Category: Mobile Marketing

Hong Kong movie patrons unknowingly participated in a unique ad experiment.

A shocking car safety advertisement from Volkswagen (VW) realistically demonstrated the hazard of texting while driving at the MCL Cinema in Hong Kong, thanks to location based marketing technology.

The ad demonstrated to viewers just how dangerous texting and driving can be.

Prior to showing the feature film, the cinema showed the movie theater audience an advertisement that began with someone starting their car, listening to some peppy music and driving along a road densely populated with trees. The ad was shot in a first-person perspective, creating the atmosphere that the viewer was the one behind the wheel operating the vehicle.

The scenic drive continued for a little while until suddenly all of the moviegoers with mobile phones in the theater simultaneously received a text. When they took out their handsets to check the message, the car on the cinema screen careened off the road and crashed into a tree. The stunned moviegoers looked up from their phones to see the smashed windshield of the car. This image faded to a white screen and was followed by this message from the German automobile manufacturer: “Mobile use is now the leading cause of death behind the wheel. A reminder to keep your eyes on the road.”

This location based marketing strategy proved a powerful point.

The people in the move theater who received the text could not resist taking their eyes off of the screen to read the message on their phone. This is exactly when the crash occurred. The people who checked their mobile devices did not see the accident coming and that is precisely the point. All it takes is a moment or two of distraction with eyes off the road for an accident to happen.

This ad stunt, created by Ad Agency Ogilvy Beijing, was made possible at the Hong Kong cinema because the theater featured a location-based broadcaster. This technology enabled those behind the scenes to send a group text to all the patrons in the room at the same time.

So far, Volkswagen and Ogilvy Beijing’s location based marketing “Eyes on the Road” demonstration has generated a positive response. A video that captured the audience’s reactions, which has been uploaded to YouTube, has received over 12,000,000 views and counting.

Advertisers have yet to warm up to this technique as they have yet to be convinced of the receptiveness of consumers.

Despite the fact that the rate of smartphone ownership is skyrocketing throughout the Middle Eastern region, and while mobile ads do seem to provide a tremendous amount of opportunity for marketers, those firms remain hesitant about its use as they have yet to receive adequate evidence to suggest that consumers will be entirely receptive to it.

This has led advertisers in the region to hold a lukewarm opinion of mobile marketing, at best, so far.

According to the Arabnet digital hub founder, Omar Christidis, “Mobile is probably the underserved segment and it is probably the most over looked opportunity in the market today.” This, even though the use of mobile ads is growing at an extremely rapid rate. However, when compared to other channels, there is still a considerable difference in the amount of money and resources that are being dedicated to marketing over smartphones and tablets.

It is only recently that spending growth for mobile ads has started to close in on other channels.

Christidis also pointed out that “If you look at time spent on media versus ad dollars, the largest gap will be seen in mobile. This was the gap that existed even in developed markets until recently.” However he reminded that if the stats are examined, then it would show that the amount of for every ad dollar spent, there is more time spent viewing the advertisement is notably lower among mobile device users than it is among print readers.

Gartner has recently released a report that showed that by the end of this year, the amount of money spent on mobile advertising would reach the $18 billion mark. However, in the Middle East, that figure will be only $20 million. This is a measly statistic when taking the penetration of smartphones into consideration for that region.

However, the Criteo managing director of Eastern Europe and MEA, Dirk Henke pointed out that “It is very similar to advertising on desktop when it started.” Mobile ads appear to be following the same path as the original online advertising when it was in its infancy.