MIS553: Mobile Marketing Strategies

1. MOBILE MARKETING IN PRACTISE:Virgin- “Off-Deck” Rich-Media Mobile Advertising Course Faculty: Mrs Yasmin MalikVenue: IBA City Campus, KarachiCourse Start Date: Spring 2012 (Feb 1) MIS553: Mobile Marketing Strategies

2. Strategy at The Virgin Group: “Reckless Nor Random”? • The Virgin Group: one of the most recognised and respected brands in the world • Created in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson and a leading branded venture capital organisation • Some of the famous Virgin brands (among the 300+) include: • “Contrary to what some people may think, our constantly expanding and eclectic (i.e. deriving ideas/style from a broad and diverse range of sources) empire is neither random nor reckless.” (Source: www.virgin.com) • “To some traditionalists, the Virgin management style may not seem hard headed enough. To them, the fact that Virgin has minimal management layers, no bureaucracy, a tiny board and no massive global HQ is an anathema. But it works for us!”– Sir Richard Branson, www.virgin.com

3. Mobile Strategy at Virgin Media Virgin Media UK: TV (cable), broadband, phone and mobile The first company in the UK to offer all of the above from one place i.e. “quadruple-play” media offerings Can be compared to the way PTCL has bundled its services to create new dynamics in the local market (“triple-play” as the mobile service is offered by sister concern Ufone) Compete directly with Sky which offers similar services but has a much stronger foothold on media in terms of its Sky News and Sky Sports channels – the latter is the leader in transmission rights to most sporting events As a result, Virgin Media is always trying to upstage Sky wrt Sports in particular Challenge: How do we differentiate ourselves for the upcoming English Premier League (Aug 14, 2010 till May 2, 2011)? Objective: to get 18-35 year old males to opt for Virgin Media to watch the Premier League rather than Sky Sports Strategy: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/resources/case-studies/8218.html

4. Execution of “Sports Uptake” via Off-Deck Mobile Advertising The mobile ad itself is not at all centered on football! But the lead up to it, is… Virgin Media collaborated with the London based ad agency 4th Screen Advertising Target profile and handset-specific targeting: 18-35 year old football fans and the iPhone They suggested the inclusion of a “calendar sync” app which would provide those who downloaded it with the fixture list of televised Premier League games directly onto their iPhone calendar One option was to do this via banner ads on Virgin’s own mobile site which was attracting a good rate of traffic already However, instead they decided to “100% take over” The Guardian’s (www.guardian.co.uk) mobile portal to capitalize the reach of the campaign via the Guardian’s excellent mobile presence as a direct challenge to Sky 4th Screen Advertising knew that 70% of the consumers browsing The Guardian’s mobile portal were iPhone users They also knew that in the world of media portals, The Guardian (and hence The Guardian brand) had the best value proposition for advertisers

5. 100% Take Over of The Guardian’s Mobile Portal The Guardian’s mobile portal after 100% take-over by Virgin Media The Guardian’s mobile portal the way it looks normally

6. Mechanics & “Tactics” of the Campaign Football fans could click on the full page banner ad This would run the mobile ad which would expand into full view to make full use of the iPhone screen size After watching the mobile video ad, users had two “calls-to-action”: Find out more about Virgin Media Football Packages Sync televised games with iPhone calendar (entire season’s sporting calendar, game fixtures, teams, kick-off times) Question: How was the success of these two calls-to-action measured in practise…? Results: During the first quarter of the Premier League (i.e. upto Dec 2010) Virgin Media added 100,000 Sky premium subscribers to reach a total of 725,000 Campaign demonstrated how new rich media formats can drive new levels of consumer engagement