keyword for successful

digital marketing - mobile

2014 digital

marketing midyear review

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2014 digital marketing midyear review

Half of 2014 has gone, but the fast-growing China internet industry has not

stopped evolving. The majority of changes seen relate to a single keyword –

Mobile. This conclusion can be drawn by combining various current statistics:

the popularity of smartphones and tablets, and changes in browsing habits,

social life and shopping among Chinese internet users. Instead of merely

assisting social networking, mobile has grown to assume the leading role in

some platforms, such as news apps and social media.

For insight into these changing trends, iClick’s 2014 Digital Marketing

Midyear Review offers hints to plan your digital marketing strategies ahead.

iClick2014 . 09

1

2014digital

marketingmidyear

review

change 1: number of chinese mobile internet users surpasses pc users for the first time

tips: As mobile devices become the first choice for consumers to access the internet, the time spent on mobile devices has increased proportionally, even more than on the PC. Marketers who previously only put effort into digital campaigns for the PC should pay more attention to this behavioural change in their target audience. Adjust marketing strategies in a timely manner to achieve the most cost-effective results.

In the first half of 2014, a significant change appeared in China’s internet usage - the population of mobile internet users overtook that of PC users for

the very first time. According to CNNIC, there were 527 million mobile internet users in China by the end of June, 270 million users more compared to

figures in 2013. 83.4% of the users accessed the internet via mobile platforms, while only 80.9% used a PC.

china mobile internet population & % of total internet population devices to access internet in china

Source: CNNIC, “The 34th China Internet Development Status Report”, 2014.7

5275 0 0464

4193 8 8

3563 1 83 0 3277

65 . 9% 66 . 2% 65 . 5% 69 . 3%72 . 2% 74 . 5%

78 . 5% 8 1 . 0% 83 .4%

20 14 . 0 62 0 1 3 . 1 22 0 1 3 . 0 62 0 1 2 . 1 22 0 1 2 . 0 62 0 1 1 . 1 22 0 1 1 . 0 62 0 1 0 . 1 22 0 1 0 . 0 6

40%

80%

20%

60%

0%

100%Million

3 0 0

6 0 0

1 5 0

45 0

0

75 0 Mobile internet population

% of total internet population

2

8 1 . 7%80 . 9%

8 1 . 0%83 .4%

44 . 1%43 . 7%

69 . 7%69 . 6%

0% 80%60%40%20% 1 0 0%

Desktop

Laptop

Mobile

Personal Computer

2 0 1 3 . 1 2 2 0 14 . 0 6

2014digital

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review

feb 2013 – feb 2014 top 5 social apps with longest usage timefeb 2013 – feb 2014 monthly time spent on social media via pc/ app

tips: Statistics show mobile users are heavily using social media. Thus, social media on mobile devices must be one of the key developments for the future of digital marketing. Currently, many brands already have their official accounts on WeChat to promote their latest offers and establish a better brand image; some of these accounts have netted thousands of active followers since their establishment. Social media marketing is highly acceptable in consumers’ mindsets.

change 2: social media usage shifts from pc to mobile

According to iResearch, during Feb 2013 to Feb 2014, the monthly time spent on social media apps increased significantly. YoY on mobile devices, for

example, showed an uptick of 255.7%! In contrast, YoY for the PC only rose 2.5%, clearly indicating that social media users spent more time on mobile

devices than on the PC. Among all social media, Weibo and WeChat are the drivers that triggered this increment. The numbers also mean that accessing

social media on the PC has met a bottleneck and become oversaturated. 。

Source: iResearch, “2014Q1 Social app traffic surpassed PC for the first time, WeChat is the key driver”, 2014.5

2 0 14 . 0 22 0 1 3 . 1 22 0 1 3 . 1 02 0 1 3 . 0 82 0 1 3 . 0 62 0 1 3 . 042 0 1 3 . 0 2

Hours

1 0 0 , 0 0 0

25 0 , 0 0 0

2 0 0 , 0 0 0

3 0 0 , 0 0 0

5 0 , 0 0 0

1 5 0 , 0 0 0

0

YoY255 . 7%

YoY2 . 5%

App

PC

3

Hours

40 , 0 0 0

1 6 0 , 0 0 0

1 2 0 , 0 0 0

2 0 0 , 0 0 0

8 0 , 0 0 0

0

2 0 14 . 0 22 0 1 3 . 1 22 0 1 3 . 1 02 0 1 3 . 0 82 0 1 3 . 0 62 0 1 3 . 042 0 1 3 . 0 2

WeChat

Sina Weibo

Q zone

Baidu Tieba

Renren mobile app

2014digital

marketingmidyear

review

change 3: rising popularity of mobile payment benefits o2o marketing development

tips: O2O business is one of the focuses in the future of digital marketing. It can lead consumers from recognising a brand to experiencing the product or service, and make the purchase decision - it is a complete cycle of the shopping experience. But how can we tighten the relationship between advertising and conversions (every dollar spent by consumers) to improve ROI? For example, collecting and analysing the browsing habits of a target audience, segmenting them, and based on this information, promoting offers to audiences with similar backgrounds by lookalike targeting, or cross selling similar products to consumers based on their previous choices. Precise analysis and targeting can effectively shorten the route for consumers from recognising the brand to actual purchase.

Mobile payment was another highlight in the first half of 2014 digital marketing. Based on CNNIC figures, mobile payment users were up from 125

million to 205 million by the end of June, a growth rate 63.4% in only half of a year. Mobile payment directly benefits the evolvement of mobile

shopping. Compared to year end 2013, mobile shoppers increased 42% to 205 million shoppers. Offline businesses can make the most use of mobile

payment, offering complete O2O experiences to consumers; such as calling taxis, restaurant reservation, apparel fittings, expanding the range of

shopping scenarios for potential customers.

4

2014digital

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dec 2013 - jun 2014 online shopping mobile shopping population and % of total inernet population

Source: CNNIC, “The 34th China Internet Development Status Report”, 2014.7

3 0%

1 0%

20%

40%

0%

50%Million

2 0 0

40 0

1 0 0

3 0 0

02 0 14 . 0 62 0 1 3 . 1 2

42 . 1%46 . 2%

260 292125 205

Online payment population

Mobile payment population

Online payment population (% of total internet population)

Mobile payment population (% of total internet population)

25 . 1%

38 . 9%

5

3 0%

15%

45%

0%

60%Mil l ion

2 0 14 . 0 62 0 1 3 . 1 2

48 . 9%52 . 5%

302 332144 205

28 . 9%38 . 9%

20 0

40 0

1 0 0

3 0 0

0

dec 2013 - jun 2014 online payment/ mobile payment populations and % of total internet population

Online shopping population

Mobile shopping population

Online shopping population (% of total internet population)

Mobile shopping population (% of total internet population)

2014digital

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change 4: chinese consumers embrace internet financial services and apps

tips: Growth of internet financial services is primed to explode in 2014. As Chinese consumers get used to managing payments and their personal assets online, the popularity and positive word of mouth will spread to other consumers. Marketers should catch this opportunity to impress consumers by enhancing the user experience, such as optimising the payment process, offering advanced security settings, and using responsive design to cater for access from PCs or mobile platforms.

Online wealth management products only just launched about a year ago in China, but it was found that 10%* of total Chinese internet users have

already adopted them, a total of 63.8 million users. In line with the People’s Bank of China’s study, “China financial stability report (2014)”, the value of

China’s internet financial services was RMB10 trillion in 2013, while third party payments were worth over RMB9 trillion, and P2P internet loan worth

more than RMB60 billion.

The boom of internet financial services is due to the long-tail effect of the internet, as well as the convenience of mobile technologies, which lowers

rental costs for manual and physical branches. A lowered entrance fee to enjoy internet financial services has attracted millions of users to take the first

step and experience the products via mobile devices. By gathering assets from millions of users, banks and finance companies are able to develop new

products apart from the traditional savings and banking services; consumers are open to more choices with higher investment returns.

6

Internet financial services (RMB)

Third party payment (RMB)10trillion

6

trillion

60 billion $ P2P internet loan (RMB)

Source: *CNNIC, “The 34th China Internet Development Status Report”, 2014.7 & The People’s bank of China, “China financial stability report (2014)”, 2014.4

2014digital

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2 0 17e20 1 6e2 0 1 5e2 0 14e20 1 32 0 1 2

127 . 7

84 . 5

48 . 727 . 3

1 5 . 57 . 6

1 5 3 . 7%

1 05 . 0%

76 . 0% 78 . 2%

5 1 . 1%

73 . 6% 8 0%

20 0%

40%

12 0%

0%

16 0%

80

1 6 0

4 0

12 0

0

Source: iResearch, "2014 China Mobile Advertising Report", 2014.9

change 5: hot event highlights the value of mobile marketing in china

tips: Lesson learned from the World Cup event: marketers like to ride on a hot event to get more exposure, especially focusing on news and social media as users will organically follow these sources, discuss and share the contents, which ultimately benefits brands with free exposure. On the paid side, news mobile apps possess in-app display ads, push notifications and campaign sponsorship. If any marketer considers doing campaigns during a hot event period, they can co-hold games with different news channels to capture wider consumer attention.

iResearch’s newly published “2014 China mobile advertising industry report” stated that the growth of mobile marketing from 2013 to 2014 was fierce,

and the estimated increment will be 76% by the end of this year. In this uptrend, news and social media on mobile platforms reflect higher advertising

value in ad hoc marketing. Take the 2014 World Cup as an example. Due to the sole broadcast rights of CCTV, other media could not play any live match,

but of course, all marketers wanted to capture a chance that only happens once in 4 years, so they shifted the marketing budget to other media with

instant responses and high consumer involvement – news and social media. According to the source, World Cup-related ad inventories on 163.com

were sold out in April. Extra resources were put into the channel to cater to requests from other marketers. It was more or less the same in other news

media, marketers fought for every ad space to make sure their brands were exposed to as many as mobile users as possible during that period.

7

2012 - 2017 mobile marketing scale in china

China mobile marketing scale (RMB billion) Growth rate (%)

conclusion

2014digital

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8

reasonably allocate resources between online and offline platforms to make mobile o2o execution practical:

Though mobile ads are in great demand, linking up all the online and offline resources to drive O2O business is still a big question for marketers. The

planning, strategies and design of O2O mobile marketing are different from traditional media. What marketers need is a complete integration of on and

offline, such as adding QR codes to outdoor and print ads, driving consumers to websites, social media or downloads; AR codes to let consumers

experience the products in a more visible way; and displaying banners and SEM in different portals for products and services, facilitating consumers to

download apps or visit e-commerce sites. Mobile marketing should evolve with advanced development technologies, making consumers crave for

demand and proactively get involved in the marketing campaigns.

don’t be afraid to try innovative promotions in order to create a satisfactory mobile experience for consumers:

A good mobile user experience is the prerequisite for successful mobile marketing. It is totally wrong for marketers to use the same strategies as on the

PC; most brands are having a hard time differentiating the switch in user behaviours from mobile to PC. Analysing the time consumers spend on each

platform, their browsing histories and purchase habits, are the keys to changing that user experiences. Marketers can also base campaigns on location

or QR codes to induce O2O interaction with consumers.

pick an image-fitting platform on mobile and sensibly allocate your budget on pc and mobile campaigns:

Mobile marketing brings new opportunities and traffic to brands, but how do you convert them? PC and mobile platforms attract consumers with

different characters. Marketers should not ignore either of these platforms when they plan for campaigns. Instead, they need to understand the

characteristics of the target audiences and reasonably allocate their budget between PC and mobile devices, to maximise the results of integrated

marketing.

We can see “mobile” everywhere in the first half of 2014, so it’s clearly a hot term in digital marketing. For marketers working with this unstoppable trend, what should they plan for and how can they control the digital marketing budget to cover channels with the most target audiences? iClick has some hints for you.

Thank youWebsite: i-click.comOfficial Weibo: Weibo.com/iclickasiaE-mail: sales_cn@i-click.comWeChat: iClick_China

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