Kaiser Kuo, group director, Digital Strategy at Ogilvy, China, wrote an interesting article in Contagious last week, looking at the emerging mobile advertising market in China.

With the number of mobile phone subscribers in China rapidly approaching 500 million – which is three times the number of PC internet users in China – there is a lot of activity in this market. The article looks at the many startups that are springing up in this area, as well as the current state of mobile advertising (with the majority being push messages, sometimes known as spam).

He wraps up with a list of “10 Tips for Mobile Marketing in China”, which we have reprinted below.

1. Target with maximum precision: Leverage available user data, and aim by time, place
2. Hard sell turns off more users than it switches on
3. Play by the rules, and don’t anger operators or regulators
4. Keep it simple: WAP destination sites should be idiot-proof, with limited choices
5. Know the technology’s capabilities, and play to those: Technology can drive creativity
6. Pull is better than push: avoid spam as much as possible
7. Know when to get on a fad—and when to get off it
8. Use mobile to access user info, and own that data: mobile ad is relational marketing
9. Reward users for viral behavior
10. Mobile alone doesn’t work: make it part of a bigger campaign

Actually, this sounds like excellent advice for ANY market!

To read the full article, click HERE.