Mobile is disruptive to our industry but, for the first time, allows brands to become truly intimate with their consumers, says Vivian Zhu, managing director, Starcom Media Group (SMG) China.

Speaking at the Festival of Media Asia Pacific in Singapore, Zhu was on stage alongside founder and chief executive of Madhouse, Joshua Maa, on delivering brand intimacy through mobile.

Both Zhu and Maa agreed that, with Chinese consumers spending more time on their mobile than any other device, brands quick to establish intimacy with their consumers through this platform will be rewarded.

“If you don’t do it right you can alienate the consumer,” said Zhu on creating a vital relationship between the brand and consumer.

“Mobile advertising spending is lagging behind the time consumers spend on mobile,” she added.

According to Zhu, Chinese consumers check their WeChat accounts every six minutes while at home, another reason for brands to invest more in mobile advertising.

“Mobile spending has grown three or four times over the last year,” said Zhu.

However, it is one thing acknowledging this “explosive phenomenon” and another to actually create an interactive story for a brand.

Referencing a campaign SMG launched with chewing-gum brand Wrigley’s, involving consumers scanning their packs to receive extra content, Zhu said: “We didn’t just want to give that to consumers – we designed a campaign where they could get an extra 40 gigabytes of Wi-Fi to connect with friends and loved ones, reflecting the brand’s ideology of bringing people together.”

The campaign had over two million downloads and drove a significant increase in store sales.

Maa added: “When we founded our company we didn’t know mobile would be this big. By the end of next year mobile spending will be even bigger.”

Touching on mobile video, Maa said: “The race of mobile video is really Wi-Fi – not 3G or 4G. I think when you consume video, a majority of people use Wi-Fi.”