Winning mobile consumers: insights from Ranga Somanatha

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Winning mobile consumers: insights from Ranga Somanatha

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Navigating the mobile economy: A conversation with Ranga Somanathan on winning mobile-first consumers

In an insightful episode of the Marketing Mojo show and podcast on BFM 89.9, Malaysia’s only independent radio station dedicated to business, news, health, culture, and current affairs, Ranganathan (Ranga) Somanathan, Chief Global Growth Officer at billups, sheds light on the evolving landscape of mobile-first marketing. Along with his extensive and global remit at billups, Ranga has extensive experience from previous roles as CEO and advisor at Publicis Media, and CEO at Omnicom Media Group Malaysia and Singapore.

Marketing Mojo examines the dynamic world of branding and marketing strategies. They explore the latest trends, share expert insights, and uncover innovative tactics to help you ignite a spark for brands and captivate audiences.

Hosted by Richard Bradbury, the conversation in this episode dives deep into strategies for brands to connect with the ever-increasing majority of consumers who access the internet via smartphones.

Listen to the whole conversation

To dive deeper into these insights and explore how brands can thrive in a mobile-first market, listen to the full episode of Marketing Mojo featuring Ranga Somanathan on Spotify or visit the BFM Podcast Page.

Key takeaways from the episode:

Ranga’s insights offer a roadmap for marketers to navigate Malaysia’s mobile-first market with lessons for the rest of the world:

Prioritize vertical content for better engagement
Simplify user journeys with cognitive offloading
AI, if used, should be fully integrated into marketing strategies
Balance trust-building between brand and influencer marketing
Leverage OOH media to complement mobile-first strategies
Implement exposure capping to avoid oversaturation

You can listen to the full interview on Spotify or visit the BFM Podcast Page.

The evolution of mobile-first

As Ranga highlights, the line between digital marketing and physical commerce has blurred, demanding a holistic marketing approach. With horizontal formats like desktops seeing increasingly lower usage volumes, vertical content has become essential to effectively engage consumers. He says, “I would drop the term digital marketing, it is marketing. Digital and mobile is pervasive in everything we do in marketing.”

Understanding consumer psychology

One of the standout points in the discussion is the importance of cognitive offloading—a principle in consumer psychology that simplifies the user journey. Ranga emphasizes the need for brands to create direct avenues to content without overwhelming users with excessive advertising. He states, “If you don’t pay attention to user behavior to offload their decision making through tech, and you make it difficult to access your content, then you’ve already lost the consumer.”

AI: a game changer in mobile marketing?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the status quo in mobile marketing strategies, enabling personalized content, predictive analysis, and AI chatbots. However, Ranga warns against using AI as a piecemeal solution. Instead, integrating AI fully into the consumer journey is crucial to balance between personalization and intrusiveness. He points out that, “For a marketer, you don’t need to do much heavy lifting with AI, but you need specialist expertise to unlock the full potential of it.”

The role of trust and collective environments

In an era of one-to-one mobile interactions, Ranga underscores the challenge of building trust, which is typically fostered in collective environments. This is where OOH media can complement mobile strategies, creating synergies through push notifications, location targeting, and retargeting. He muses; “There is a psychological safety around community, around collective, and this is how you build trust, so it’s important to not be uni-demensional in your approach.”

The future of commerce and payments

The conversation also touches on the rise of social and conversational commerce, inspired by its booming success in China, and the growing importance of frictionless payments like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). While brands are not responsible for policing consumer credit, they can play a role in educating consumers about responsible credit management.

Listen to the whole conversation

About billups

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With over 20 years in the industry, nine patents in measurement and analytics, and recognition as one of the fastest-growing independent agencies, billups is proving that Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising is a medium that can be utilized strategically in multi-channel marketing campaigns.

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