While Africa still remains the least penetrated region in the world in terms of mobile technology, in June 2005, its annual mobile line subscriber growth rate stood at 66.7%, making it the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. Furthermore, by the end of September 2005, that growth rate had increased to 71.4%, as operators increasingly expanded their service offerings to a larger proportion of the population, and by the end of the year, more than 100 million Africans were mobile technology subscribers.
Last year in June, South African Tourism embarked on a digital marketing campaign across four countries (Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and Mozambique) within the SADC region in June. The 'Hot Spots Campaign' was the first of its kind for the destination marketing organisation and incorporated a selection of media, including radio, print, experiential elements and SMS technology.
According to Kingsley Potter, chief marketing officer for South African Tourism, "By including mobile technology in our marketing mix, we were able to gather and collate information quickly, accurately and effectively. The response was hugely encouraging... we received over 55 000 entries across the region. SMS technology also offered us an excellent opportunity to develop a substantial database of individuals who had already shown an interest in destination South Africa. Our aim now is to convert this interest into arrivals."
Through the use of SMS, South African Tourism was also able to communicate additional messages about the destination to its SADC consumers. For example, participants were given information regarding upcoming concerts in South Africa, and were offered the opportunity to win tickets to events and exhibitions (by responding to various radio messages, via SMS).
In commenting on the use of mobile marketing technology in Africa in general, Mic Loubser, head of sales and marketing: South Africa/International, Stouf.com says, "There is no doubt that Africa shows a great deal of potential in the mobile marketing arena. However, there are a number of very real constraints.
"Unlike other African countries, South African mobile service application providers are governed by the Wireless Application Service Providers' Association (WASPA), a strong industry body with an appropriate Code of Conduct, which was set up to uphold public perception of these services and to protect against bad practices."
Stouf continues, "This means that should a commercial entity, such as South African Tourism, wish to run a mobile marketing campaign in South Africa, premium-rated SMS codes, the costs involved and the revenue structures are all agreed upon through a single body - WASPA - allowing clients to easily manage their marketing campaigns."
"This is, however, not the case in several other African countries. As a result, clients who wish to conduct mobile marketing campaigns across various in-market networks often run into difficulties when it comes to securing premium rate SMS codes and agreeing on standard tariffs across all the in-country service providers, who may not always see eye to eye, and have no governing body to co-ordinate and regulate their operations."
Another challenge in working within certain African countries is that of payment, explains Loubser. "Again, the importance of a governing body such as WASPA comes into play. All the revenue collected through any SMS campaign conducted in South Africa is held by WASPA and then distributed according to pre-arranged agreements, thus ensuring fair play, transparency between the networks, and guaranteed payment. This is not always the case in the rest of the continent."
Despite these challenges, Potter says that the Hot Spots campaign had been an extremely valuable learning process. "We recognised first-hand how important it is to optimise the use of each medium to justify undertaking a multi-media campaign of this magnitude.
"We also quickly realised that what works in South Africa does not necessarily work in our neighboring countries - they are each unique markets with unique requirements. The campaign also highlighted the importance of clear and simple language and messaging particularly in non-English speaking markets," he concludes.
