Sean Kingston campaign on MXit breaks mobile interaction record

Multi-platinum international star Sean Kingston, will be in South Africa for two shows at the end of February, and has chosen to use popular mobile social network MXit to market his forthcoming concerts.

Kingston, no stranger to the power of social media, is using Quizmob, a new interactive mobile application of MXit, to market his concerts, soon to be held at the Emperors Palace in Gauteng.

Quizmob, which allows users to engage in customised mobile quizzes and competitions, attracted more than 1.3 million visitors and 330 000 registered members in the first nine days of launch.

“Quizmob, our new interactive multiplayer quiz, has set a new record at MXit. The application is fresh, fun and offers users a variety of engaging ways to stay entertained and we are really happy with its success thus far,” says Paul Stemmet, general manager for sales at MXit.

Emperors Palace, who will be staging Kingston’s concerts, is also enormously pleased with the results of the campaign on MXit.

“Our collaboration with MXit to promote Sean Kingston’s concerts and music at Emperors Palace has been a great success. Promoting a concert by engaging through competitions and quizzes on a mobile marketing platform as successful as MXit’s Quizmob is obviously the way of the future. We hope to partner with them again.”

Mobile marketing is direct and engaging

With close on 32 million users, MXit is by far South Africa and the continent’s most popular mobile platform. Marketing to those that use MXit, which are mostly young adults between the ages 18 and 26, works well because it very quickly engages a targeted segment of the mobile market in a way that appeals and excites.

According to Stemmet, mobile marketing will become more and more attractive to companies and brands that want to engage with consumers in a meaningful way. “The concept of two-way conversations with consumers is alluring for marketers because it allows them to forge relationships and to grow their own loyal community.”

77% of South Africans are on mobile phones, according to a study by World Wide Worx in 2009, while only 10.8% are on the Internet, according to statistics from Internet World Stats. This makes mobile marketing, especially to low and middle LSM groups, a far more interesting proposition for marketers.

“Using interactive mobile marketing is instantly measurable, as the number of hits and users interacting with the application can be seen,” states Stemmet. “It is also successful because campaigns are not ‘pushed’ onto the community. Our users elect to embrace campaigns because they are offered something of value. ”