Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular ever since the rise of SMS (Short Message Service) in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia when businesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send off wanted (or unwanted) content.
Over the past few years SMS has become a legitimate advertising channel in some parts of the world. This is because unlike email over the public internet, the carriers who police their own networks have set guidelines and best practices for the mobile media industry (including mobile advertising). The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and the Mobile Marketing Association, as well, have established guidelines and are evangelizing the use of the mobile channel for marketers. While this has been fruitful in developed regions such as North America, Western Europe and some other countries, mobile SPAM messages (SMS sent to mobile subscribers without a legitimate and explicit opt-in by the subscriber) remain an issue in many other parts or the world, partly due to the carriers selling their member databases to third parties.
Future of Mobile Marketing:
According to a survey conducted by a mobile marketing provider, approximately 89% of major brands are planning to market their products through text and multimedia mobile messaging by 2008. One-third is planning to spend about 10% of marketing budgets through mobile marketing. Also, in about 5 years over half of brands are expected to spend between 5% and 25% of their total marketing budget on their mobile marketing. Already, 40% of the firms that responded have implemented this feature for their audiences.
What will and already has given mobile marketing's attraction are: the ability to reach a specific target audience; information about how the user responded to a marketing message; and proof that a message has been received by the user's handset.
Recognizing the prevalence of mobile text messaging, 40% of brands have already deployed text messaging campaigns, and 18% have deployed multimedia messaging (MMS) campaigns. Despite enthusiasm to adopt mobile marketing, growth is still inhibited by the lack of supporting information to manage and optimize marketing programs. More than half (55%) of responding brands are unsure how to reach specific target audiences via mobile campaigns, 58% are unsure about how to implement and measure an SMS campaign, and 61% unsure how to implement and measure a multimedia message (MMS) campaign.
Advertising on mobile space set to grow exponentially:
Advertising on Mobile has become a booming business that’s fast catching up with all sorts of advertisers, from FMCG players to retailers to IPL teams to even political parties.
The Congress party in Karnataka, for example, has been using mobile advertisement extensively to win over the voters in the IT capital of Bangalore as well as other parts of the state in the just-concluded assembly elections.
The mobile advertising market is estimated at Rs 40 crore in India and industry players expect it to touch Rs 500 crore by 2010. Already, big-spending advertisers like HUL, ABN Amro, Kerela Tourism, Essar, ITC, Microsoft, Infosys, ICICI Bank, American Express, LIC, Spicejet and Club Mahindra, to name a few are eyeing the smallest screen.
By using the mobile medium is a more cost-effective way of having a one-to-one interaction with the consumer. Any ground activity or advertising through traditional media does not guarantee the kind of interaction that advertising through mobiles can provide.
The industry is tiny still, but marketing wizards are going ga-ga about it. “Looking at the way mobile marketing has grown globally, it has the potential to become a staple for advertisers. Already brands are rounding off their communication through mobile marketing. With the kind of mobile concentration in India, it would be silly not to use the medium. We are working on it,” says O&M executive chairman and national creative director Piyush Pandey.
Advertisers say that the ad-spend on mobile space will grow exponentially, once the technical aspects of the mobile advertising are in place—that is when telcos move beyond text messages to deliver ads to handsets alongside video clips, web pages, and music and game downloads.
The 250-million mobile users in India make mobile marketing a lucrative communication channel for brands, especially those in the FMCG, financial services, aviation, entertainment, retail and hospitality sectors, they say. The growth estimates range from a conservative Rs 500 crore figure by 2010 to Rs 5,000 crore by the end of 2012. “It all depends on the consumer reaction and technical innovation of the new mobile marketing products,” says one of the marketers.
Advertisers say that the ad-spend on mobile space will grow exponentially, once the technical aspects of the mobile advertising are in place—that is when telcos move beyond text messages to deliver ads to handsets alongside video clips, web pages, and music and game downloads.
The 250-million mobile users in India make mobile marketing a lucrative communication channel for brands, especially those in the FMCG, financial services, aviation, entertainment, retail and hospitality sectors, they say. The growth estimates range from a conservative Rs 500 crore figure by 2010 to Rs 5,000 crore by the end of 2012. “It all depends on the consumer reaction and technical innovation of the new mobile marketing products,” says one of the marketers.
Catching on the expected boom are mobile ad solution providers like Net CORE Solutions which serves players like Amul, Birla Sunlife Insurance, Future Group (Big Bazaar), ICICI Bank, Kotak Securities, Microsoft, SeventyMM, Shoppers’ Stop and Spykar with its MyToday dailies. The dailies, started a year back, has garnered a subscriber base of 3.5 million voluntary users. Subscribers choose from over 25 different channels of information in six Indian languages. On average, MyToday sends out 10 million SMSs a day. The subscriber base is growing by 15,000-18,000 each day and is poised to reach 2% of the entire mobile user base in India soon. The advertisers are becoming more aware of this medium and have realized that if tapped properly, this medium would help reach out to more masses than the internet.
