At last,Nigerian Brands are finding their footing in the Mobile media shy landscape. Over the years, ad spending are primarily focused on the traditional media because the agencies are not smart enough to offer new media alternatives like the Mobiles and internet.
Worldwide, Mobile marketing is fast developing as a powerful channel to communicate with the audience. It not only targets the consumer directly, but also achieves a high level of interaction, as people never leave home without their mobile phones and rarely switch them off. The use of mobile marketing is also considered an effective communication tool for advertisers since it creates a personalized, one to one relationship between a brand and a consumer.
Despite the success story of Mobiles in Nigeria, the country accounts for 53 million subscribers with an addressable market of 140 million cutting across CDMA and GSM (3G) networks,Mobile marketing is just catching up with little flips here and there. The opportunities are immense in a country where over 60 million carrier grade SMS are sent daily and also accounts for 61 percent of international wap traffic to the BBC international wap news sites. The consuming public are ready but the Brands are not just connecting yet.
Some Brands are showing promises in the Nigerian Landscape with very weak efforts but it is still commendable.
January 2008
Guinness Barcode Promotion.
Guinness consumers text the unique barcode number printed on the back of the bottles.


January 2008
Guinness Fan Park Promotion.
Nigerian football fans can send messages to the players as well as interact with the brand at various fan parks setup around the country for the African Cup of Nations promotion.

June 2008
Coca Cola Nigeria
Consumers are required to text winning numbers under the crown corks of Coca Cola bottle to a dedicated short code and Airtime winnings are sent to the phones.The Promo later ran foul of the Consumer protection council of Nigeria guidelines because of some inherent faults in the campaign mode and huge out cry by consumers about inability to redeem winnings in time and in a transparent manner.

August 2008
Samsung Nigeria
Samsung Phone buyers text personal details in addition to phone type purchased and IMEI Codes to a short code and stand a chance to be selected to win instant gifts or watch the Olympics live in China. Very successful campaign.

Lagos, Nigeria, 2007
Nigerian Breweries PLC
Star Quest, an annual talent hunt reality TV show that was launched in 2002 by Nigerian breweries Plc with the objective of discovering and promoting young budding Nigerian artistes in various musical idioms. The show seeks to celebrate Nigerian music and also aims to reinforce the friendship, bonding and sociability that is associated with the STAR lager beer brand.The winner of the 2007 Star Quest would be selected by the voting public via SMS.

16 February, 2006
NOKIA PROMO.
The objective of this promo is to give out free Nigerian artistes’ ringtones and a Vibedownloads catalogue, for mobile content and promote Nokia Nigeria sales.
To partake in this promotion, customers only need to purchase any the Nokia 1100, 1110, 1600 or 2600 phone models, from any dealer in the eTel network. Inside each of those phone packs are scratch cards, with which the customer gets three free ringtones from the Vibedownloads website.
Nokia and Vibe also both seek to develop and enhance the Nigerian mobile entertainment industry. “Vibedownloads” supports the many artists whose music, pictures, jokes are used for their mobile contents.

19 December, 2005
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
The initiative which is called “Africa 11” is a game which has been running since the beginning of the 2005 season’s UEFA Champions League competition, in September. The game will have 11 winners, selected from a number of African Countries including Nigeria, and have them sponsored to watch the final match of the UEFA Champion’s League, at the Stade de France in Paris, in May 2006. To qualify, subscribers need to answer an advertised question, by sending a text message beginning with the letters “CFI#”, to 35050. Different questions will be run every 2 months, and the winners will be picked from a draw.

2005
Osmi Sports.
SMS competition titled “Jersey Number 12” which ran from August – September. The competition was won by Makinwa Agbede from Abule-Egba in Lagos. And his prize was a full VIP, all expense paid trip to Abuja, to watch the Nigeria- Zimbabwe World Cup qualifying match. Other prizes such as mobile phones were also won. The other initiative was an SMS – TV solution deployed during the Tunisia 2004 African Cup of Nations, which allowed subscribers to send messages and watch them being scrolled live during the matches.

16 December, 2005
NIGERIAN BREWERIES STAR MEGA JAM.
The Star Mega Jam is an initiative of Nigerian Breweries Plc, producers of Gulder, Star, Legend extra stout, Maltina and Amstel Malta. It is an annual music concert .And it features international artistes, based on popular demand by Nigerians, to perform in concert, alongside indigenous artists.
Subscribers stand the chance of winning up to 100 prizes which include; meeting the stars at the airport, winning VIP tickets to the concert and having dinner with the Artists. The promo involves subscribers answering the question; “Who was the international artiste for 2004 STAR MEGA JAM? Their options are (A) 10 Cent, (B) 50 Cent, (C) Michael Jackson, and they are to send their answers, as text messages, to the shortcode 33050, at the cost of 50 Naira.




August 2006
Channel O Music Video Awards.
Viewers send SMS for nominations and voting.


June 2006
MNET - The 411.
'The 411', an sms2air show that allows the audience to interact with beautiful TJs, hot DJs as well as featured celebrity guests.

June 2006
MNET - Oboma Show.
SMS for shout outs and dedications. Oboma is a TV show on Channel O that deals with African urban culture.


March 2006
Big Brother Nigeria.
SMS voting and audience commentary. Services also include programming and vote auditing.


December 2005
African Movie Academy Awards.
SMS nominations and voting.



November 2005
United Bank of Africa (UBA) Plc.
SMS notifying potential recruits of upcoming tests.


October 2005
Nigerian Breweries - Amstel Malta Box Office.
SMS voting and audience commentary for the first ever Amstel Malta Box Office.


April 2005
Mothercare Nigeria
SMS notifications to customers.



October 2004
Coca Cola
Enable Nigerian supporters to send goodwill messages to Nigerian Eagles via SMS.



September 2004
Pepsi - All Stars Promotion.
SMS used create awareness to selected members of the public for upcoming bottle top promotion.



May 2004
Indomie Noodles
SMS alerts used to reverse public opinion about the rumours surrounding Indomie noodles. Also used to notify the public of about the re-opening of the factory by NAFDAC.



July 2003
Lagos Business School
SMS website as a means of communicating with Alumni and staff members

Emmanuel Okoegwale
emmanuel@gomobileng.com

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Mobile users outnumber Internet users