With nine out of 10 Filipinos owning a mobile phone, mobile advertising becomes a vital marketing medium which companies can take advantage of for their business to grow and succeed.
This was pointed out by Glenn Estrella, Globe Telecom head of digital media, during the Mobile Advertising Roadshow organized by the Entertainment Gateway Group (EGG), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe.
Estrella first took the centerstage with his discussion on the importance and relevance of mobile marketing.
He cited significant figures that indicate the effectiveness of mobile advertising as a vital marketing medium.
According to him, as of December 2012, 45 percent of the total mobile phone industry sales has been achieved for smartphones.
Of the 94 million Philippine population, 19 million or 20 percent browse the Internet on their mobile phones, majority of them are first timers.
On top of that, approximately two billion SMS are exchanged daily.
“These significant numbers clearly manifest that mobile advertising is going to be an important marketing instrument for companies to succeed,” Estrella said as he enumerated several reasons why mobile marketing is the way to go for any business entity.
For one, Estrella said that mobile advertising is instant.
Market studies reveal that the average response time for SMS is 90 seconds as compared to 90 minutes for e-mail. Its opt-in advantage should be taken into consideration as well.
Since mobile advertising boasts of a targeted reach, he said that EGG clients could already have a massive captive market given the over 30 million strong subscribers base of Globe.
What is more compelling about mobile advertising, Estrella added is  that it can be customized according to one’s budget, thus helping maximize marketing communication funds and promotion investment.
Lastly, it is viral as 90 percent of word of mouth conversations happen in person or over the phone, versus only seven percent online.
EGG was established by Globe to provide mobile content in the Philippines, with a wide market reach servicing allies in Japan, Hongkong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, United Kingdom, the Middle East and other countries. EGG offers cutting-edge value-added services (VAS) to its growing clientele such as SMS, as well as rich media display ads for both the mobile sites and applications.