a generic, you know, SMS, like back in the day, if it's a, if it's a dumb phone. So basically just saying, um, it gives you options, um, as an advertiser to be able to reach different target audience based on the objective of the company. Um, and let's paddle back a little to when you said you are able to get data from telcos, is it not breaching some privacy? So, I mean, we get that a lot to get that right. But the direct answer is no. Um, and I'll tell you why. I'm, I'm, I'm relaxed there. Okay.
[11:14] Yeah. So it's actually no. Um, and it's no, because, uh, Ghana is an opt out market. Um, what I mean by an opt out market is that once you take ownership of a SIM card and then you, you slot it in and then you decide, you set it up, you get it registered and all that, you know, there are some, um, key messages that come up, you know, and as part of the messages is a notification that says that, um, you're nibbling, I mean, the telco, um, to use the data for, I mean, advertising purposes in a very, um, sustainable and, you know, um, safe manner.
[11:49] Right. However, there is a, there's an obligation on us as advertisers to also ensure that every message, yeah, we're going by that. And then every message that also goes out to the user, the user has the option to say, nope. Well, I said, you know, from the onset that you can send me advertising, but now I'm not interested. So then you're able to send an opt out to say, oh, send stop to maybe five or six or something. So to opt out of, of receiving that. So, so generally speaking, um, you've opted in at the point of entry of owning the SIM card, but then you have the option to always opt out. And then once you opt out, um, of course you get to be taken out of the database and all that. And the partnership with telcos is, is just because, um, uh, the partnership is done from like an API level conversation. Right. So then there is an integration that has been done. So it's not like climbing contacts or, or traffic data, you know, and all that is being shared. No, you know, it's, it's just systems communicating to be able to say, okay, this particular, um, user, which is not even a phone number, it's a user ID, right? So then it's not visible to any individual to know that it's, it's, you know, sending the message, but it's just a particular user with a particular behavior on the network.
[13:09] Right. You're able to use that to say, okay, I want to reach someone who, you know, is a high, you know, high spender in terms of time and all that they can use that to classify you.
[13:22] And then an advertising can be saved, can be saved to you. Okay. Let's stay on that one. One last question. You say you're able to segment based on the person spending habits, right? For me, if it comes to, uh, getting what you call credit, I buy it monthly when it comes to internet, I have my own in house internet. I don't buy data. So is there a way to get me if I don't, uh, buy data, but then I use my home wifi and even when I get to the office, there's an office wifi. So practically, if I'm getting back home, I don't use internet. So practically, I'm always on wifi. Is there also a possibility to get those? Yeah. I mean, once, once you are on the internet, your entire, um, I mean, spending pattern and, you know, several other, even data that has to do with, I mean, what you entered regards, age, demographics, you know, type of device you use, all those data is available. So then you overlay all that data to see, okay, this person spends X amount of, uh, I mean, data, you know, in a month, I believe in a month, right?
[14:42] And then also spends this number of this amount of, I mean, air time in a month, right? And then consumes this maybe amount of, I mean, SMS in a month. So averagely you're able to over a period, you know, the average it's out and say, okay, this person is maybe a high spender, what we call a high up every revenue pay user, right? So then you're able to say there's a higher average revenue pay user person where in marketing, we will say it's a high LSM living standard measure, you know, determining the classification of the person to say, okay, this is a high LSM person. So that, um, maybe if, if for a particular brand that wants to speak to a high LSM person or a mid or a low LSM person, you know, you're able to use that. So it's not just one targeting criteria that is used. I mean, the various, the number of buckets of targeting criteria that are used to be able to filter audiences and then, and then identify them and save content to them.
[15:37] That's brilliant. That's brilliant. One from just this small conversation that we had, what I have gotten from out of this is that one I should rest assured because, uh, when you guys are running on a mobile advertising campaign, you are not bridging any privacy protocol because Ghana is an opting country. Once I get out out country, sorry. Once I get the SMS, I can choose to opt out. And that's why there is the stop sense, stop too. So then you won't get it again. And again, you are not necessarily using my number, but in based on my, uh, usage pattern, the, the kind of data data, the amount of data that I buy, uh, the core credit that I buy.
[16:24] So it's not necessarily me as a person, but then someone who fits my profile. Right. And, uh, last but not the least is also one of the best way because practically you can get everybody in the advertisers perspective. So if you want to, uh, you are still thinking about going into mobile advertising, you should, because it has feature on that. Exactly. So, so, I mean, mobile advertising gives you two things primarily that we usually like to say. Um, one is rich, right? Cause just as we said, you know, data says over a hundred percent of the audience, I mean, of the Ghanaian days, I mean, this is mobile devices, right? So mobile devices outweigh the population by the way, a hundred percent, right? Which I mean, we put if realistically speaking, we say, okay, because of having double cinnamon and phones, you know, being used by people, you say 50%. So that gives you like, I've really, I've been reaching 50% of the entire population.
[17:31] Right. Yeah. But this is, I mean, social and other platforms, which usually would have maybe like a 40% or 30% reach, you know, and all that. And even in, even, and that's even because you've halved it based on the assumption that, you know, the nuance that, you know, people are using. Um, I mean, a lot more people are using like, you know, two phones and all that.
[17:55] So it's a huge channel when it comes to the rich, reaching audience, right? And I mean, I know for a number of advertisers and agencies, rich is one key criteria objective, right?
[18:08] Because then you want to be able to reach as many, as many people as possible. So you can have most of them convert or some of them convert as opposed to the frequency conversation of reaching the same people over and over again. Right. So then reach when it comes to mobile advertising, I mean, from an ad tech perspective, you know, it's very big on that side.
[18:30] The other thing is also targeting, right? Because then the level of data that is available to the advertiser in that case is enormous, right? Because then you're able to target, you know, all the various buckets that we described, which are generally not available on social, not on display, right? So then, um, it gives you some level of, uh, precision, you know, in, in, in reaching, reaching clients. So precision targeting or precision marketing campaigns are very, very effective on mobile advertising. Um, you know, approach also, I mean, my next question, you've, you sort of answered a bit of it, but then I think if I put further, you'll be able to give more, if you compare the traditional marketing, what is the benefit, the pros and cons of mobile advertising over, you know, seven hours on desktop. Yeah.
[19:22] Yeah. So, so, you know, typically from an advertiser, I mean, like expecting an experience, you always say, I mean, multi-channel approach, right? Because then you don't want to focus on a particular, um, channel, you know, I mean, and lose out on the possibility on reaching, you know, your audience on other channels. Or even when you are reaching on the channel, I mean, audiences on one channel, when they, when they see your ads across other channels, I saw it also reinforces what they've seen, right? And it makes it more, you know, interesting for, you know, it takes them to the next level of, you know, design to get your products, you know, and obviously eventually converting, I mean, as well. So particularly to the pros of mobile advertising, I mean, beyond what I've talked about, regards the level of the targeting that's available and then the reach that is available is also things around personalization. So because then mobile gives you the opportunity to be able to be very personalized in the way you engage your audiences, right? Because then you are reaching them right on your mobile device, regardless of whether they are on any social platform, you know, or they are on any maybe websites or whatever it is, you're able to still reach them directly, right on your mobile phones, engage them, you know, and then obviously, of course, based on the data once again, as I've said, you know, you're able to make it much more engaging or personalized. And especially with the AI being introduced in campaigns and platforms, it's super, super personalized to a point where there's that level of, you know, synergy between the kind of coms that you're communicating out and then the kind of audience you are looking to speak to. Awesome. So where do you see mobile advertising the next three to five years? We can just focus on Ghana and based on your experience in other regions, you can also bring that in. Right. So, I mean, with the advent of AI, VR, you know, and then AR and all that, I mean, I see mobile advertising as, you know, a channel that is really, really, really going to revolutionize the way we go about, you know, our media planning and buying, I mean, making it much more prevalent in media plans, you know, from advertisers, you know, and brands and all that, because then we have a number of media partners, you know, trying out mobile advertising in the form of, I mean, it's much, much more sophistication that has been provided now, right beyond just bulk SMS as we used to have it.
[22:05] And the results speak for itself, right? So then with that as a case in point, I mean, I see advertisers, you know, gravitating more towards it. And then the platform itself also becoming much more, I mean, richer and much more engaging to users because then they don't have to in most cases, or in some cases has been done in other markets, they don't have to spend on data and airtime, right? Because then it's been taken care of from the perspective or some is sometimes it's been taken, been taken care of from the telco, the telco side as well, right? Because then everyone wants that particular sector to grow. If you're looking at RCS, Apple from its new devices that are coming up this summer are going to be RCS enabled. Wow. Yeah. I mean, Google has been on RCS for a long time, but Apple had always been quite the best to it.
[23:02] There will be the green bubbles and the blue bubbles again. Not at all, not at all. Because then, I mean, everybody's going to be able to have access to RCS goals, you know, and that takes the available audience from hiatus to, you know, double and maybe even more in the next future.
[23:20] Apple fanboys, they don't have anything to brag about them. Yeah. Well, we'll find out about that soon. Okay. So coming my next question, let's try and find something for businesses. How come businesses leverage mobile advertising to reach the targeted audience? Yeah.
[23:44] So for businesses, I mean, at the end of the day, it's about speaking to your audiences at the right place, at the right time, right? And at the right place, being from a mobile perspective, right from being on their mobile phones, right? From when they wake up early morning and they want to check that time or turn off their alarm, you know, I mean, or when they are going to bed and they want to say good night, good night, you know, send a message to that person, you know, that really. So mobile is basically part of their entire journey, right? And that's where, I mean, as a brand or a business entity, it gives you a lot of touch points to be able to speak directly to the user without them having to have gone on to any other platform, right? And then engage or send your comms to the audience.
[24:37] Yeah. And then also for the business also makes it, I mean, much more effective, you know, and even more efficient, you know, based on their cosplay action that, you know, the brand would want to, whether it's a video view, they would want to drive, you know, whether it's an engagement, they would want to drive inside the feed, or it's actually getting people to click, you know, onto a mobile site or any platform.
[25:01] What's a mobile site? Yeah. So a mobile site is basically, it's just, let me just say it's a website that is built for mobile first, right? So then, I mean, basically a website is built and then it's been enabled for mobile. That way when users receive an SMS, they able to click on it and then it redirects them to a mobile. So then that means all websites are mobicides.
[25:26] No, no, no. I mean, yeah, most websites or some websites nowadays are built with a mobile first approach, right? In fact, scrap the most. Okay.
[25:37] Some websites, right? Especially now part of the world are built with a mobile first approach, right? But the experience is largely most websites that are built were built for a desktop first, you know. So when you go on it from a mobile view, the interface and all that is not very friendly, right? But this is, but mobicides are just focusing the platform for mobile usage. So when you get like an SMS, for example, or you get a display banner inside maybe your MTN hoods platform or a Yuba platform, right?
[26:15] And then you click on it. The intention is to, is because the platform is on mobile, you are landing on a mobile site, right? Not a website that, you know, would rescale and give you that entire website view. But this is, this is limited to mobile because that's what you want the people to stay in a mobile environment.
[26:35] Got it. Got it. All right. So with our businesses, if a business wants to include mobile advertising into the amaze, what are some of the considerations that they need to put in place?
[26:47] So, so firstly is understanding the target audience when it comes to a mobile, their mobile habits, right? Mobile usage habits. Yes. Mobile usage habits, you can say, cause then that helps you to be able to tell, you know, the time of the day that they are heavily on their mobile, the kind of devices that they use based on their, you know, your persona that you've plotted of the kind of audience that you want to speak to, right? And that will now inform or that will now guide us to be able to see, okay, these are the kinds of data points that can be used to reach these kinds of user from a mobile perspective, right? And then of course, I mean, also budget allocation, obviously, you know, from the entire marketing budget, you know, a fraction of it's going into mobile advertising, right? Seeing the results and obviously, of course, optimizing, um, as you do, you know, to ensure that the campaign becomes, you know, I mean, give the best of value from a mobile side. Now let's put our advertisers hat down. Right now we are talking as, I mean, I want us to talk as consumers. How should consumers expect mobile advertising to change their mobile usage habits moving on?
[28:10] Right. So, so, I mean, from a consumer's perspective, right? There are a lot of gains, you know, when it comes to mobile advertising, I mean, because then it provides a very, very personalized or relevant way, right? Where I mean, consumer get to receive brand messages. So think of it from a perspective of maybe you are an expecting mom, for example, right? And then you get a message from, I mean, a brand, you know, that is also speaking to expecting moms, right?
[28:42] Right from your mobile device, you know, without you even going on social or going on any platform, right? Because then the brand is able to tell from, you know, behavior on mobile and all that to see, okay, this is a, this is an audience that, I mean, that will be interested in that particular, or let's say you are, you are a business owner interested in, in some financing, or let me say a loan facility or whatever it is, and you have an institution, you know, just reach out to you because then, I mean, they know from, you know, data that has been gathered on your, um, patterns and all that, right? So then that, that gives you, um, some relevant content, right? To be able to, I mean, use to, you know, better our, our, our, our, our general experience, um, you know, on mobile, right? And of course, there's also once again, because of the options of opting out and because of the option, the regulation, regulatory frameworks that are in place, you know, from an NC and even telco perspective, because the telco industry is the most regulated industry, you know, close to the finance, if not more than the finance sector, right? Obviously, because of, I mean, all these issues and concerns that, you know, are raised, so it's because all these regulations, you know, also give us, give you, gives the user the, the opportunity to be able to limit the level of, I mean, access, access that, you know, brands or advertisers have on their content. So yeah. All right. So from all these conversations, what I'm getting is that there is feature for mobile advertising and they ask an advertiser, you should include mobile advertising into your mix, right? Awesome. One last thing.
[30:31] I know we've talked about the future and you've been mentioned a bit of AI here and there, but I haven't dive deep into AI. That's actually my last part. One question. So how does AI help with mobile advertising? Right. So then the AI, I mean, platform. And where does it even sit? Does it sit? Is it the AI because I'm on pixel? So there's AI in there. So is it the AI that sits on my phone that helps advertisers to target me? Where does it sit? Let's start from there.
[31:04] Then we can talk about how it's, you know, it helps advertisers. Right. So it primarily sits from the mobile advertising, I mean, platforms, or let me say the mobile advertising partners platform, right? So if you take mobox as a platform, right? Mobox is, I mean, enabled with, I mean, AI functionalities to be able to better understand the data that is being collected from a user, a user's journey, right? Or the guitar footprint when it comes to mobile device, regards all the data criteria that we've spoken about, right? Overlay all of them and, you know, to be able to better inform or even predict, right, what will be of interest to the user, right? So then, yes, sometimes the prediction might not be accurate, but then once the user tends that particular thing that maybe might not open it because, or there's no interest to me, the AI now lands to say, okay, this thing that I thought was relevant to this user actually is not.
[32:10] So then it's able to recalibrate and then, you know, I mean, become much, much smarter in the way these messages, or, I mean, this, I mean, comes. So you're able to just, you know, be much more effective, you know, in the way communication is being done to the users, just enabled primarily by, you know, this AI integrations and AI bots that have been built into, you know, mobile advertising and even the other digital platforms as well.
[32:38] I have a lot of conversation on that in my previous episode. All right. You made, when it comes to tools, you made mention of mobas. Is that the one that you recommend if I want to go into mobile advertising or there are some on that, some that you recommend?
[32:55] Yeah. I mean, Mobax is one, one, one, one huge platform. I mean, that, that from a mobile advertising perspective has networked a number of telcos, right? So then, I mean, there's a number of telcos across various markets. I mean, they've been aggregated on the Mobax platform, right? So then that enables users to be able to, I mean, save these comms and these messages to the right audiences on the platform. So the major, major hindrance to mobile advertising from back in the day was just the silos that were being built, you know, telcos, you know, having different, different, different, you know, servers and all that, right? But because of platforms like Mobax, you know, you're able to now, I mean, save ads to right audiences, you know, I mean, tapping into that data, whether you're in Ghana, in Cameroon, you know, in Nigeria, in South Africa, you know, working with a team, you know, out there media, you know, to be able to save the right message to the right audiences right from, you know, the mobile advertising platform, Mobax.
[34:07] Thank you so much for coming. It was a fun ride, right? It was. And finally, it will be fun to do this. Once again, that has been another insightful episode of Colours of Social Media.
[34:19] If I didn't get anything from this episode, I know that my data is saved with advertisers and that based on my browsing habits, they are able to save personalized ads to me. That would make sense to me. I want to say a big thank you to Clarissa for supporting this episode by providing something to suit my guest's throat. And once again, Kwame Ardo has been the guest for this episode.
[34:45] If you want to reach out to Kwame Ardo, I'll drop his contact numbers in the description below or in the show notes below. Kwame Ardo is specialized in everything marketing, be digital or traditional, mobile advertising, anything you can just reach out to him.
[35:03] I would drop his contact details in the show notes below or in the description below. If you are watching on YouTube, thank you for staying with me for this episode of Colours of Social Media. See you next time.