Mobile advertising to go beyond SMSes and flash messages

A recent study revealed that over 72 per cent of Indian consumers were at ease with mobile advertising and over 50 per cent were ready for personalised advertisements.

The study was conducted by InMobi, a leading mobile advertising network, and comScore.

Yet many would agree that mobile advertising has largely been annoying - bulk SMSes with discount codes and irritating flash ads on WAP sites (mobile version of websites) on the handset browser.

"The mobile phone will transform into a new personalised channel to receive advertisements," said Vinay Kumar, CEO, StratosHear Technologies.

The company has recently launched MobiAdz - a common marketplace for advertisers and publishers.

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Kumar is betting on 'user location' to become a central aspect of mobile marketing.

"Most services being developed for mobile phones take user location into account one way or another, whether it's using mobile apps, the mobile web or even SMS," he said.

Audio advertising is already popular on mobiles.

In this model, a commercial ad is played during those few seconds when a user dials a number and waits for the receiver to answer the phone.

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"This is a completely non-intrusive model since the ad stops as soon as the receiver answers the phone. Several large and small brands have started using this model for brand awareness and communication," said Kumar.

With a mobile user base over 700 million and expected to cross the one billion mark by 2013, incremental revenue streams like mobile advertising will come to the fore.

The mobile advertising market is set to grow from $4 million (around Rs 18 crore) in 2009 to $20 million (around Rs 90 crore) in 2010.

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James Lamberti, VP, Global Research & Marketing, InMobi, said: "Consumers are embracing the mobile channel and when combined with the upcoming 3G adoption, this will make India one of the most explosive mobile advertising markets in the world."

With smartphones supporting HTML5, ads can easily be delivered on mobile phones. Brand advertisers often combine mobile display ads with a direct-response element such as a bar code or text shortcode and some form of branded content - via an m-commerce site, coupon or contest.

A recent instance of such a campaign was done by GM's Chevy to build awareness for their two new car models.

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The company partnered with geo-location service provider Gowalla.

The campaign targeted mobile users with Chevy ads as soon as they landed at the airport, by telling them that they could get free rides around the city in a Chevy.

The cars had QR codes affixed allowing users to scan it on their mobile phone and view additional car features on their phones.

The result was blog posts, tweets and other media content raking up millions of impressions - bringing users to spread the word and awareness for Chevy.

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It is expected that mobile advertisements will also grow through display & videos, location-based ads and mobile coupons to name a few, though SMS could still lead the way because of its 'reach' to billions in the shortest possible time, said Raghu Kumar, MD, Singlepoint - a company that specialises in opt-in mobile advertising.

"With TRAI setting up strict guidelines, marketers are wary of the risks involved with intrusive brand communication. Brands are on the look-out for alternative options that are opt-in and conversational advertising in nature," he said.

A consumer research by Mobile Squared reveals that over 60 per cent of India's mobile population would be willing to receive mobile advertising in exchange of free voice and SMS on a monthly basis.

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India is a market driven by cost, where 70 per cent of the population is rural, and the mobile device might well be the only screen they have access to making it a very compelling medium for brands and business.

Meanwhile, SinglePoint hopes that conversational advertising, a messaging-based communication platform between consumers and a brand that benefits the consumer.

"Conversational advertising is first and foremost, based on the consumer's direct opt-in to receive advertising from that brand. That is when a consumer knowingly provides their mobile number specifically for the purposes of being communicated to by a particular brand or brands," said Raghu Kumar.

Now with 3G, operators can better exploit location specific, personalised and interactive features of mobile phones.

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"Rich media advertising like video ads, will become a viable proposition and gain popularity," said Rohit Dadwal, MD of MMA (APAC), a non-profit trade association.

Dadwal said with high data usage and availability of services like live video-based and MMS-based advertising, rich content embedded ads would become practical.

Debadutta Upadhyaya, vice-president, Vdopia agreed. "Till now, advertising on mobile web has been more of direct response than engaging users.

Advertisers have been unable to effectively bring users to interact. Video on the other hand, brings animation, visuals and sound with high interaction rates. The post-video landing pages go beyond call-to-action and provide a deeper level of brand engagement."

Vdopia said several TV advertisements can be replicated in mobiles through 3G, with far bigger impact.