BARCELONA/DELHI: Unilever, the FMCG firm, has activated a new mobile marketing platform at the Mobile World Congress with a message aimed at consumers in India.

Rahul Welde, Unilever's vice president of media, described Konnect, a mobile marketing platform developed by mobile marketing specialist Brandtone , as "the marketing equivalent of the Bloomberg terminal – providing real-time insights and a way of managing campaigns as they happen".

Marketers have access to a large database of consumers in emerging markets who have given explicit permission to be contacted. They can also use a wide spectrum of techniques including SMS for consumers with feature phones and rich media for those with smartphones as well as rewards ranging from rich digital content to mobile airtime.

Brandtone CEO Donald Fitzmaurice claimed that the incentivised approach produced response rates of ten times the industry average.

Unilever plans to begin using the system in India, with the first message being aimed at consumers taking part in a campaign for its Sunlight soap brand. Subsequent rollouts are planned for China and Indonesia.

"We can now identify, engage and reward individuals who use our products exactly at a time when it represents the most value for them," Welde declared.

His colleague Luis Di-Como, svp media, noted that "mobility is transforming the way in which we build brands". He explained that the business had developed an approach it called Crafting Brands for Life in a Connected World, which covered three broad areas it had labelled Putting People First, Building Brand Love and Unlocking the Magic. (Warc subscribers can read more here: Why Unilever is focusing on people, love and magic.)

"We believe that mobile is the connective tissue that holds this strategy together," he added.

Data sourced from Brandtone; additional content by Warc staff