A Mobile Company will Produce Your Next Favourite Show

Recently, I ran into one of the top mobile / telco marketing executives in Hong Kong, and got a quick low-down on how the industry has transformed, and how it has become terribly challenging to differentiate from competitors to produce real business results through traditional marketing activities.

The conversation wasn’t all gloomy though, as the executive remains quietly hopeful of what the upcoming 5G mobile technology will bring to the industry with its extremely high data transmission rates.

With the AT&T / Time Warner merger coming through, the mobile and telco industry is rapidly moving away from a pure hard-ware / network / technology model to invest heavily into premium content / IP / adtech to create a completely new model, rapidly answering to the insatiable needs from the consumers for access to everything on their phones.

The industry is transforming at lightning speed, and many telco companies are fast becoming the most important content conduit in their markets. Despite the intense competition and commoditised subscription plans that weren’t too exciting in the past few years, the industry stands to gain the most with the rapid increase in demand for content, especially video streaming. Who needs TV anymore?

What is more is that they are in the best position to leverage the premium content because of their unparalleled access to customer profiling data at granular level, allowing for advanced advertising technologies to work magic for brand clients.

With all that is in store, I share my industry friend’s eagerness and optimism for this imminent and exciting new chapter to dawn, sprinkling glamour dust onto an industry that was more known for complicated tariff plans and humdrum customer service.

About the author

Bonnie Chan Woo is the CEO of Icicle Group. She leads the company’s strategic development with a special focus on brand integration in original content. The piece was also published on her LinkedIn page.