It seems a little silly to write this post two weeks ahead of Mobile Web Africa, where guaranteed more will be explored, but I’ve been navigating in the mobile space for a while and thought I’d share a few of my discoveries.
First up in the Mobile Marketing Space, is Infinit – the work of Rowan Polovin and Tristan Owen of MEDIAS, infinit.mobi is one of SA’s video to mobile products. Launched in July this year, it is fast becoming a great solution for marketers and content owners who want to get their video (read: quality video) on mobile. For users, infinit.mobi enables them to download and watch free and paid video content. I was with Henk Kleynhans of Skyrove when he testdrove it, and his immediate response was how clever the payment system was, which allows for easy subscription or once-off purchases of videos, billable from a mobile user’s airtime. Tristan and Rowan’s efforts are evident when you acknowledge the depth they have gone to, to ensure that it has been designed to be compatible with most mobile phones. When asked if he worked most weekends, Rowan’s answer “Weekends, what’s that?”
Then we have the effort and hard work of Angus Robinson and his team at Brandsh. They have created a content management system for Mxit. Yes, in their portals Mxit can manage content but Brandsh has come along and created a great tool called BM2 that enables and is able to put your content on steroids within Mxit. The reasons, because there is dedicated development, its quicker and you can manage the content remotely. They have created tools/functions/games and more appropriate to the audience on Mxit that are worth investigating more. If you’re looking to engage with this audience and continuously publish content within Mxit, this CMS may be the solution for you.
Remember “Mobile marketing is a journey, not a campaign” Angus Robinson.
This time last year I was lucky enough to attend the Handheld Learning Conference in London and got a frightening glimpse into what is possible in, or is it on? mobile for education.
Its great to see SA based projects gaining traction and attention and smartlearner.mobi is one of them, launched by Steve Vosloo of the Shuttleworth Foundation. Last week saw the introduction of Kontax, the world’s first English and isiXhosa m-novel, also part of the M4-Lit Project, project managed by Steve. Released on a chapter by chapter basis the story created by mobilist Sam Wilson follows the adventures of a group of teenage graffiti artists. The objective of M4Lit is to explore the potential of increasing youth literacy using mobile as the obvious medium.
A taste. Enjoy.
shot to seth of www.2oceansvibe.com for the invite to what I would call the 2009 Hello Summer party held on the rooftop of www.caperoyale.co.za.
the backdrop; glassy still sea dotted with the odd yacht *sigh*, the beautiful new greenpoint stadium with what I’ve termed “The Glasswalkers” putting on the finishing touches. To those that don’t know, the ceiling of the greenpoint stadium is glass. I really think it could become an addition to the Cape Town extreme adventure offering. Stadium GlassWalking. And in the rain. Stadium GlassSkating.
on Friday 2 October, we were treated to Cape Town perfection. trailed by top billing for a day seth set up the shindig to give an upcoming TV audience a peek into #CTliveitupblogginglifestyle. Olmeca Tequila, Jack Black and the energy drink with the name I don’t want to put in my blog, obliged. It was awesome to hear some new mixes to the familiar party starting Goldfish set, and good to catch up with Dave and Dom again. Awesome to hear that they are headed to Sydney for 2010 new year! Amazing!!
Until I’ve stopped fighting with FTP server stuff, some pics are on my posterous account.
seth had something up his sleeve so looking forward to hearing his rendition soon – look out for it on his blog.
the only problem that I have with all of it, was, that like the was symbolism of the last crane at the stadium being dismantled, I was hit with a major reality klap, where did 2009 go?
So! Hello Summer and Welcome 2010.
From Cadburys to Smirnoff it seems that the SA Twittersphere is being happily cluttered with brands and specific campaigns. Until there is a better way (please name it, if I’ve missed it) of somehow knowing who is working it, I figure lets use the wiki originally set up by web strategist, Eve Dmochowska to add yours.
For brands, agencies and consumers it presents the space to know what is going on. I suggest if you are running a campaign to include the duration.
Let me know what you think? Oh, and if you are new to the interwebs and don’t know how to use a wiki – try trusty commoncraft to explain.
Its been an interesting week on twitter. And its not even over! We’ve seen the launch/re-launch of 3 SA initiatives and the motivation/incentive behind user interest and uptake has been of interest to me.
As a recap:
No 1: The relaunch of www.women24.com. Congrats to the team for a great new look. They ran a fun RT Twitter campaign with a Woolies R1000.00 voucher. I’d be interested to know what return they saw in a. new registrations and b. no of RT’s, but from a voting community of just over 600 people 46% have said that the new design is fab!
No 2: The launch of www.womenshealthsa.co.za Congrats to Touchline and Cerebra for this great new space. It has been noted that this is a 1st iteration release, so perhaps thats the reason for not shouting out about it too much or running anything promotional in social media channels just yet. I have no doubt that there is something exciting and engaging planned.
No 3: And finally the space that saw a network member uptake of 300 people in 24 hours (and growing), www.siliconcape.com. Interesting that with little to no planned promotion the uptake took a life of its own, and I am attributing that to the fact that the SA twitter community is made up of tech/online/media enthusiasts so it is an appropriate natural adoption and because its something new that holds promise. I look forward to being a part of this community and having a space to contribute to the growth of the #SiliconCape.
So there, in the week of 09.09.09, three big SA networks surfaced. Nice!
It’s Mini Coopers 50th birthday, and I’ve been watching their promotional campaign unfold with interest. Why? Because I love brands and campaigns and because personally I perceive the brand as one which would or should be in my space, naturally, right? I feel that I’m in their target market. Why then are they not (yet) in my space, um or face, so to speak?
