Mxit lines up blue chip brands for mobile ad campaigns

According to Mxit's September 2013 Brand Index, over 40 of South Africa's leading brands are currently making use of the platform's advertising options, with resounding success.

Grown over the years

Andrew Kramer, Head of Sales at Mxit explains, "Mxit has grown and evolved over the years to become a fully-fledged ecosystem rather than a cheap alternative to SMS. Today Mxit is a full-scale mobile social network offering compressed push messaging and data-light apps featuring news, weather, sports, gaming, educational content, and brand apps. As Mxit technology uses less bandwidth than traditional browsing, users can access a rich internet experience at a fraction of the cost of what would normally cost hundreds of Rands in data for many engaged hours online."

Kramer comments that Wall Street Journal this month reported that mobile ad spend in the U.S. totalled $3 billion in the first half of 2013, up from $1.2 billion in 2012. "These are massive figures. Naturally we're excited to witness the trend being echoed in South Africa," he adds.

Impressive stats

Looking at the Mxit statistics, the mobile social network has users spending on average, 95 minutes online daily; 6.5 million active monthly users in South Africa; 700 million page views of its apps per month and 300-400 million messages passing through the network each day. Mxit's core audience is 18 - 25 years old, spanning the LSM 6 - 8 categories, with a geographic and ethnicity split reflecting the South African population.

"It's highly encouraging to receive endorsement from the top, most marketing-savvy local and global brands. We're confident that as more and more brands experience positive results from Mxit ad campaigns, the more repeat business we'll secure. These advertising pioneers are setting a trend for other brands to follow - it's a thriving time for the ad mobile space," concludes Kramer.