Satpack Nairobi 2012

satpacktravel.com
 location-based
 interactive maps
for a
 customised
mobile
 media-rich world
 revenue-generating

Playing to our strengths
- SoLoMo solutions for the African tourism industry

Rob Maclean @

@satpacker
+satpacktravel
rob@satpacktravel.com

THREE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

1. What is SoLoMo?
– Social Local Mobile

2. Can the majority of your potential customers actually find you?
– >60% of new internet sessions in Africa this year will be from a phone.
– >55% of long-haul visitors will now travel with a smartphone or tablet
– <10% of tourism businesses have websites and maps that are mobi-friendly.

3. Why do our cats get ignored?
Ranking Name of Video on YouTube Views Ranking Name of Video on YouTube Views
#14 Funny Cats 23M #7 The Two Talking Cats 35M
#13 The Poor Life of Fat Cat 23M #6 The Mean Kitty Song 37M
#12 Monster Shark 24M #5 Dramatic Look 39M
#11 Keyboard Cat 31M #4 Funny Cats 39M
#10 Surprised Kitty 31M #3 Duke 39M
#9 Cats Vs. Dogs 32M #2 Battle at Kruger 66M
#8 Very Angry Cat 33M #1 The Sneezing Baby Panda 132M

2 @satpacker, #ETourismEastAfrica, +satpacktravel, rob@satpacktravel.com satpacktravel.com

ABOUT US

 Founded 2008

 Based in South Africa with offices in Johannesburg. Some development done in New Dehli,
India.

 Originally a travel agency specialising in building itineraries on maps for self-drive tourists and
loading on to a GPS.

 Focus now is building SoLoMo solutions for the tourism industry, especially live Google maps
that are:
– Mobi-friendly
– Geo-located (know where the user is)
– User-generated
– Integrated with social media channels and campaigns

 In 2012 alone we have built:
– >180 mobi-maps for tourism establishments, groups and associations
– Primarily in South Africa

 Also provide consulting services focused on mobile, viral and social media opportunities
tailored to the African market.

 Will publicly launch our most exciting map ever on 29 th March 2012. Here. Today.


THE IMPORTANCE OF MOBILE IN AFRICA (1/2)

Mobile is a leapfrog technology in Africa for both communications and computing.

Africa

38 Africans per 1,000 on mobile broadband
compared to just 2 on fixed line broadband

[of people in Kenya who already perceive their mobile phone as a business device]
95% (John Waibochi, Founder of Virtual City).

[number of messages / day sent on MXit, Africa‟s largest social network]
750M (Paul Stement, World of Avatar)

[Kenyans use a mobile phone as a bank account]
18M (IBM Mobile Africa Report 2012)


THE IMPORTANCE OF MOBILE IN AFRICA (2/2)

“ According to GMSA, Africa is the fastest growing mobile market by connections in the world

2012 [year that smartphone sales will exceed „feature‟ phone sales worldwide]
”
(EIU Mobile Revolution Report, 2011)

2.9 [times as many smartphone and tablets will be shipped as PCs and laptops in 2015]
(EIU Mobile Revolution Report, 2011)

Huawei Ideos
• Full feature Android 2.2. touch smartphone
• 45% of Kenyan smartphone market share
• Subsized cost of KS899 ($95)
• 200,000 handsets shipped

African Mobile and Fixed Broadband Connections

Million
Subscribers

GMSA African Observatory Report (Sept 2011)


HOW ARE WE ADDRESSING IT?

 Some highly innovative solutions, especially in East Africa...
– M-Pesa: >14 million customers in Kenya. Replicated in Tanzania, Afghanistan & South Africa
– MXit: 10 million active subscribers
– Farming veterinary advice and commodity price comparison / trading sites.

 ... but tourism is lagging...
– >60% local traffic from mobiles, but < than 10% of sites are mobi-friendly
– >55% of long-haul travellers use a smartphone or tablet when travelling
– < than 2% of social media content comes from Africa, despite awesome natural, raw material

 ... although there are some interesting developments, especially in the social media
sphere...
– Generally improved quality of websites, online marketing and search engine optimisation
– Some dynamic content – blogs, newsletters, webcams. Great example is Ras Mbisi
– Safari apps (e.g Sasol eBirds)
– More focus on TripAdvisor and forums, such as Thorntree African branch
– Wildlife photo sharing sites, YouTube channels etc have grown in popularity massively
– Some tourism associations leading., e.g. SA Tourism during the World Cup and since
– Eco-tourism and conversation often seems to be leading the way.


TIPS TO BECOMING MOBI-FRIENDLY

 Test your current site across mobile platforms (feature and smartphone) through actual
usage and Google Analytics.
– Android (multiple brands, e.g. Samsung, Huawei, HTC ), RIM (Blackberry), iOS (Apple) , Symbian (Nokia), Java
(multiple brands), Windows Mobile (multiple brands) and others.

 Look out for:
– Page load speed (especially home page) and heavy graphics / animations
– Menus displaying correctly (tabs and drop downs problematic on small touch screens)
– Scroll bars on infowindows and pop-ups.

 Develop a simple mobi-friendly presence early for mobile search
– Register a mobi URL sooner rather than later
– Build something simple, even if it is just 1 page. This allows Googlebots etc. to find and log it
– The same rules apply: relevant keywords, quality links (to/from) and interesting content
– Set up and start analysing performance
– Be careful of relying on campaign-specific dynamic URLs.

 Focus on addressing the specific needs of the mobi market
– On the move and often trying to physically contact you so require most importance info quickly:
 Snapshot of your business
 Contact details
 Map / directions
– Often have a slow wireless connection:
 Data-lite pages
 Show key information on landing page – minimise navigation and reloading requirements.


BUILD YOUR OWN MOBI-MAP IN A FEW MINUTES

 www.satpacktravel.com/build-your-own-map.html.

 Designed to:

– help businesses without technical expertise get a mobi-friendly presence in minutes

– provide the information (description, contact details, photo etc.) that someone accessing the
mobile web requires

– generate directions from user to business with just one click

– include features specifically designed for the mobile web, e.g. tabs for small screens, one-touch
phone number dialling and links

– work on any desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone

– sit alongside existing website (e.g. with link on homepage), standalone or just a link you can
provide to the version we host in the cloud.


BUILD YOUR MAP (1/2): FIND YOUR LOCATION, ADD DETAILS


BUILD YOUR MAP (2/2): WE EMAIL LINK OR HTML FILE

 180 businesses in 4 continents (but primarily SA) built their mobi-maps in 2012.
 Only pay if you like it and want to use it.
 Normally costs a once-off fee of ZAR199 (about US$30).
 But special offer for conference delegates:
– Within 48 hours
– Campaign code “@satpacker”
– Might be slight delay
– www.satpacktravel.com/build-your-own-map.html

IF YOU THINK ABOUT NOTHING ELSE TODAY, THINK ABOUT THIS...

 Tourism is no longer necessarily about getting people to physically stay with you.

 There is a massive market of people who want to, and will even pay to, just watch
“interesting stuff”:
– Time poor, cash rich.
– Cash poor, time rich.
– Escapism.

 And Africa has some of the most “interesting stuff” in the world.

 You can make money from:
– Charging someone else to market to these hungry eyeballs (advertising)
– Charging them to watch (pay per view)
– Persuading them or their friends to come in person
– Getting guests to persuade their friends to come in person.

 But first you must get their attention...

 So what works in driving viral social media?


WHAT WORKS? - LIVE ACTION, REPORTS AND IMAGES

 Being the first to know and the sense that anything could happen next:
– Anticipation, impending disaster
– Is twitter‟s (1) = the cleverest marketing tool in the world?
– News channels‟ “breaking news” scrolling banners to keep people watching

 14 million of us watch


WHAT WORKS? - REAL EVENTS (PREFERABLY VIOLENT / DANGEROUS)

 Natural but not-often-talked about human emotion of
schaden-freude. Or secretly hoping someone else will
humiliate themselves, go crazy or get mauled!

 Mountain Biker gets hit by a Buck (13M views)

 Charlie bit my finger.
– How much time has mankind spent watching (wasting?!) this
video?
 435M views X 56 seconds
 = 23,873,080,000 seconds
 = 45,514 years.
 = Light would have travelled 7.1 trillion KMs
 Or from Earth to Pluto almost a million times,

 It‟s why Battle of Kruger was so great – real, life and
death, amateur voyeurism with a happy ending


WHAT WORKS? - NATURE

 Springwatch UK Live:
– At peak, 4 million viewers of TV show. (That is one in every fifteen Brits.)
– 50 webcams showing the nocturnal habits of badgers, owls and blackbirds - drew a peak of
300,000 viewers.
– 30,000 followers on twitter.
– 60,000 comments on forums.

 Snapshot of some of the African wildlife documentaries being shown in South Africa
during yesterday:
– Escape to Chimp Eden, Big Cat Diary, The Crocodile Hunter, Meerkat Manor, Echo and the
Elephants of Amboseli, Untamed and Uncut, World‟s Deadliest Animals, Wild Animal
Orphans, Venom Hunter, The Great Serengeti, Ultimate Africa, Snapped, Gorilla School, Wildest
Africa,

 Again, the Battle of Kruger.


WHAT WORKS? - MAKING PEOPLE JEALOUS

– For many it is about showing off about the places you go to
– Interesting how many people check in to airport lounges (not exciting places in their own right)
but not to the supermarket. Because it subtly tells their friends they are jet-setters.

– Number of friends is very important to many
– Uploading photos of exotic locations and cool parties
– Liking popular friends‟ comments so their other friends know they are cool.

– Following the right sort of people and hoping that they get followed back.
– But it‟s also a problem...

– Addresses problem of tailoring messages to particular audiences („circles‟).


WHAT WORKS – FORUMS, CROWD-SOURCING AND LBS

 It turns out that a lot of people will go quite far to try to help people, even if they are
sometimes are mis-guided and transitory:
– Twitter campaigns (e.g. #Kony2012)

 Crowd-sourcing is a new buzz word in travel marketing, with the now-incumbent social
media players embracing:

 But some interesting new applications, especially when combined with location-based
services


WHAT DOESN’T WORK? – CHASING ‘LIKES’ FOR THE SAKE OF IT

 Mis-conceived, almost hysterical, „like‟ campaigns and efforts such as:
– I will „like‟ your business if you „like‟ mine.
– If you like us you may win a prize.
– ... any campaign that considers „likes‟ as an objective in its own right.

 If the „owner‟ of the like isn‟t engaged, it is a bit like going to your bank manager and
saying: “d o n ’t w o r r y .... w e ’v e g o t a n
a g r e e m e n t w i t h a n e w c l i e n t ...
a s l o n g a s we p r e t e n d t o s e l l
t h e m s o m e t h i n g ... t h e y ’l l
p r e t e n d t o p a y u s ”

 It is obviously great to be liked and it is important to make it easy to be liked. But:
– This should be a by-product of other objectives (such as great service or experiences)
– In the travel business the best forum to focus being liked is probably TripAdvisor in the form of a genuinely
positive review.
– Remember, even a negative review can be turned in to a positive if you constructively respond and take steps to
improve your product.

 So very important to concentrate on interesting and unique content and the likes will
come.


PLAY TO OUR STRENGTHS

 Every lodge, reserve, park, camp is surrounded by a massive, never-ending, real life
(and indeed life-and-death) soap opera that unfolds every day.

 And you own the filming rights.

 Are you recording it?
– Probably not (beyond a few photos and perhaps a webcam of a watering hole that comes to life
when it gets dark).
 Make sure all your vehicles / guides carry a digital camera and train staff how to use and upload it.
– Your guest are.
 Encourage them to share their amazing experiences with their friends and yourself.

 Are you publishing and commercialising it?
– Probably not as well as you could be:
 Put it on your website, post it to your facebook or Google+ profile.
 Set up a YouTube channel and make money from Google‟s partnership programme.
– Your guests are posting it on facebook if they remember once they get home. But it‟s not in
reference to you (so you don‟t benefit) and it‟s less engaging because it‟s not longer current.
 Enable them to do so very easily, in real-time and via a channel that promotes your product.

 Remember, you are selling an experience.


TODAY’S BIG LAUNCH: LIVE GAME SPOTTER MAP


TODAY’S BIG LAUNCH: SUBMIT A SIGHTING


TODAY’S BIG LAUNCH: ADD AND COMMENT ON SIGHTINGS

www.krugersightings.com/game-sightings/


TODAY’S BIG LAUNCH: GAME SPOTTER MAP

 Live Google Map:
– Anyone can upload and view game sightings from phone, tablet or desktop whilst they drive or once they get
back to the lodge
– Shows on map that anyone can view from phone, tablet or desktop and you can publish on your website. You
could put a screen in reception showing sightings for discussion and to plan drives
– It is geo-located (it knows and shows user‟s current location)) which is useful for self-drive safari
– Anyone can comment, like, share etc. a specific sighting to their facebook profile
– You manage content (e.g. deleting sightings) via a simple, secure online content management tool
– Developing app to work in an offline environment
– You can determine zoom area, map detail, branding, categories etc.
– So anyone around the world can watch the drama of a day at your reserve unfold

 Map can be monetized beyond the marketing benefits
– On map adverts
– Selling an app, especially to self-drive guests. Enables better working offline and enriched reference materials
– You own the media for your own marketing purposes:
 E.g. YouTube Channel (partnership agreement with Google)
– Replace your loud and intrusive radio systems and remotely track vehicle locations
– Track animal populations, report suspicious behaviours etc.

 400 million people have watched cute, fat or funny American cats on YouTube.
– How many would watch cheetah cubs playing, live?
– How many would watch the first wildebeest cross the croc-infested Mara river?


SOME PHOTOS RECEIVED IN THIS WEEK’S BETA LAUNCH


THE FUTURE?

 Selling virtual seats on a real live safari drive:
– 360 degree HD cameras
– Two way commentary
– You avoid the costs of catering for them, licence fees, number of
guest per vehicle.
– They avoid the costs of getting to and staying with you.

 Your own YouTube Channel?

 Virtual guides for self-drive safaris?

 What animal is this? Crowd-sourcing

 MIFI on vehicles


A STEP TOO FAR?


Satpack Nairobi 2012

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