"The days of ‘spray and pray’ approach to digital marketing are thankfully disappearing": Q&A with MOMA judge Kim de Ruiter

How do mobile experiences change across different territories?

To varying degrees, different territories have different rates of smartphone adoption and types of operator contracts on offer which impacts the landscape in terms of mobile trends and popular services or apps. An early example would be SMS. Very popular in the UK from the early 2000s, the US realistically took a good 5 years to catch on to any significant scale. South Africa is another interesting case. The monopoly of a single player in the fixed line market (making telephone calls and broadband very expensive) has driven fierce competition and growth in the mobile sector, with operators now emerging as the country’s leading broadband providers. The major mobile operators are also branching out into fixed services, fibre backbone networks, international fibre connectivity, mobile banking and entertainment in a rapidly converging environment. According to Flurry the US and China are the two most significant markets in terms of number of active iOS and Android devices, so it’s no surprise these territories are also driving the highest number of app downloads, shortly followed by the UK. The gap is narrowing weekly as the rest of the world catches up.

What is the main factor in preventing the mass adoption of mobile wallets at the current time?

A combination of lack of retailer support and consumer concern over privacy and security issues

What phone/tablet do you own and what do you like / not like about it?

Samsung Galaxy S3. I love the screen size, operating speed and intuitive nature of the device. It also has a great camera. Things I don’t like? I had to think very hard about this one. It would be something relatively insignificant – sometimes the Swype keyboard is a little sticky but that happens rarely.

What is the most exciting development around mobile at the moment?

A very difficult question to answer as there are so many! For me, we’re seeing the reality of ‘One Device’ that is capable of a large variety of functions from controlling hardware and appliances in your home to paying for goods and watching films, let alone making calls. This in itself opens a multitude of possibilities – mobile doesn’t sit in a silo, especially today. A mobile is a fully functioning, often connected, portable computer. What makes this especially exciting for brands, marketers and consumers alike is the ability to send and receive relevant, geo-located personalised messaging in real time – and access services and information more quickly. This should not be used as an excuse to spam, but rather develop a one-on-one reciprocal relationship between customer and product. This extends through the journey from discovery right through to customer service and beyond. I think the days of ‘spray and pray’ approach to digital marketing are thankfully disappearing.

Judging for the MOMA Awards is scheduled to take place near the end of April. Alongside de Ruiter on the panel will be Justin Pearse, ex-NMA editor and head of innovation at Bite; Alasdair Scott, co-founder and creative director of design at The Bright PlaceRoss Sleight, chief strategy officer for Somo; and Lewis Clayton, senior product manager, London Underground WiFi at Virgin Media. Also on the panel will be Peter Gandy chief commercial officer of Rockpool Digital, We Are Ignition co-founder Sean Patterson, Transcend360 Consulting partner Ben Salmon; Claire Valoti, media director at Weve; strategy director at The App Business Dan Joseph; LBi head of mobile Ilicco Elia and Matt Pollitt, founder of Five.K.

The first interview with one of the MOMA judges, Scott can be found here.

There are 29 MOMA categories covering all aspects of mobile marketing, from apps to innovative use of mobile and user experience to use of video. The awards are open to any UK based individual, agency, company or business producing effective mobile strategies and campaigns. Registrations and entries should be made via the MOMA website by Friday 22 March.