The Business

To start off, our vision is to become a world-wide Mobile Technology company that helps everyone, from the largest telecoms and service companies to small businesses around the world, to deliver better and smarter mobile communications to their customers. So far, in the two years and eight months that we’ve been around, we’ve done a pretty good job with the business growing approximately 500% in our most recent financial year. We compete with South Africa’s most established WASPS with a staff count of only 7 people and we believe that’s possible because we invest in smart people to help us work even smarter.

When it comes to tech, our vSMSC software has proven it’s flexibility, scalability and robustness over and over, slaying many a flakey SMSC in it’s path and enabling retailers, e-commerce sites, financial institutions, web/mobile apps and other small business all around the world to deliver SMSs to millions of mobile phones every month. And now we’re preparing for the next transition in the mobile communications market, which you can read more about further down under The Work.

But for now, how about a quick tour of the office?

The Office

Don’t you find that the coolest offices always look so awesome because no one is ever working in them? We’ll we tried to pry Mark from his seat but it just wasn’t happening that day. Our office is on the third floor of the Wolroy House building on Buitenkant Street. It’s an industrial style double apartment that we share with the guys from Obox and OnNet. The Field Office is around the corner, where we pick up our daily grind and snacks and there’s also the new Truth coffee headquarters opening up opposite our building that’s started selling coffee too.

The Work

Right, so after we’ve had our first coffee of the day we actually build some pretty innovative (and always scalable) tech for mobile messaging. Some of the cool things we’ve developed this year are the Report Builder, HLRBox and ProxyBox.

Our development Roadmap for 2012 is looking a bit like this:

• Web Console v3 – New interface, new features, completely API driven and open source (Mark’s post coming soon)
• Push Notifications, Mxit and possibly many more integrations thanks to ProxyBox
• Developer Marketplace
• Improved SMS permission layer
• Location based services

We use open source project management software called redmine to manage all of the tasks for the projects above. Some of the many great features of redmine are it’s ability to package tasks into release versions, integrate with SVN, share projects publicly and customise workflows. It’s also installed locally so it’s lightning fast, none of that Basecamp click and wait n00b-ness. We also believe that if you ever need to do something more than three times, it should be automated.

Other cool stuff

Look, we don’t have any on-site pet psychiatrists or start-up cruisers like they do in Sillicon Valley, but we do have a few things that we think are cool. About once a month we usually arrange a group order from Amazon to get discounts on electronics and other gear. We go out for lunch on Birthdays. We have a coffee tab at Field Office and a nice kitchen area. There’s an HDTV to watch sport when a game is on (note Donald‘s 4th screen in the first office pic) and we’ve rigged up our Wii console for the occasional tennis match. Then there’s Friday drinks, the occasional Quake deathmatch and you’re guaranteed to catch a few good links on IM.

So that’s us! If you like the sound of any of that above and you’re a talented and ambitious individual, then why not check out our careers page to see if there may be a seat for you on this rocket!

So let’s say, for example that you want to identify underperforming SMSCs in the last seven days or view top destinations that your customers have sent to over the last month? The Report Builder allows you to create reports like these from the data in your system, you can also name and save them for frequent use. You can and even save graphs to your report dashboard, giving you a customised reporting overview of the vSMSC platform.

Take a look at the video below for a demo of how the Report Builder works:

We’re also seasoned when it comes to working with big data, so we knew that these reports couldn’t affect performance of the vSMSC. The Report Builder avoids any performance impacts by using data that is summarised every evening during the low activity period instead of doing live database queries. So you can build and view reports whenever you like without degrading any system performance.

If you’re an existing vSMSC customer then please contact us to arrange your free upgrade to start seeing your SMS operations from a variety of new perspectives.

Let us know in the comments section what kind of reports you think would be useful to create with the Report Builder?

We’re really excited to announce the release of our new Number Validation feature to help improve your delivery rates and filter out inactive numbers from your lists. It’s available in all accounts from today and you can find it by clicking on the Number Validation menu item in the top navigation of your account. This new tool allows you to upload a list of numbers that get checked by the mobile networks using HLR Lookup. The results then return a whole bunch of information for each number in the list. Most notably the results show whether the number is valid or not, this is handy because you can then eliminate all inactive numbers from your lists and save on future SMS costs.

It costs less than an SMS to validate a number, check out the pricing in the table below.

For step by step instructions on how to use the Number Validation in your account, you can refer to the cleaning your data user guide.

We’ll be releasing API documentation soon and are particularly excited to see what developers can cook up when using real-time number validation in their applications.

Neat!

A big welcome to Mark Menzies who has just joined the Panacea Mobile development team. Mark has come on board to work on a load of new innovations that we have planned for 2012 and has wasted no time in getting started. Before joining us he was involved with developing and maintaing the Computicket service, and so his experience with high performance systems and big data fits perfectly with what we do here at Panacea Mobile.

We always believe that if you want great ideas, you need great people, and check out his pic! He’s probably dreaming up a game changer right there in the middle of the club, and looking good while doing it.

Mark, we look forward to sharing many ideas, links, jokes and coffees with you, guy.

–

Mark took the Panacea Mobile Personality Test below and pretty much nailed every question.

New York.

What do you do when you’re outside?

Walk to my car or do something revolving around sport.

What’s the most impressive thing you can cook?

Burger patties (which are pretty much the only thing I can cook).

Is there any idea or invention you wish you would have come up with?

Groupon or pretty much any other billion-dollar idea.

Your favourite mobile app?

Ster Kinekor Nokia App – Because I helped build it

Windows, MacOSX or Ubuntu?

I use them all daily, but am currently using a Mac at work.

Most visited website?

For work stackoverflow.com probably, for fun probably techcrunch.com and lifehacker.com.

What’s topping your bucket list?

A year of road-tripping in the States!

More than 60 000 people from over 200 countries attended last year’s Mobile World Congress. This year, the organisers are hoping to see a specific increase in the number of CEOs and senior level delegates.

The 2012 MWC takes place at the Fira Montjuïc in Barcelona, Spain from Monday, 27 February through Thursday, 1 March 2012. The theme for this year’s congress is ‘Redefining Mobile’ and was chosen to underscore the multiple roles played by mobile in our lives today: Mobile technology is embedded in our homes, workplaces, cars and even our governments. It deserves, as such, a redefinition, and a reassessment of its potential couldn’t have come at a more exciting time.

The congress is divided into various components. The pass that you have will determine which you will have access to.

The thought-leadership conference is the central component of the congress, and will feature keynotes and panel discussions by renowned speakers, including Li Yue (President, China Mobile), Bret Taylor (CTO, Facebook), John Donahoe (CEO, eBay) and Rene Obermann, the Chairman and CEO of Deutsche Telekom. More than 30 focused conference sessions will cover the latest technological trends and growth strategies for the global mobile industry. This is not to be missed!

In addition, the congress will host an exhibition, boasting over 1 400 stands. On display will be everything from hardware and device manufacturers to service providers, software developers and application innovations. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a broader range of mobile-related products and services under one roof.

An important goal of the congress is to unite the world’s key app players. App Planet provides an opportunity for app developers and mobile professionals to unite, brainstorm and bring to life their potential. This component of the MWC is open to all pass-holders and includes an app-specific exhibition, an App Lounge (for networking) and, by invitation, App Developer Conferences.

A new feature at this year’s event is mPowered Brands. Much like App Planet was created to bring together the app developer community, mPowered Brands will assemble global marketers to educate and foster mobile’s potential in engaging consumers.

Donald Jackson, Panacea Mobile's CTO at the Mobile World Congress last year

As an international showcase of excellence in the mobile industry, the 17^th Annual Global Mobile Awards will also take place during the congress. A shortlist of 158 organisations has been announced for this prestigious award.

Plentiful networking can be done before, during and after the event – a golden opportunity that Panacea Mobile (represented by its two founders, Donald Jackson and Stefano Sessa) will be sure not to miss. Follow Donald and Stefano on Twitter and stay up-to-date on their impressions of the MWC 2012.

Detailed information on the event location, dates and times can be viewed here.

1. Use opt-in marketing.

Make sure that customers are expecting your communication. If they haven’t chosen to hear from from you, they’re likely to feel that their privacy has been invaded. Wondering where you sourced their details from, they will ultimately end up mistrusting you and your message (which, in fact, is tantamount to spam if you haven’t received the user’s permission).

One exception to this rule can be observed: It is widely regarded as acceptable to send mobile marketing to an individual whose number you have obtained through a sale or the negotiation of a sale (that may or may not have gone through). However, you should only market to them products or services that are similar to the original product or service. This is called the ‘soft opt-in’ method, and should not be relied on as a long-term strategy.

2. Always make sure that users can opt-out.

This is the second principle of permission-based marketing: Users need to be able to opt-out of receiving messages from you, and they need to be able to do so easily. There are few things more frustrating than hearing from a business that is no longer relevant to you (or worse, never was).

Remember to regularly remind users that they can opt out, and clearly explain how to do so. It should be free of charge, except for the cost of the transmission of the opt-out.

As a rule of thumb, you should automatically opt-out customers on your database with whom you have not had any contact for over one year. You can no longer guarantee that their details are correct; nor can you know whether or not they still want to hear from you.

3. Segment as accurately as possible.

The beauty of mobile marketing lies in the power to target your audiences as accurately as possible. Market segmentation is the process of dividing up your target market into groups with similar social and economic backgrounds, and similar propensities to buy your product.

During the planning phases of your marketing campaign, decide what segment of your market the campaign is aimed at, and ensure that the proposed content thereof is appropriate for that group.

Bear in mind that what is perceived as offensive or inappropriate will largely depend on your target market. Campaigns containing references to religious or political beliefs, race, gender, alcohol, gambling or competitions should be doubly checked for inappropriate content or undertones.

4. Make sure that your message has value.

Remember that you are still talking to real people with limited attention spans and thousands of messages vying for their attention every day. Differentiate yourself by clearly identifying your promotional offer and its value to the customer. Don’t only concentrate on the sale you might make, and never forget to include a call to action.

5. Time your message well.

Pay attention to when and how often you are sending messages. It is best practice not to send mobile marketing communication between 10pm and 7am on weekdays, and between 10pm and 9am on weekends and holidays (unless there is a specific reason to be doing so). You’ll also want to wait 2-3 weeks before sending your next message.

Need more info? We’d be happy to help. Click here to chat with us about how you can turn your mobile marketing campaign into a responsible one.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist and copywriter based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: Mobilemarketingwatch.com, Jensgulich.wordpress.com

It’s 1995. Larry Page, 22, a Michigan graduate, is considering a move to Stanford University. When he arrives on campus, he meets Sergey Brin, an existing Stanford student who is assigned to give Larry a tour of the grounds. They disagree about almost everything they discuss during their first meeting. Despite this, they become two of the most influential co-entrepreneurs of our time.

In 1996, Larry and Sergey create BackRub, the first search engine to determine the importance of links, rather than just their numbering. Soon after, they establish Google, and although it is at first just another search engine, the company grows exponentially because of its well-targeted search results and peripheral products.

By the mid 1990s, the World Wide Web is all the rage and search engines have become the preferred way of trawling through the oceans of digital content that can be found online.

Today, Google is the most powerful search engine, able to provide the most relevant and the quickest results to its users. It has been estimated that this super-search-engine processes over one billion search requests and approximately 24 petabytes of user-generated data daily!

The Google conglomerate now not only owns YouTube, but is also responsible for the creation of Android, the cell phone and tablet operating system that is set to take the mobile world by storm. And, with the company’s recent acquisition of Motorolla’s mobile business, Google stands at the threshold of mobile mastery.

So, how and why did Google become so powerful?

Amongst its two biggest rivals (Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing), Google seems to be far ahead of the game. Why is that?

Firstly, Google is made stronger by its highly effective software services, such as mapping (Google Earth), Gmail and online office software.

Secondly, Google can sell ads to nearly everyone with a pulse. Through that, the company has become a tidy little earner! For the quarter ended September 2011, it accumulated net profits of US$2.7 billion (a 26% increase from the same quarter in 2010), and that was mainly through its AdSense operation.

Thirdly, and most importantly for our purposes, Google (in collaboration with other big mobile players such as Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson) provided financial support in the launch of the .mobi domain. This domain was created specifically for the purposes of the mobile internet, and vastly improved the user experience thereof. As such, Google has been at the forefront of innovation in the online mobile arena. Since mobile is one of the fastest-growing communication media, this has increased both the company’s current and its future profit margins.

Search Tip: Google might be taking the world by storm, but don’t dismiss its competitors, Bing and Yahoo!. Google doesn’t search the entire web; it searches its own index of the web using clever software called spiders or web crawlers. When you need to do in-depth research on a topic, use all three to make sure your results are as inclusive as possible.

Hannah Moore is a freelance copy and travel writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image Credit: Android-invasion.net, Blogoscoped.com, Imageshack.us

The world as viewed by youth is a continuum of entertainment, information and communication.”

No doubt, compared to adult marketing, youth marketing is far more complex and needs to cater to ever-diminishing attention spans.

There has been a recent hype around the potential power of mobile marketing to target youth audiences. Importantly, however, applying just any mobile marketing method (web-based, audio or video enabled, etc.) isn’t a fix-all solution. The problem lies herein:

A large percentage of the youth market, especially in Africa, is hindered by obstacles such as the high cost of data or handsets that aren’t equipped to handle the mobile content that many advertisers are pushing. This is especially the case in emerging market economies, where most youth have pre-paid contracts, which renders data-heavy ads cost-ineffective. So, if you are trying to hit the widest margin, higher-end content is unlikely to get you there.

What then, is the best way to reach the youth market via mobile?

As an alternative to high-end, more costly mobile marketing methods, SMS remains one of the most effective ways to target a young demographic. There are a number of reasons for this:

• Youth, especially teens, are the biggest users of SMS around the globe. In the United Kingdom for example, SMS has eclipsed voice calls as the most common use of mobile phones.
• Since SMS is so easily adapted for different purposes, it can be harnessed by non-commercial players as well. This includes educational institutes. A successful case study occurred in the United Arab Emirates:

In the UAE, mobile operator Etisalat along with The Ministry of Education and Youth launched an SMS service for examination results, so that students and their families would not have to wait long for their results. Scores are delivered via SMS literally minutes after the Ministry of Education officially announces them!” (Madanmohan Rao for TechSparks.com)

• Youth value connectivity with their peers highly. Some studies show that as much as 89% of text messages sent by youth are to their friends. SMS is therefore a medium that is personal enough, without being invasive.

Tip: Always remember not to overwhelm your youth audience. They are a fickle target market, with countless brands and adverts vying for their attention. Keep it punchy and to-the-point and make sure that your advertisement is not costing them. Finally, don’t expect all youth to adopt new products and break them into the mainstream market on your behalf. This remains a highly complex and dynamic target audience; one that needs to be studied continuously.

Kim Walker, Executive Director of Aegis Media Asia Pacific sums it up nicely:

Successful marketing to youth should entertain and empower, be responsive to their queries and needs, give them free reign in designing Web content, and engage them in quick-win SMS-based competitions. Marketing campaigns should have functional, educational and emotional components built in to successfully target youth.”

It’s a tall order, indeed, but one that can be successfully carried out if you have the right advice. Click here to contact one of our consultants or here to sign up with Panacea Mobile for free.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Generation Mobile Infographic:

Image Credit: Hitechreview.com, Youthministrymedia.ca

Myth 1: The worldwide toll free emergency number from any mobile phone (or land line) is 112. If you happen to be outside of your network coverage area, your mobile phone will search for an alternative network and will then successfully make the call, connecting you to an operator. This number can even be dialed when your keypad is locked. Try it!

True or false?

Partly true. The 112 emergency number is not valid worldwide. It was first established for countries within the European Union only, but it’s application has now been expanded to include other parts of the world. Examples include South Africa, Zimbabwe, Russia and the UK, to name a few. For an exhaustive list of countries, click here. PS – Within the U.S., dialing 911 remains the most direct and reliable way of contacting emergency services regardless of whether that’s from a land line or mobile phone.

Myth 2: You can use your mobile phone to unlock your car door. Next time you lock your keys in the car and your spare keys are at home, don’t panic! Simply call someone at home, from your mobile to their mobile. Hold your cell phone about a foot from the car door and have the other person press ‘unlock’ on your car’s immobiliser. Your car will unlock itself. Distance is no object.

True or false?

Sounds revolutionary, but no, sorry, this is ludicrously un-true. Cell phones and car immobilisers work on entirely different radio frequencies. This myth was so widely circulated that even Mythbusters tested its theory.

Myth 3: If you use a cell phone while flying, the signal can interfere with the plane’s compass and navigation systems, possibly leading to a crash.

True or false?

It’s debatable. According to a pilot who was interviewed by ABC News, the reason for having to turn off your mobile phone and other electronic devices before liftoff is so that you pay attention to safety instructions, not because it interferes with the plane’s navigation systems. Recent studies by NASA have also shown no instances in which a plane was crashed due to the use of a cell phone. However, some pilots claim otherwise and, as such, the approach is still currently ‘rather safe than sorry’ of nature.

Myth 4: Cell phones cause cancer.

True or false?

This is still being debated. Unfortunately, despite the many studies that have been conducted on this issue, no clarity has been reached. For now, this remains a personal choice. It must be stated that no direct link between cancer and cell phone usage has yet been found. The need for longer-term studies remains.

Myth 5: To activate the reserve battery when your handset is running low, punch *3370# into your keypad. Your mobile phone will restart itself, showing a 50% increase in battery life. This reserve will automatically top up again when you charge your handset the next time.

True or false?

False. Some Nokia models allow users to punch in specific codes to toggle between different speech codec modes: They can either enhance voice transmission quality at the cost of depleting their battery life more quickly, or they can do the opposite. This statement is actually doubly erroneous because the *3370# code is used to increase voice quality and thereby decreases batter life!

Hannah Moore is a freelance writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: Switched.com, Cellphones.org/blog

According to a recent article by industry analysts at Vomo [see original article here], a few of the 2011 trend highlights included:

1. Feature phones over smartphones

Due to the nature of the South African mobile landscape, the feature phone remains a preferred alternative to the smartphone. According to Google’s Our Mobile Planet stats, 85% of South Africans use a feature phone. That doesn’t seem so illogical when we look at the benefits: The feature phone has longer battery life, it costs less and, despite what many might think, some people just want to use their phones to text and call (shock, horror!), which the feature phone does perfectly fine.

2. What iPhone?

The iPhone, and this may come as a surprise to many, is no holy grail. Far too many companies made the mistake of thinking that it was when, actually, the iPhone accounts for a mere 4% of the smartphone market in South Africa. Bearing in mind that the smartphone market consists of only 15% of the total mobile market, that’s a market share hardly worth mentioning. Let’s move on then, shall we?

3. Social Impact

The mobile phone has changed how we, as South Africans, communicate and connect with each other. This was notably visible in 2011 in Africa as a whole, with the rise of mobile counseling and social media revolutions that affected everything from politics to natural disasters. Here’s to the power of mobile in connecting people and making a real difference in their lives.

Industry leaders are positive about what 2011 did for mobile marketing, and even more importantly, about what 2012 holds.

Mike Stopforth, CEO of strategic digital communications agency Cerebra, says:

The sale of MXit to World of Avatar [September, 2011] promises the continued growth and development of the mammoth instant messaging platform, while other home-grown applications like Motribe.com continue to achieve maturity and attract key clients and brands.”

Google’s head of mobile for SA, Brett St Clair has high hopes for the smartphone in 2012, despite recent stats suggesting future trends to the contrary:

2012 will definitely be the year of the smartphone in South Africa. This will allow marketers to engage with audiences using rich media, contextually relevant targeting features and complete end-to-end tracking on phones.”

A few predictions:

• In 2010, spending on mobile marketing in South Africa totaled around R500-million. In 2012, it is expected to be double that, said mobile giants Vodacom, Mxit and Google in a joint statement.
• The country’s low internet connectivity penetration (10%) and high broadband costs will further drive consumers to mobile.
• Permission-based mobile marketing will continue to lead the way in strengthening consumer engagement, especially when coupled with time, location and demographic-sensitive messaging. (Read more on the importance of consumer engagement here.)

On a global level, super mobile devices, tablets and smartphones outsold PCs, laptops and net-books, combined, in 2011 alone. We think it’s rather difficult not be excited about the future of mobile in 2012. Don’t you?

Join the mobile revolution or click here to find out more about Panacea Mobile.

Hannah Moore is a freelance copy and travel writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: Istrategylabs.com