Top 20 Takeaways from the First Mobile Marketing Forum by GMS

Ukraine’s first designated mobile marketing forum was held in Kyiv on November 7

On November 7, the GMS Mobile Marketing Forum — Ukraine’s first event dedicated to mobile marketing and digital transformation — was held in Kyiv.

Throughout the event, 14 top practitioners from Ukraine, Germany, Great Britain, and the USA shared their expertise and practical case studies. The forum was attended by 150 marketing directors, digital and CRM specialists from retail, e-commerce, finance, logistics, and telecommunications who have already implemented or plan to use mobile marketing technologies in their communications.

This article contains the insights that impressed the audience the most and are likely to affect the adoption of mobile marketing technologies in the Ukrainian market in 2020.

Chris Babayode, Managing Director, MMA EMEA shared 5 tips for creating a successful and engaging ad:

1. Cognition is fast: The human brain needs less than ½ second to engage with mobile advertising & trigger a reaction.
2. Time is relative: Ads in a mobile feed environment get attention faster and trigger stronger cognition, compared to desktop.
3. Our brain is faster on branding: Cognitive process is accelerated for known brands.
4. Motion drives emotion: Video ads create emotional response earlier than static, in under a second.
5. Weak ads work fast and fail faster: Weak ads are processed faster and create negative responses in less than a second.

Giovanni Benini, a partner at Global Telco Consult (Germany), spoke in detail about the new mobile communication technology — Rich Communication Services (RCS).

With the ability to provide engaging content with video, photos, and QR codes, RCS is designed to expand the mobile marketing potential. RCS is available on all modern Android phones (and potentially — on Apple devices as well), and RCS messages are delivered over the mobile operator’s network. It means that RCS messages will enable brands to build an even higher level of customer engagement and loyalty while allowing the MNOs to compete with the major messaging apps.

This technology is already working in a number of countries, showing significant results, as evidenced by RCS’ MAU reaching more than 310 million. GMS is launching an RCS pilot project with ten Ukrainian brands involved in February 2020.

Maryna Petrova, the founder of the New York Online platform (USA), shared modern search trends affecting SEO performance and identified actors that marketers should consider optimising the content and engaging with the audience:

1. Mobile phones have changed the way users search.
2. Do not abandon Google, but be prepared for increased expenses, and the lack of organic search results.
3. Optimisation should be done through segmentation.
4. Be prepared for paid advertising with super-precise targeting and higher cost per click.
5. More than half of all searches do not result in an action (click).
6. 78% of links to sites are shared via Dark Social.
7. 44% of buyers say that having chat support increases their purchase.
8. 85% of the time, a mobile phone user spends using about 5 applications.

Сristina Сonstandache, Rakuten Viber‘s Chief Revenue Officer, pointed out 6 key aspects of communicating with clients via messengers:

1. Say it’s you: the client must understand which brand contacts him.
2. Keep it personal: start the conversation with a first name or personal message and do not forget to give the customer individual attention.
3. Make it easy to do business with you: messages with actionable information (like order forms) have higher open and click rates.
4. Get the Timing Right: whether a customer is asking a question or making a purchase, be sure they can get a response immediately. Deliver messages in real-time.
5. Add a human touch: use a conversational and direct tone, be spontaneous and natural, avoid jargon, abbreviations and technical talk.
6. 90% of customers want to message with businesses, but 81% of them focus on the difficulties of communicating with brands.

Also, throughout the event, the top speakers from various industries spoke on the best practices for implementing and applying the mobile marketing tools:

• Pavlo Daniman, Kyivstar’s Marketing Director, talked about the evolution of mobile technologies and why brands can no longer ignore mobile devices as the means of communication with the customers
• Ruslan Gutnikov, Director of OMD Intelligence, revealed the secrets of segmentation and shaping the audience 
• Artem Doroshenko, Head of GMS’ Customer Relations Department, answered the question of why modern companies need mobile marketing
• Nataliia Srednia, PROSTOR drogerie chain’s marketing director, explained how sending out marketing campaigns via messengers changed the company’s marketing strategy
• Illia Solodovskyi, Chairman of the Board, UNIP AG, spoke about the unique UNIP platform and its capabilities for targeted interaction with a driver audience.

The event was concluded with a lively panel discussion on the opportunities and challenges of mobile solutions in the marketing strategy’s general mix. This topic brought together the experts who are already actively incorporating mobile solutions:

• Tetiana Vasylenko, head of the CRM department, Comfy
• Yevhen Krechetovych, head of CRM, Foxtrot
• Svitlana Chyrva, Regional Manager Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, VISA
• Ihor Shumytskyi, Head of Marketing and CRM, Forward Bank

Our aspirations came true: the positive feedback from guests confirmed the quality of the content and the level of speakers. And now, our guests are ready to incorporate this knowledge into their marketing strategies in 2020.

GMS expects that the Mobile Marketing Forum will grow next year, and our guests will be able to learn even more by studying relevant cases and participating in workshops and panel discussions on mobile marketing innovations. We hope that holding this forum will become a good tradition for Ukrainian marketers, inspiring them, and providing with new ideas.