Make marketing more effective with a focus on mobile

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has announced the results of the latest Smart Mobile Cross Marketing Effectiveness (SMoX) study*, which was conducted for The Coca-Cola Company in China earlier this year. Results released at the MMA Shanghai Forum confirm that marketers would significantly improve their overall campaign performance, without increasing budget, by simply raising mobile spend.

According to the study, the optimal spend for mobile is between 8 and 15% of total campaign spend. Conducted in combination with Marketing Evolution and InsightExpress, SMoX assesses the economic value of mobile compared to traditional marketing channels and provides brand marketers with the first empirical evidence on the impact of mobile in the marketing mix. The results from this latest study are consistent with results from other recently released studies in the US with AT&T, Coca-Cola, MasterCard and Walmart.

“Because we strive to develop the world’s most innovative and effective marketing, we knew we had to fully understand and leverage mobile’s ability to drive the future growth of our business,” said Tom Daly, Group Director, Global Connections, at The Coca-Cola Company. “Based on the results for China, as well as the study we conducted in the US, we have begun to see a number of truths about mobile that provide a clear path forward, especially around marketing effectiveness. We now have the facts we needed.”

 Key results include:

 Mobile offered nearly double the ROI over TV and was twice as efficient in driving sales compared to the campaign on average
 Mobile at 8% of total budget drives 7% of the profit and mobile at 15% drives 16%
 Mobile video emerged as significantly more effective compared to both TV and digital video (around 3X).
 Mobile display ads drove purchase intent, while mobile social ads drove both purchase intent and engagement In conclusion, SMoX showed that the optimised mobile spend level is 15%, impacting sales even further and producing a double-digit profit increase.

"The market has acknowledged that there is a deep chasm between consumer behaviour and what brands are currently spending on mobile, but now there is real, indisputable proof on the value of mobile to a brand's business goals," said Greg Stuart, CEO of the MMA. “We applaud Coke for their leadership and commitment to figuring out the true ROI of their marketing spend and aligning to consumers’ dramatic move to mobile for content, community and commerce.” 

Source: MMA. Rohit Dadwal.

The results from China reinforce the findings of the other US SMoX studies—that mobile is a key driver of business results across the entire purchasing funnel. Additionally the SMoX study highlights that mobile when executed with best practices impacts performance even further.

“With empirical data, the SMoX study with Coca-Cola in China demonstrates the impact of mobile on a business and its competitive opportunity in this region, similar to what we have observed in the US—but with even better results,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director of the MMA in Asia Pacific.

“It is a great data set for marketers to reassess and optimise their spending with the most impactful allocations in their marketing mix, while leveraging mobile with double digit spend. As an industry, it is time we learned the effectiveness of the channel to aid marketers with their ambitions, and kept pace with consumers to understand the power of mobile.” 

*SMoX applies Marketing Evolution's cross-media attribution modelling approach, leveraging new techniques to provide a granular read on mobile and other media. Marketing Evolution’s methodology has been independently reviewed by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).