From the unveiling of anticipated new phones to freshly inked mobile ad deals, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona is already delivering big headlines two days into the annual conference.
Highlighted by Mark Zuckerberg’s opening keynote Q&A on day one, MWC has become not only a hotbed of marketing activations for phone makers, but a place for media companies to announce new mobile initiatives and for marketing executives to scope out the latest trends. As The Independent‘s technology editor Adrian Weckler pointed out, the presence of advertising executives is particularly prevalent this year, with plenty of thick-rimmed glasses hovering about the conference.
Here are big stories marketers need to know about so far from the conference.
Samsung captures the lion’s share of buzz
Samsung used the event as the launching pad for its follow-up to the mega-successful Galaxy S4 smartphone, the Galaxy S5. Even before the event kicked off, Samsung had set the stage to be the most talked-about brand of the conference, having spent $4.3 billion on advertising in the 12 months through September 2013 – about four times as much as its chief competition, Apple. As an added bonus, Apple holds its own launch events outside of industry showcases like MWC, allowing Samsung to outshine competitors with less market share, such as Nokia and Sony.
The brand also used the event as a chance to show off three wearables, including Gear 2, the follow up to its Galaxy Gear smartwatch and Gear Fit, a hybrid of its watch and a Nike Fuel-like fitness band.
Nokia makes a play for emerging markets
Microsoft wants consumers in emerging markets to associate the mobile web with its products and believes cheap Nokia smartphones may the best route to making that happen. With the goal of winning over as many Windows Phone fans as possible, in any market, the company released two inexpensive phones that allow for basic web surfing without the app environment of more sophisticated smartphones. The idea is that many consumers will experience the web on a phone for the first time using these products and will come to associate mobile browsing with Microsoft products like Bing, much as Internet Explorer was once associated with the web at large.
Unilever helps launch new global mobile marketing platform
The mobile firm Brandtone launched a new platform called Konnect at MWC that it’s billing as a “Bloomberg Terminal for marketers.” The first big advertiser to use it is Unilever, which had marketing executives on-site at MWC to help Brandtone launch the product. The company will use Konnect to target Indian consumers on mobile to promote its Sunlight brand soap. Konnect will be used by marketers to “send targeted campaigns at scale to an opt-in database of customers.” Rollouts for the service are planned soon for China and Indonesia.
Mobile payments gain acceptance
MasterCard debuted a new program called MasterPass that allows for in-app payments using MasterCard that will be used by Forbes Digital Commerce, Starbucks Australia and MLB Advanced Media. As part of its PR strategy, it also released the findings of a study it conducted about the acceptance of mobile payments by Prime Research. According to the study, retailers are eager to embrace mobile payments with 88% reporting positive sentiment towards mobile payments. It also showed consumers are starting to view mobile payments more positively, with 34% positive in 2012 up to 63% positive in 2013. The biggest concern amongst preventing consumer adoption is safety, as 66% of consumer conversations about safety in mobile payments were negative.
Facebook’s not buying Snapchat
Facebook’s landmark acquisition of Whatsapp was no doubt a major topic of conversation at MWC, but Zuckerberg’s Q&A also produced a final statement on another mobile app the network was once reportedly interested in (for a rumoured $3 billion). During the on-stage conversation, Zuckerberg was asked whether Facebook was interested in purchasing the company and delivered a single word response: no. Pressed for further comment, Zuckerberg relented and said, “After buying a company for $16 billion, you’re probably done for a while.”
