By Puja Pannum, managing director – Middle East, Blis

The mobile market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is flourishing. eMarketer predicts that by 2019, the region will boast more than 789 million mobile phone users, making it the fastest-growing mobile market in the world. Meanwhile, smartphone usage in the region is rising faster than expected, with mobile penetration rates as high as 75 per cent and growing in some of the Gulf states. But across the MEA region, marketing investment in mobile is astonishingly low, comprising less than one per cent of the global total.

This discrepancy represents an enormous opportunity for forward-thinking digital marketers – and not just in terms of reaching more eyeballs.

Thanks to GPS and Wi-Fi on mobile devices, location data is providing advertisers with fresh insights into their customers’ interests and behaviours, based on what they do and where they go. And with the rise of data analytics and location technology, brands now have more sophisticated tools for targeting at their disposal.

Location data and technology are set to disrupt traditional marketing strategies across MEA. For those who take advantage of it, location-based mobile marketing will empower brands to reach out to their ideal audience with greater precision than before. Advertisers looking to build relationships with the region’s growing number of mobile users should prepare to capitalise on its boundless potential.

Insights and opportunities. Brands interested in gaining a holistic view of their customers can start with basic demographics data or browsing histories, but they shouldn’t stop there. Truly understanding who these consumers are means understanding how they live their lives – and that means paying attention to where they go. Fortunately for marketers, location data and technology is enabling marketers to see and study where consumers have been and where they’re going, understanding their interests and values like never before.

In its simplest form, location data can enable marketers to recognise consumers as they move from place to place, which can empower a retailer in the UAE, for instance, to target individuals in town for business. Location can also unlock new audience segments where browsing histories fall short. For example, an individual interested in buying a car may do all of his browsing in person, rather than online, which means car brands focusing on browsing histories may be missing out on a potential buyer. By looking at location – and thus seeing the man’s biweekly visits to the local car dealership – a car brand can make sure it’s tapping into the consumer’s otherwise undetectable interest.

Perhaps most significantly, location data and technology can provide advertisers across the MEA region with new tools to optimise targeting and boost campaign performance. Employing both real-time and historical location data, advertisers can deliver personalised ads at the time and place that’s likely to produce the best results. For example, a high-end restaurant can deliver ads to frequent visitors just before dinnertime or when they are nearby.

Subway leads the way. Location-based marketing in the MEA region isn’t just hypothetical: forward-thinking brands have already begun to seize the benefits. The restaurant chain Subway, for example, recently harnessed the power of location-based mobile marketing to drive footfall across the UAE. Using proximity technology, Subway geo-fenced all of its store locations in the country to find out who was visiting their locations and when.

The brand then followed up with these customers at a later date, delivering dynamic ads that showed the viewer a map to the nearest store. But Subway didn’t just re-target these individuals at random times; the innovative franchise reached out to customers when they would be most receptive to their ads: during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then, in order to assess the success of the campaign, the brand watched and monitored as these customers came back into Subway for another meal.

The results were illuminating – and impressive. The campaign achieved 1.49 per cent CTR on mobile, and more than 5,000 unique users returned to Subway after viewing the creative. But the restaurant’s most important and successful KPI was footfall conversion at a rate of 4.2 per cent, demonstrating that the campaign had succeeded in bringing customers back for more. The success of Subway’s novel campaign in the UAE suggests there’s a lot marketers can do to improve campaign performance and drive in-store visits across MEA. Like Subway, brands can use location-based insights to deliver ads to their ideal audience at the most opportune time and place in the format that’s most likely to resonate with consumers.

Moreover, with the tools to accurately measure and assess the results of these efforts, marketers can constantly and iteratively enhance their digital marketing efforts.

Bright future. As mobile uptake continues to rise across the Middle East and Africa, location data and technology are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Right now, real-time targeting with location data is empowering marketers to reach out to new audience segments, improve campaign performance, and increase footfall and sales. Developments in AI and machine learning – combined with location data – empower marketers to pre-target consumers, predicting new audience segments and behaviours.

In order to get ready for an exciting future in digital marketing, brands can start by leveraging the trends and technologies that are here now. And in MEA – home to one of the greatest concentrations of mobile users in the world, where 40 per cent of total impressions take place on smartphones – they can start by seizing the power of location-based mobile marketing.