Of smartphones, social media, and secondary screens

Photo courtesy of http://www.mixingdigital.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/second-screen.jpg

Some 13 percent of Internet traffic in the Philippines comes from mobile. Of the total web traffic in the country, some 25 percent browse from work while 71 percent browse from home.

Showing no signs of slowing down, mobile technology has truly become a game changer, as people change their habits and buying behavior. Then there's social media, proliferated more aggressively by mobile gadgets, that is vying for more of people's attentions nowadays.

These are just some of the talking points discussed by Maria Java, country manager of Effective Measure (a company that delivers data for publishers, ad agencies, advertisers, ad networks and researchers), during her talk recently at this year's annual Ayala Merchants Rewards Forum at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati City.

Maria Java of Effective Measure
(Photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

"There is value in knowing the behavior of a brand’s customers. In a survey we conducted, we found that 83 percent of respondents are influenced to buy a product after engaging with a brand online via a brand's Facebook page. Some 72 percent are influenced to buy based on ads placed on Facebook," Java said.

The Ayala Merchants Rewards Forum, now on its 9th installment, aims to gather Ayala Malls merchants to talk about the latest trends in retail in a two-day event. The forum is just part of a bigger celebration called Ayala Merchants Rewards (now on its 15th year), which includes giving awards to partner merchants who have excelled in categories like windows displays and marketing initiatives.

Java's presentation contained more interesting data about this mobile revolution that ought to encourage brands to take the technology more seriously, if they haven’t already. According to her, there were over 100 million smartphone users who consumed 1GB of data in 2012.

Of the 35 million Filipinos who go online, more than half (53.47 percent) are female while the rest (46.53) are male. Consequently, more than half (51.52 percent) are between the ages of 25 and 44; 18% are 45 or older; while about a quarter (24 percent) are between the ages of 18 and 24.

Moving on to social media, Java said the biggest mistake brands can make about this influential platform is to treat it as a one-way communication venue.

"Social media is supposed to elicit conversations or comments. It is not a bulletin board where you post something and expect everyone to just read it. Social media campaigns should create resonance," she said.

If a brand should decide to sign up a celebrity endorser, there should be an effort to make sure there's a digital component. Social media, she said, should not be an afterthought. It needs its own plan.

"Celebrities are still effective triggers. But should they, let's say, tweet something, it should be in a manner that is representative of your brand's tone. It must be engaging to maximize resonance capacity," she said.

Brands, now considered as publishers, should take advantage of blogs, YouTube, conversation apps, as well as Facebook and Google+.

During her talk, Java also touched on the "secondary screen" in the modern day's living room. She was referring to the smartphones and tablets that people would fidget with while watching the television, effectively drawing eyeballs away from TV ads.

In Singapore, a person has an average of four devices. While Java didn't have the exact figure for the Philippines, she thinks it won't be too far from that of the neighboring Asian country.