By Rick Joubert, Yonder Media

A few days ago I did a presentation at the Mobile Web Africa conference in Johannesburg.

The slideshow can be accessed here and the below is best read with the slides.

There were about 150 delegates and certainly a very strong interest in and a lot of excitement at the prospect of the growth of the mobile web in Africa – the delegates seemed to be a mixture of entrepreneurs, marketers, agencies, mobile operators and developers and although the actual physical discussion during the “interactive sessions” was surprisingly subdued, the Twitter feed was on fire #MWA09: could that be because the Twitter stream was broadcast to a big screen in the room for all to see? Real time social media at its best but amazing how good old fashioned physical (using your vocal cords) discussion and debate takes a back seat when these tools are introduced.

Here’s a summary of some of the ideas I communicated in my presentation:

• Technology adoption curves look very different in different regions of the world. So for example while DVD player shipments in North America, Europe and Japan are on a steep downward trajectory, in much of the developing world (including Africa) DVD player unit sales are still showing strong growth
• The above implies that we should look for ways to monetise media with scale today rather than being exclusively focused on capabilities of media, devices and networks which are not sufficiently ubiquitous
• That does not mean that we should not invest in the future (of course we should) but it means that there is a balance between accepting (and monetising) the current reality relating to the penetration of data networks, mobile data access charges, mobile internet infrastructure and handsets and simultaneously understanding the likely evolution of these and investing accordingly
• Given the context above I proposed an extended definition of mobile internet access channels to include SMS, USSD and voice
• I also clarified the existing semantic challenge for use of words “Mobile web” and offered a three tiered definition developed by myself and Arthur Goldstuck
• Mobile has already emerged as the 7th of the mass media, can do everything that the other six media can but also has many characteristics that the other media do not have (Tomi Ahonen)
• From a mobile marketing perspective mobile is not only an advertising channel but also an interactive response channel (integrated with traditional media), a powerful direct marketing and CRM channel and a great platform upon which to build a community around a brand
• In developing markets (and certainly in most of Africa) the mobile screen is not the fourth screen (after cinema, TV and PC) but rather the first and often only screen
• In South Africa many ad agencies are beginning to understand the above and in my estimate around 1/3 have already invested in at least one dedicated mobile resource
  In South Africa many media owners and publishers are also beginning to understand the above and have not only started presenting their content in mobile channels but are also beginning to use mobile for digital engagement with print and broadcast content
• All stakeholders need to join hands for the sustainable development of mobile as a medium with particular emphasis on measurement and standards (as with any other medium); to this end a South African council of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) was established late 2008 and although it has about thirty dedicated members there are still some noticeable absences from the advertising, publishing and mobile operator space
• In the long run performance based pricing models (rather than CPM) will dominate the mobile media category, particularly as the media buyer profile moves down the long tail via location targeting
• Mobile network operators have a key role to play in the development of mobile as a medium and if they are to significantly benefit from the resulting new revenue streams then the focus should be on industry development rather than operator specific initiatives
• Online ad spend recently overtook TV to become the largest media category in the UK market with a 23.5% share of the advertising pie
• Considering the shape of the adoption curve for Internet media in both the US and UK markets over the last twelve years, it is my forecast that in developing markets (like most of Africa) where PC based Internet media is virtually non-existent, that mobile will serve as a proxy for Internet media and as the only truly viable new media category and that the mobile media adoption curve will exhibit a similar shape to that of Internet media adoption in the industrialised northern hemisphere