MUMBAI: The mobile is going to come increasingly centre stage is something we all know. How to reach out to the customers? How to measure what they are doing on their devices? What are the best practices in mobile marketing? These were some of the questions posed at the The Mobile Marketing Association Forum (MMAF) Delhi 2016 – put together by MMA India - which ended last weekend, culminating with the SMARTIES India 2016 awards at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon Hotel and Residences in Gurgaon. Hindustan Lever and Mindshare walked away with the big honours.

Pepsico India chairman & CEO D. Shivakumarspoke about the challenges of servicing a billion challenges of servicing a billion “mobile users” in India, and expressed how this revolution is affecting the finance industry, pegging the decline of credit card industry. Speaking on mobile ROI, United Spirits CMO AmritThomas opined that if a brand can attribute ROI to partners by providing data insights, it enhances the overall consumer experience. But all this boils down to the consumer, said the research expert, IMRB Sr VP Hemant Mehta. He shared a first look of recent findings about consumer behaviour on feature phones revealing that feature phone users have higher ARPU (average revenue per user).

Hotstar CEO AjitMohan spoke about quality storytelling on the mobile screen, to engage audiences. He also asked the hard-hitting question “Is the trade-off for precision quality?” denouncing the fundamentally accepted norm that precision and quality cannot go together.

Group M CEO  CVLSrinivas presented the key note from an agency perspective, speaking about how marketers are still looking for proof to invest in digital, when the proof points are behind them in time.

The forum was followed by the SMARTIES™ India 2016 awards with gold, silver, and bronze metals announced in 16 categories ranging from Brand Awareness to Cross Media Integration amidst a fun-filled evening hosted by comedian, host and writer SapanVerma. In addition to the category awards, the SMARTIES™ India 2016 also announced the Blue industry awards that included agency of the year in  mobile, the marketer of the year in mobile and best in show titles.

Mindshare and Performics were the big winners for the night. Mindshare led the race with five golds, winning the agency of the year in mobile award while Hindustan Unilever was chosen as the marketer of the year in mobile. The other winners for the night included Indigo Consulting and Leo Burnett for brand awareness and the best in show award was won by Mindshare for their ‘MMS 2.0’ campaign.

The SMARTIES™ is the world’s only global mobile marketing awards program that honours innovation, creativity and success in the field of mobile marketing.  This year an ‘all-Brand Jury’, led by jury chairperson and Godrej Group strategic marketing head ShireeshJoshi and consisting of other celebrated marketers in India, evaluated the campaigns to shortlist those that showcased the ‘best of the best’ in the industry. Covering everything from brand awareness to innovation, video/rich media and social media, the awards celebrated the excellent work being done on mobile by both brands and agencies.

Mobile as a amedia channel offers truly exciting opportunities for consumer engagement. In order to better equip marketers to make mobile work for their brands it is important to understand how to use mobile as a vehicle to deliver a holistic brand experience. For this purpose, the MMA in collaboration with Millward Brown Smarties knowledge partner analysed all the entries for the SMARTIES Awards in India to present an insights presentation, to unearth best practices, key mobile trends and establish what sets apart a winning mobile campaign.

“I’d like to congratulate all the award winners. I think I speak not only for myself but also on behalf of the Jury when I say that we were really impressed with the entries this year. Innovation is what drives the mobile marketing industry. I look forward to more innovations and participation in the future,” said  Joshi.

Kantar Millward Brown managing director (west) ShavetaBhardwaj added:  “Marketers are showcasing good increment in their implementation of ‘mobile’ as a unique communication medium. Comparatively, this year we saw marketers leverage the strength of mobile more innovatively. We also saw mobile become more integrated into the campaign strategy, serving as an important component and not just an additional tag-on.”

“I would like to thank the industry for their overwhelming support and participation at this year’s MMA Forum and Smarties. We have strived to find the best campaigns from across the country and I think that our esteemed Jury has been successful at culling out the best in class campaigns in each category. I hope that the great work that's happening across India continues in the years to come,” said MMA of India country manager Preeti Desai.

The 2016 SMARTIES India Blue Industry Awards Winners:

The 2016 SMARTIES India Awards Winners: