Why Mobility Matters in a Digital World

Businesses that are serious about getting noticed in a noisy digital, mobile-first and social world should turn to mobility-based marketing

Mobile is primarily about handheld devices and platforms, but mobility is bigger than that — it’s about fulfilling consumers’ desire to stay constantly connected and helping people to get tasks done on the move. Mobility-based marketing hinges around the fact that wherever we go these days, we’re sure to have our smartphones with us. The various apps we use are modern-day compasses that provide useful tips and recommendations that make going about our daily routines much easier.

In Asia-Pacific, two-thirds of internet users access the web via mobile[1], and in several markets in the region, these numbers are growing at a faster rate than their European and American counterparts. The accelerated rise of smartphone penetration is also driving increased usage of location-based services across the region, and it didn’t take long for marketers and advertisers to tap into insights offered by these services to better engage with their customers.

Looking beyond location data, Waze understands mobility patterns of the driving community — where people are driving to, and what they are most in need of while on the road. These mobility insights not only help businesses market their products and services with greater intent, they also help ensure greater relevance in the ads while also improving the driving experience.

Fuelling Meaningful Marketing Through Mobility

Mobility is paving the way for more purposeful marketing, with the popularity of mobile devices and mobility-based services creating valuable insights that can drive critical decision-making for consumers as well as businesses. To illustrate, businesses can personalise their messages to drivers on Waze through initiatives like road safety campaigns and highlighting rest areas for drivers so that they will not drive while tired. When Waze partnered with Shell Helix to make roads safer during the Ramadan period, Shell-endorsed reminders were sent to drivers to be extra vigilant when driving near accident-prone spots, as identified using historical accident data reported by the Waze driving community.

As seen in the Shell partnership example, mobility data can be used for a variety of purposes beyond traffic management: they can help predict future trends based on historical facts, which can then be used to inform businesses on how to improve products and services consumers will want to engage with and drive to. This in turn allows mobility-based marketing to be a great tool for measuring and understanding the offline effect of digital advertising. The ability to amplify offline results with digital efforts thus allows brands to build on successes and adjust when the results aren’t as evident.

[1] https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/09/28/everything-need-know-state-digital-asia-pacific-2017/

Deepening Your Connection with Customers

The mobile-first phenomenon presents a massive opportunity for brands and advertisers to target consumers not only based on their location data, but through leveraging mobility-based insights to drive foot traffic straight to the front door of their business. Mobility-based advertising is an opportunity to deepen your connection with your target audiences, so you can provide content that is specific to their needs to foster brand love and help them feel more connected to your business. Waze teamed up with partners like Petron to achieve just that — by making it easier for drivers to find Petron fuel service stations and get all the latest Petron deals using the new ‘Favourite Brands’ function on Waze.

On Waze, the benefit of mobility-based marketing is not only available for big name brands. Waze also has an advertising programme known as Waze Local to help small and medium-sized businesses reach out to customers in a simple and cost-effective way. Increasing location awareness and driving in-store traffic are top challenges for small and medium-sized organizations everywhere; Waze Local is designed to better cater to these needs.

It’s an exciting time to be engaging with mobile and mobility-based advertising platforms. While the rapid growth of mobile also means an increasingly cluttered digital world, businesses that focus on delivering greater value for customers and keeping ads targeted and contextual will do well to stand out amongst the competition.

To get started on Waze Ads, please visit: https://www.waze.com/brands