Broad Advertising Models in India for Mobile
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SMS Based Ads – Plain SMS Texts Coming as Ads and Offers. They are extremely annoying and over time users become blind-sided. Within SMS ads there are new innovations such as Click to call etc – check more on Yahoo!’s mobile advertising strategy on this video.
SMS Based Contests – Inviting responses and getting users on mailer lists and then sending out updates. While this strategy ensures some sort of engagement, the tendency is to use that database to send SMS Based Ads. Care must be taken while framing messages. (This includes framing of Short codes etc)
Branded Mobile Applications – Creating useful applications that can be branded. Without operator support this is difficult.
Display ads and Sponsorships within Mobile Applications – This is another model that could be followed especially by the bigger brands. Within applications that are viral they can sponsor certain activities. For example sponsoring IM or sending out mass IM’s within applications related to social networking that invite people to an event and hosting a branded event.
SMS Based Communities around topics that can be used to have plug a variety of brands in a portfolio discreetly. For this a platform such as SMSGupshup can be used. For example – a community on Internet in India owned by someone from Reliance could be used to plug BigAdda, The BigB Blog, Zapak, Big Maps, Big Flicks, Reliance Mobile etc. The moderator however must ensure that he gets into the trust circle of users and refrains from making it seem like spam.
Ads within Community Messages – This is again the SMS Gupshup Model where relevant ads that synergize with content being sent out by group owners are placed in messages. So the idea is to place ads within content that people like to consume. A better model than the SMS based ads model. Again people might get blindsided.
Location Based Ads on Mobile (for Search) – Ads could be sent out on mobiles when people search for locations. So nearby locations can be advertised. This virtually totally opens up the platform for anybody and everybody with a local listing to sign on.
WAP Portals & sites catered to Mobile Phones – While they are handy, they rarely have a pull effect. Noone wants to visit a branded WAP portal from their mobile phone. An effective strategy could be to use Micro sites developed specially for mobile and drive engagement.
Bluetooth Advertising – This is something that I’ve noticed in Phoenix Mills. I get messages on my phone if my Bluetooth is tuned on. Bluetooth trackers can be placed in locations where individuals spend some amount of time and only location based offers can be sent to people whose Bluetooth is on.
Voice Response Contests – Similar to SMS Contests. Simplicity for the user is greater.
This is by no means a comprehensive list. Please add to it. Some of the things may have slipped out of my mind.
Everyone is looking at the Whooping numbers on Mobile at this point of time. The numbers are definitely slated to grow but at the same time, one will also see that advertising on mobile will grow increasingly intrusive. It already is. With so many options and avenues available for advertising one wonders how people will react to mobile advertising. What actions will consumers take? Your guess is as good as mine.
One thing is for sure. Only content that provides value will be accepted. The Mobile is a personal, conversational medium and to get into a person’s ‘individual space’, you need to provide value and engagement. That is easier said than done. But there are avenues and means to doing that. People on the mobile are searching for content (as is true on any medium) but the line between ads and content will blur even more with the blitzkrieg of mobile advertising.
Your thoughts and opinions – extremely valued. Please feel free to share exploratory theories.
Another great innovation which has been launched in some countries is ad sponsored calls.
An ad will be played before the call setup. The cost of the call will be passed on to the advertiser and the customer will not be charged for the call.
Hey - ya thanks - slipped out of my mind - we wrote about that - a company called Airvoice is doing it - check it out - http://www.watblog.com/2008/04/21/now-get-paid-to-listen-to-ads-on-your-mobile-phone/
and you had commented on that post as well
FotoLink Media is going great job in mobile marketing.
They have done multiple campaigns for Lays and Coke
website here - http://fotolink.in
mobile operators monopoly is gotta go…..cos mobi internet wud replace the sms era……there is a whole area in mobile to be discovered….like social networking on mobile is going to be very successful even more than web…why bcos people surf the net for 3 hours at most…but they have mobiles with them for 24 hours…….as far as baic gprs rates r concerned the operators charge anywhere between 10 paise/10 kb in my view it wud come anywhere between 2-5 paisa or unlimited packages….as far as monopoly of op. is concerned there future would be like of aol-time warner…….cant defy rules even though u own the infrastructure…..mobile will have many opportunities in future……
Harshil,
Nice post. You may also find the following article of your interest.
A company I consult for had its CEO interviewed over a controversy on television. The controversy broke out at around 4 pm, the business channel got in touch with the CEO at 7 pm and by 8.30pm the CEO was live on air for a public debate on the controversy. It was an important debate that the CEO was participating in and employees of the company would be proud of the public stance chosen by the CEO.
The question was: how do you tell 2,200 employees spread across the country, in six different cities, to switch on their television sets and watch a particular channel at 8.30 pm because their CEO was going to make a statement critical to industry? And, worse, how do you do this in the space of 90 minutes, especially when 80 per cent of the employees had left their workstations for home?
The company wasn’t too worried about the communication. They have their employees subscribed to a company-wide SMS service. And they can reach employees, regardless of where they are – in office, at the dinner table, on the golf course, at a wedding, attending a meeting, in a beauty parlour – by SMS. At 8 pm, an SMS went out to every single one of the 2,200 employees, alerting them about the CEOs appearance on the business channel.
The company uses SMS to communicate a variety of time-bound and critical-to-phone messages. This is done in addition to the emails that go out, sometimes much later than the SMS.
So, as examples, the company uses SMS to remind employees about deadlines with regard to their Income Tax filing needs, updates them about enhancements to the employee referral program and so on.
And what exactly is a “critical-to-phone message”? These are messages that carry important phone numbers that can be immediately stored on your mobile phone’s contact book. Microland, a Bangalore-based Remote IT Infrastructure Management Company, which is a pioneer in adopting company-wide SMS communications, recently sent its employees the phone numbers of a qualified counseling service that employees can use for free to discuss their emotional health.
This was done after posters for the service were put up in office and emails were sent out educating employees about the importance of counseling to manage stress, anger and frustration. Suddenly, employees had the service’s phone number available to them in a convenient manner and many of them saved the number immediately to their contact book.
I can imagine companies using SMS in a variety of situations: to announce big wins in the business, to announce awards won by the company and employees, to announce delays in lunch arriving in the cafeteria or perhaps even to remind employees before leaving on weekends to switch off their computers before going home (imagine the saving in power).
Mumbai-based Jetking uses SMS in a unique way. The hardware training company has all its franchisees across the country subscribed to its SMS alerts. Jetking uses SMS as a way of informing franchisees about important communications sent by email that they should not miss – talk about a reminder culture! This is, however, an important business tactic. Franchisees sometimes tend to ignore mail, believing they can catch up with it later. But the business impact of ignoring certain mails can be huge in a business like Jetking’s.
GEAR International school in Bangalore has used SMS in a way so fascinating that it completely changes the impact of communications. Two hours before junior school children were to put up a performance for parents, it threatened to rain. The outdoor performance was in jeopardy. Should the school cancel the performance? And what if, ultimately, it did not rain? Were parents already thinking of canceling their plans to attend the performance because it looked like it might rain?
After a discussion with the children, the Principal of the school decided to go ahead with the performance. So out went an SMS to all parents who have been subscribed to the school’s SMS alert service at the start of the academic year: “Come rain come shine, the performance is on. Make sure you cheer the children – and don’t forget to bring along your raincoats!”
The effect this message had on parents was to dispel all fear that the show may be cancelled. Parents didn’t have to call in to find out if the school was going ahead with the performance (and face jammed school lines as 800 parents attempted to call for the same reason!). I think the Principal’s approach was sharp. It showed that the school expected parents to support the children and excuses like, “I thought it would rain, so did not turn up” would not do.
We don’t think of using SMS for enterprise-wide communication because the medium has acquired a dubious reputation. But it is the medium the next generation trusts. The faster we move to using and understanding it, the more effectively we will be able to leverage it.
SMS DND
SMS can become intrusive and an irritant. Employees may want to put up a Do Not Disturb (DND) to block your messages. Here’s how to ensure they actually want your SMS alerts:
Create groups of employees that receive your SMS. The groups can be division-wise, designation-wise, geography-wise. Each group receives messages that are the most relevant to them.
Use an SMS vendor that lets your employees independently “unsubscribe” to the service. There are numerous such services available. You could try MyToday (see http://mobs.mytoday.com/) or Webaroo (http://www.webaroo.com/) for enterprise solutions. See which features work for you before you sign up.
Use a service that lets employees use a time-bound DND. For example, the employee can set a DND between 10 pm and 7 am, so that messages sent between these hours are delivered only at 7 am.
Arun Katiyar is an independent corporate content and communications consultant. Microland is one of his clients.
He can be contacted at arun.katiyar@gmail.com
Source:- Buisness Standard 16 May 2008 New Delhi P. 10
Hi,
Another mobile advertising model which is evolving is that of offering FREE SMS in lieu for Mobile Ads..
One of these companies, 160by2.com offers the user half an sms for FREE while it appends an ad in the remaning half. These ads could be contextually targetted or on the SEC classification or location based or Age based.
This I feel is also an exciting model since it creates a win-win situation for all parties concerned. I get to reach my friends for FREE across India, the Brands get to reach me at the time of relevance & the company also makes money in the middle.
As RK pointed out. 160by2 is also another model.
I was thinking of inline text advertising in the mobile arena.
Any takers for this concept.
@ RK 160by2 is the same model being followed by smsgupshup and mytoday - they are also making things contextually targeted wrt SEC and content.
@ Rashmi - can you elaborate a bit on inline text advertising - is it the same thing that RK is talking about?
@Harshil - RK was saying everything about 160by2… The inline text advertising I was talking about is a different from that.
I have got some preliminary idea on that, working on that, however, I can not elaborate on the same at this.
hey..tell me can 160by2.com can also be used to send free smses to any indian mobile number(with no charges for sender or reciever)…when the sender’s number is on international roaming?