By the end of 2020, there were more than 5.2 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide and the number of mobile users is projected to top 7.5 billion by 2026. The accessibility of mobile devices is continuing to grow as well, the GSMA estimates that more than half of the global population has access to a connected device.
But this global spread of mobile connectivity is also an opportunity for brands to provide value to their customers and not just seek profits from them. The growth of technologies that enable brands, mobile device manufacturers and mobile network operators to directly connect to their audiences have given them the tools they need to not only foster those connections but develop new monetization avenues as well.
For mobile carriers around the world, finding creative ways to grow engagement with their subscribers is a crucial component of growing their overall user bases. This means integrating with publishers and developers to discover new monetization paths that create revenue for them and provide value for their audiences.
New services connect carriers and subscribers
Mobile carriers around the world are constantly competing to acquire new users. But they are also simultaneously in a competition to retain the users they do have. Effective engagement tactics such as incentive-based advertising and contextual service offers can be powerful retention tactics.
But the ability to offer immediate value to a new user can quickly create a brand loyalty that can be difficult to replicate. One method that carriers are using is the use of virtual preloading of applications and services.
App developers and publishers are paying the carrier for access to the user’s device at a crucial moment in time. With this access comes an inherent trust.
Benefits to the publisher
Publishers also benefit from this trust. It immediately legitimizes their product as a stable product that will deliver the expected results instead of a potentially dangerous piece of malware or unstable app. This trust is extremely important in global mobile device markets where a “bring your own device” approach is common.
In Latin America for example, a high percentage of mobile devices are purchased directly by a consumer. This removes the virtual preload as an effective way to reach that audience. But by using the SIM card, they can re-open that channel. The SIM card gives carriers the ability to deliver a push notification or message directly to the consumer.
This direct connection can also enable the user to opt in to rich-media communications, which is a more effective and engaging channel of communicating with the customer.
Rich communication gives rich benefits
If a new user opts in to push notifications or rich-media engagements, this establishes a notification that the operator and publishers can utilize. This opt-in connects the user’s profile and provides contextual intelligence about the profile.
This enables the carrier and publishers to utilize context-based engagements to push offers of new services when they’re needed the most. For some carriers, this could be a series of text messages to a new switcher customer, like in the image below.
But here’s how this could look like in practice. A carrier might want to conduct a campaign around promoting a broadband internet offer. The carrier could push a notification about improved broadband service and provide an offer to subscribe when a person in São Paulo is in a location that does not have a strong broadband presence.
Consumer brands can utilize these rich-media notifications to conduct geofenced campaigns or even utilize shopping cart abandonment data to identify and offer a redemption offer to users.
By combining the ability to connect directly to subscribers with anonymized contextual insight, tapping into the power of the mobile operator is a tremendous way to directly reach your audiences. For the carriers, the opportunity that providing this connection point is extremely valuable and one that DigitalReef customers are able to take advantage of directly. We’re helping to unlock this platform for the entire ecosystem by connecting the publisher and the carrier ecosystem directly together.