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Growth in the number of mobile users has given birth to an opportunity to
advertisers and marketers for targeting this segment. Mobile has gradually
become an effective and powerful tool for reaching desired market segments in
developed markets. Mobile advertising industry in India, however, is at a
nascent stage, with operators still hesitant to venture all out in the segment.
Some reports suggest that India will have close to 300 mn mobile users by
2010. This portrays the future of mobile usage in India. Currently, 60 mn
consumers in India are already using Value Added Services (VAS), and this is
expected to grow about 50-60% every year. Thus, it is evident that the
introduction of mobile ads will affect this growing number. Reports also suggest
that current mobile ads make far higher revenues than the online advertisement.
But, the reality is far from it. While in the US, companies have started
looking at exploring mobile advertising, India, even with a high mobile
penetration rate, is lagging behind. "Mobile advertising industry in India is
currently extremely nascent. It is still early days for the industry. Hence,
even though Hutch does offer mobile advertising to its Indian subscribers, it is
in a specific limited scope," says a Hutch spokesperson.
Mobile Ad Exchange
All this is, however, set to change, with Indian cellular operators (the GSM
ones) working on a plan to establish a common mobile advertising exchange in
India that will allow companies to advertise on mobile phones. Even though
companies like Airvoice Infocom are already testing the waters, as they plan to
reward those willing to listen to advertisements before the call is connected,
operators like Hutch do not seem to be much excited about this new medium.
The exchange will provide profiles of cell phone subscribers across service
providers. This common platform helps companies to find out customers with ARPUs
of over Rs 500 and target them. Operators are exploring means to reward
subscribers to listen to advertisements; one such mean might be offering
listeners lower tariffs or giving extra talk time, among other means.
A key requirement of the mobile advertising is standardization, ie there
should be a code of conduct for the industry, and common formats for mobile ads.
This forum will be expected to address this issue.
"The challenges of mobile advertising are typical of any new media when it
arrives. When FM radio arrived a few years ago, it faced certain challenges,
because it was an entirely new medium. Today, mobile advertising faces similar
challenges, as it is in its emerging phase," says the spokesperson. Also, in
text-based advertising, sending ads at a particular time to right customers with
broadcasting time slots can make problems for operators. Various mobile ad
formats from different advertisers create incompatibility in distribution.
Therefore, standardization can be a problem. Sivakumar of Airvoice Infocom,
however, differs from Hutch spokesperson. He says, "Such a common platform will
help service providers to share profiles of customers, target the right category
people with apt ads, and also help in targeting at customers according to their
ARPUs."
Most of the operators agree that it is quite early to predict whether the
proposed Mobile Advertising Exchange will be a success or not. However, the
proposal to set up a Mobile Advertising Exchange is a step in the right
direction.
Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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