Global Mobile Marketing

Bulk SMS MMS Banned

2010-09-22T23:57:00.001-07:00

The Union Ministry of Communications & Information Technology last night directed all telecom operators and SMS Service Providers in India to Ban Bulk SMS & MMS Services for the next 72 hours ahead of the Allahabad High Court's verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suits which is expected to be given on 24th Sept 2010.

An official press release said the Ministry had issued orders in this regard in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs to all mobile telecom service providers and their partners in the country.

TRAI - a facial for brands.

2009-02-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

1st February 2009 onwards, TRAI has implemented a new policy for Mobile Marketers, Bulk SMS Aggregators and Operators to limit their previous 11 Character Sender IDs (For GSM Mobiles) to only 8 Characters now. The 1st 3 characters are supposed to be the Operator Code, the Circle Code, a hyphen and then followed by an Alphanumeric Sender ID up to 8 Characters. The already limited space for certain 'extra large' brands is even shorter now and has reduced the impact of Marketing Messages by upto 25% ina the consumer's SMS inbox. Although, abbreviations are well known in the 'SMS Industry' but most brands and companies find it difficult to digest.
TRAI's logic of implementing the policy is to basically keep a check and curb the menace of Unsolicited Commercial Communication. As in times before, if a consumer receives a Unsolicited SMS, he/she sees 'ABC' in the From Sender Identity. But now, they would see 'XY-ABC' in the Sender Id. If a consumer wishes to complain of receiving an Unsolicited SMS, they can simply call the Customer Support Helpline and narrate the Sender ID of the Sender - The operator then makes note of which Operator from which Circle is sending such SMS(es). The operator further scrutinises or rather penalises the Brand or Company which has registered the Sender ID.
I personally think, it is a brilliant way to curb UCC but at what cost? The consumer is now more or less immune to the marketing method with increasing Spam SMS's and even more & more brands adopting the cheap means of communication. I believe marketers need to be educated and given the moral responsibility of using such a strong communication tool with discretion so that it doesn't lose its very essence.

National Do Call Registry

2008-08-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

In my recent posts, I have mentioned the 'action' and 'seriousness' of the Indian Goverment of the National Do Not Call Registry and the implications of the same. It is compulsory for all Telemarketers to register for this service and 'scrub' their lists before conducting Cold Calls.
The latest twist in the sad tale of Indian Commerce is that the Supreme Court of India (Apex Court) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has decided to move on to a "National Do Call Registry" where in people will opt in for receiving marketing calls and messages (UCC - Unsolicited Commercial Communication) from marketers and businesses so as to market their product - leaving a very small percentage of people in India who will opt in to receive such communication. Quite obviously the entire business fraternity, banks, telemarketing & call centres and the Telecom Operators have raised an objection not to implement any such Act or Policy since it shall deeply harm the economy in terms of:
Revenue - Telecom companies will not make money from Telemarketers & Call Centres
Business - Telemarketers will not be able to generate business from Cold Calling due to lack of data or even no data.
Growth - If there are too many such units falling down overnight,there is bound to be a fall in the economy over a longer period of time in a larger picture.

Further, if any such policy does get implemented then what is the next level or next alternative medium of commercial communication? How do you propose to reach out to new clients and grow your business?

Vodafone Talk More

2008-08-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

Its been a while that Vodafone has entered the Indian Mobile Operator's market. Inspite of the company picking up, 'Hutchison Essar Group' at snail's pace that it was, Vodafone has managed to pick up speed. The international giant has hired one the best ad agencies in the country and has come up with absolutely ingenious marketing concepts ever made in the Telecom industry.
So to speak, the Indian Mobile Market is limited to Mobile Number Sales & Mobile Handset Sales separately - Airtel & Nokia/Sagem have made attempts in the past to make 'Packaged Deals' of handsets with special offer Prepaid SIM Cards, which honestly did not take off very well. Vodafone re-installed this idea in the market as the "Magic Box" comprising of a pretty handy and featured handset with basic Phonebook, Messaging and FM features, along with a special tariff plan attracting people to change more phones than only change or buy a new number. The campaign went on successfully with a mass approach to the common Indian man who cares more of what handset he keeps than the number or tariff plan on his number.
To top it all, Vodafone has recently come out with a campaign that promotes their Call Conference faility @ Rs.30/month. (Delhi circle). Not only does a mere Rs.30 add much more revenue to the VAS Sales but also the fact if one person calls the other, the 2nd to the 3rd...so on till there can be 5 or more participants (The limit is of 5 people on conference on one number incl the number owner) - The genius of this marketing is that by using Call Conference - Vodafone is actually multiplying their Sales of outgoing calls to friends by friends or business to business users. The chain here is practically limitless.
Further, keeping in mind that (or so I believe) that Mobile Operators have to bear a fee or submit a cost of terminating a call made from their network to anothers like Airtel, Idea, etc.
The intra call conference keeps these costs low so that people are encouraged to make V2V Calls more than to other operators. If you notice, this is why your own operator charges you lesses to make calls to the same operator as compared to making a local call to the network of another operator.

Sex And The City Movie

2008-05-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

The infamous series on HBO 'Sex And The City' gets a new face with the upcoming launch of it's new movie ' Sex And The City - The Movie'. An absolutely genius platform of cashing on an already very strong platform of 4 individualistic and like-minded women in New York. Not a very regular watcher but I can tell from the marketing strategy which is being promoted from the past 3 months in existing movie halls and theatres by means of BlueTooth Marketing (Pics, Screensavers, Trailers & Music), Outdoor & Print media and the very expected SMS Polls.
The SMS Polls has invited and entertained a database of more than 5 million women of USA who are intrigued and actively relate themselves to the series. Mobile Marketing has proved to be a phenomenol marketing-communication channel between the service provider & the service user. Further, let's hope that the launch allows Carrie with a whole new outlook and obviously many more episodes to come.

National Do Not Call Registry

2008-03-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

24 April 2007: The Government of India proposes a bill to introduce the 'National Do Not Call Registry' (NDNC) service in India - where consumers can register with their respective operators and will be listed in a Do-Not-Call registry where it would be illegal if any of the numbers receive a Telemarketing call or SMS or better known as UCC (Unsolicited Commercial Communication). The bill was passed in Q4 2007 and re-enforced by the means of Newspaper & TV Media that any such miscreant or UCC activity can cause the operator/telemarketer a fine of upto Rs.500, subsequently Rs.1000 and further cancellation of license. It was truly brilliant to offer consumers the comfort and peace of not receiving the pesky Loan, Mortgage, Credit Calls anymore But why was SMS included in this??? The only effective channel of Direct Marketing left in India is - SMS Marketing. If the Government has placed a 'blanket ban' on receiving any UCC, then it makes SMS also illegal, ineffective and will become inexistent soon.
Statistics say, Mobile Phone users (urban + rural) are increasing @ 8% a month and the NDNC registration is increasing @ 5% every month. Implies that sooner or later the rates will fluctuate and everybody will be registered with the NDNC. It is totally wise to do so but then what happens to the 'Mobile Phone being the ultimate gadget'? This idea has been harvesting since long in the minds of marketers that Mobile Marketing would have taken over all means since the mobile phone will be your Credit Card, Car Key, PDA/Organiser, Web Browser, GPS, etc; the one tool one would carry everywhere. As far as business is concerned, Mobile Marketer's only hope is the 'Alerts/Reminders' services like of Banks and Non - UCC services.
Although, there is one more viewpoint which is totally opposite this understanding - if Users are getting registered in the NDNC and the sole target, which needs to segmented further, is Non NDNC registered people - Mobile Marketers can SPAM them like crazy. If word gets out (which just might given by the number of readers of this blog) SMS Marketers will start taking Mobile Campaigns simply spamming anyone who is not on the list - which will further provoke people to get registered in this list.
Conclusively, there isn't a way out - SMS Marketing will soon die unless the Govt of India gives recognition to Portals, Handwritten documents or Forms where the mobile phone user has given permission to receive any such updates from the particular merchant. Given by the speed of functioning of the Indian Govt, mobile marketers would be selling mobile phones to survive by then!

Mobile Marketing in India takes a U-turn

2008-03-01T06:20:00.000-08:00

Remember the likes of sms based advertising models where you register free to receive SMS's from 'advertisers' and earn money, etc; namely, m gingur, adcadmobi, etc... There seems to be another player in the market who is trying to make this loss-stricken idea into a beneficial one. The company '160by2' claims to give you the ability to register for free, earn money for receiving SMS's from their advertisers but the new marketing strategy that they have adopted is that users (like you and me) can use 80 characters to Send Free Messages to all mobile numbers India and the next 80 characters will contain an advert from one of the advertisers of 160by2 company.
Unfortunately, what the promoters have seemed to ignore is the reason why earlier business models like these failed - Ding Dong! MGingur and the likes, did mass marketing and advertising with a lot of ( I repeat a lot of ) word of mouth marketing which ended up approx 5 lac users being registered. The limitation of this model is that most advertisers (in India and the world) seek information of people or to target people who have reasonable disposable income and are willing to spend it. But the data collected in these campaigns or the people targetted by SMS marketing are of the nature who want to make money by collecting a few paise (smallest unit of the INR) would not be the kinds of to either have reasonable disposable income nor be willing to spend much. Nevertheless, this segment of people are quite good for targetting goods like Coke, Chocolates or items of not much monetary value. On the contrary, not many (or maybe not at all) of these type of companies would be interested in promoting their products by Direct marketing methods like SMS Marketing. Wake up and smell the coffee guys.

Spiderman is back: SMS is now SMS 2.0!

2008-02-20T11:58:00.000-08:00

We have had 'SpiderMan Returns, Superman Returns, Superman Returns 2, Batman infinity... but now it's just me returning to help save the Earth. :)
After a lot of research, toil and ahem... hard-work, I have compiled some latest information on whats going on with the Mobile Marketing world:

SMS is now SMS 2.0 - where Content Aggregators, Bulk SMS Companies & Operators are providing Interactive Mobility Solutions or also known as Interactive Mobile Marketing. Here not only is the target a segmented Consumer but by using SMS Shortcodes, IVR & Outgoing Voice performing technology - there is a vast database collected of the consumer's taste, preferences, shopping-behaviour, etc.
It's quite simple; we have a few of the possibilities listed below:

SMS Shortcode (5****): The consumer messages a Keyword For Eg. GLOBAL NAME to the Shortcode 5****. His name is received by the aggregator with his respective mobile number. Here he has intentionally or unintentionally given his name and number to be used for 'marketing' purposes by the company for it's various products. The keyword may be followed by some crucial information most marketers can use the gauge his buying behaviour and intentions - like Name, Age, City, Sex, Marital Status, etc.
Voice/IVR Portal: The consumer messages a Keyword GLOBAL to a Shortcode 5**** and receives an automated call from an IVR-like Voice asking him, "If he has messaged for this information/purpose, Please press 1" - Here the company has successfully taken his permission to go ahead and capture data - better known as an Opted-in database or disclaimer for the company. Further, during the call made, using a basic feature of the phone called DTMF Tones the user browses Menu-after-menu and enters details like his Name, Age, City, Marital Status, Preference of products, situational questions, etc. The beauty of this model is that the user is willing to spend as much time on the portal since he has not made the outgoing call and is a free-to-attend obligation for him where a Typical Consumer does not hesitate in giving out information or discussing his preference over a product or service. The only part to worry of this campaign is that with enough people wanting to pass time somewhere may misuse the service unnecessarily and cause millions to the company conducting the campaign for which the operator continues billing them.

What is Driving M-Commerce

2007-08-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

Exponential growth of consumer interest and adoption of the Internet and e-commerce.
Tremendous growth in mobile telephony; however, voice has become a commodity and will no longer fuel revenue growth for operators.
Development of real-time transfer of data over 2.5G and 3G networks will enable faster data transmission and ‘always-on’ connectivity.
The evolution of the handheld devices incorporating WAP and now GPRS.
Mobile e—commerce market is worth $3.5 billion in 2000 and will grow to over $200 billion by 2005 (Ovum).
Cost of entry into mobile e-commerce is low for most entrants; for example, a bank can implement a sophisticated m-banking solution in under six months for around $1 million.
The unique features of the mobile device such as its compactness for convenience and personalized functions; subsequently, people have become quite attached to their devices.

Mobile vs PC part I

2007-07-25T09:23:00.000-07:00

If you go to Mexico, the government is trying to stimulate Internet access through PC penetration. So, there are different models, but I think mobile is the cheap way in. And the take-up patterns have been very different. If you go to the UK, you start with newspapers, then magazines, radio, television, PCs to get to the Internet, and then you went to mobile. In China and India, mobile has leapfrogged PC.

Your Name, Mobile No.? Now for INR 0.60 only!

2007-07-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

Its 0800 hrs and you walk up to your local coffee shop for a morning coffee and newspaper in a rush to reach office @ 9.
While you wait for the cashier making your invoice, you are approached by this 'chirpy' girl wearing a nice, crisp 'corporate' uniform and offers you a Form & pen and claims that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to win a Car, Laptop or an iPod. Without hesitation, you fill in your Name, Address, Mobile Number, D.O.B, Car make, model - maybe your spouse name or her D.O.B or maybe your interests in life.
Now, any sane person would forget about that form the moment you walk out of that coffee shop, obviously, not praying to win anything at all! What you do not realise is that you have just been valued at INR 0.60 to INR 10 - as per your credentials.

The activity explained is extensively done by Data Mining Agencies or Data Capturing units who only do these campigns for capturing data which can be sold to Merchants, Marketers, Web Marketers or Call Centres. I agree that some of you might even make it to that meagre 2GB FREE iPod someday but your details have just been sold across the globe to some merchant who might have common products w.r.t your interests your may approach you two days before your spouse's birthday - which is the most vulnerable time for any of us to buy anything.

Someone has rightly suggested that the world is round - if you stop giving out your data in places, people would not be able to approach you - in turn - you would not know of the new products & services in the market - of not for purchase then at least for comparision. It is better to keep your crucial details safe yet deliver only the required information which cannot be used for any wrong purpose such as a loan sanction or your credit card authorisation. On the other hand, if you do manage to gain the art of smartly gauging places and giving appropriate information - you just might find it the most handy tool ever possible as you get hands-on information on your mobile by the means of an SMS, MMS or service message without you even going to a merchant - whats more is that you can purchase it there and then. Technology in it's true essence - is when it is used to deliver what every consumer wants, and I guess that is what we aim to do eventually.

"I vouch for Voucher Marketing"

2007-07-06T08:27:00.001-07:00

Vouchers have been there in the market since quit esome time now where one can get a "Buy 2 Get 1 Free"
in your favourite shoe store and a "50% off" at your nearest StarBucks. Life upgrades and they all do, it's now time for Mobile Vouchers or better known as "M-vouchers" which may function as good as a BarCode software.
It works on the principles of an SMS being sent by a Merchant to his client/prospect and it contains a code alon g with the offer give. When the customer turns up at the Merchant's outlet he may want to avail the discount/privilege and provides the Code which was sent to him at the end of the SMS.
The merchant types in the Code in his database of sent SMS's and finds that this Code was sent to "this" customer hence fool-proofing the possibility of redundancy or fraud with the voucher by miscreants.
Merchant gets the sale > Customer gets the Discount > And the Mobile Company gets its revenue. (along with more economic activities like cellphone battery or parking ticket or fuel to reach the merchant LOL).
One more important feature that our Marketer MB gets is the conversion rate of the SMS's sent and received and sales converted. So far the ighest conversion across the gloabe has been Mobile Marketing where a penny-worth of an SMS makes the sale of a shining new, Mercedes S-500 somewhere in Timbuktu.

SMS 2.0 Launched in Asia

2007-06-22T01:00:00.001-07:00

A marriage of messaging with content and advertising. That’s the new ‘text’ reality as Cellular Operator - Bharti Airtel, has announced a major upgrade to the popular application, SMS. In a tie-up with UK-based mobile media innovations firm Affle, the telecom company has launched SMS 2.0, which is, for now, available to mobile phone subscribers in New Delhi, India.

While sending an SMS, users usually see a ‘sending message’ icon on their mobile phone screens; now, during that time, with Airtel-Affle’s SMS 2.0, they can listen to advertisements and content such as news and cricket updates – strictly on the subject of one’s choice. There is apparently no scope for any spam messages as the user is required to define the mobile content by specifying his area of interest and registering after he has downloaded the new application. So, the ads and the content will be woven together totally as per the user’s choice.

Mobile: User Generated Content

2007-06-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

The market for mobile user-generated content (UGC) services like Tocmag will be worth $13.2bn by 2011, according to research published by Informa Telecoms and Media and the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF). Tocmag, which launched in the UK recently, offers users the ability to create six-page mobile magazines which can be filled with text, images, audio and video. As the first free UGC application for mobiles to go live, Tocmag’s launch is a significant milestone for the burgeoning ‘Mobile Web 2.0’ market, say Informa and the MEF.According to M:Metrics, 29% of UK mobile owners currently use the mobile Internet. According to the research, this figure will rise significantly over the next year as increasing numbers of mobile UGC services enter the fray. Informa and the MEF say that early efforts in this space, such as Orange’s highly-successful ‘buff or rough’ concept, suggest that mobile UGC will prove the ‘killer app’ for mobile internet. They argue, too, that this idea is well-supported by Tocmag’s impressive beta user stats. Between May this year and the official launch of the service two weeks ago, more than 10,000 Tocmags were built, generating almost 125,000 downloads – entirely by word of mouth.

In lieu of the Mobile User Generated Content rising, I think people would want to go beyond the "160 characters" limit and express themselves, whether it be love or business or war! Therefore, the need arises to develop an inexpensive module with mroe capacity and more expression (if possible.) Further, it leaves us no choice but emails over phone but many operators may be providing this service at a high cost or may not, at all!
To enhance the future of Mobile Content orientation, this magazine thingie rocks!

Mobile Advertising : Revisited

2007-06-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

In the Indian market, advertising is roughly a $300 billion annual industry. There are over 200 million wireless subscribers in India with high penetration (over 70 percent) in most urban centers. The mobile device, always on, always available, presents a unique opportunity for marketers to engage and interact with consumers like never before. Given this channel's uniqueness and ability to create the long sought-after one-to-one dialogue with consumers, the expected reach and effect of mobile advertising is, and will continue to be, significant.

Although mobile advertising is being tested in all mobile media areas, including mobile Web, mobile video and TV, and mobile downloads and messaging, the most predominant form is currently mobile Web.

So let's talk about mobile Web and what that means. Mobile Web (or WAP) enables a subscriber to access the Internet through mobile-optimized sites from a mobile device. Mobile Web provides access to a variety of news, information, and entertainment sites, much like what subscribers find in the wired world. For publishers, the mobile Web environment provides an opportunity for brands to extend their reach to consumers through a highly targeted personal device.

How do you buy mobile Web advertising? It's similar to buying advertising on the Internet. Mobile Web banner impressions can be purchased by CPM (define) and can be bought either from publishers who maintain their own mobile Web sites or through a mobile ad network. And contrary to many published comments on mobile advertising, there's inventory available. What's unique about mobile advertising is that due to devices' varied sizes, mobile Web banners are optimized to fit the handset the ad is viewed on. Publishers often request multiple mobile Web banner sizes to ensure multiple devices can be supported. Critical to the development of the mobile advertising industry are guidelines and best practices for the mobile Web advertising experience. The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) launched the first mobile advertising guidelines in September 2005 and continues to update the guidelines in response to changing trends. What's helped ensure the success and adoption of these guidelines is the MMA Mobile Advertising Committee comprises leaders across the ecosystem: wireless carriers, publishers, technology vendors, handset manufacturers, and media companies.
Collaboration between key players has been instrumental in ensuring global adoption and acceptance of the mobile advertising guidelines (unlike other channels, mobile requires broad, cross-ecosystem cooperation to ensure success). If you're interested in mobile advertising, check out the guidelines. Not only do they contain the formats for mobile Web and messaging, they also contain content guidelines and technical requirements for mobile advertisers.
Once you've bought mobile Web inventory, what types of campaigns can be run? Options marketers can deploy include click to call, landing page information, e-mail capture, and the ability to send text, picture, audio, or video directly from the device. Real world examples of these campaigns have been discussed in earlier columns. These can include mobile coupons, banner ads with location information, ads with e-mail registration capabilities, and so on. Options are limitless.
Mobile campaign performance can be measured and evaluated in a number of ways to evaluate success. The main mobile Web measurement is impressions, but rates on click-through, click-to-call, and other interactive mobile metrics can also monitored. More information on measuring mobile advertising success is here.
Mobile advertising is only one of many options available to marketers interested in implementing mobile in cross-media initiatives. Mobile provides the opportunity to not only repurpose existing content for the mobile device but also create new channel content. There's always the option to refine a campaign after it's been deployed. I encourage marketers to get involved and add mobile to cross-media initiatives. Mobile is a process of iterative refinement. Start today.

Nokia & EIU

2007-06-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

From a source on myspace:
Competition is pushing businesses towards greater mobility, and companies plan to adopt mobile applications for core business activities - these were two key findings in a recent global survey on business mobility conducted by Nokia and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and in cooperation with the CIO Forum. As business mobility continues making headway into organizations and more advanced applications and processes are mobilized, the reasons behind companies’ mobility adoption can vary from hard core ROI benefits to softer values such as employee retention. Companies are increasingly implementing mobility to offer greater collaboration, responsiveness to customers, and better work-life balance to staff, fundamentally changing the ways people are working.

Nokia and EIU polled more than 500 global executives across a range of industries to find out how their organizations were using business mobility. In the survey, three quarters of the respondents pointed to human factors such as attracting the best talent - including new entrants to the workforce–improving customer support, and building brand reputations as reasons for deploying business mobility.

The survey shows that business mobility has gone mainstream. Well over one-third of executives reported that at least 20% of their employees can be considered ‘mobile workers’, defined as those who spend at least one day a week away from the office. Far from being a requirement for just a few specialized technology firms, business mobility is now seen as broadly applicable to companies in many industrial sectors.

Mobile Marketing : redefined

2007-06-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

Today a Consumer does much more with his mobile phone than just Call, SMS, Radio or Camera - it has become a tool for him to communicate and bring his customised world together with the push of a button. Wee see ourselves as a Mobile Marketing company that provides technology to create interactive campaigns to effectively coomunicate the 'hard-to-reach' audience as well.
Like internet or TV advertising initiatives, this is the ability to offer a call to action or brand banner within the Mobile Application, whether it's Mobile Web(WAP), text messaging(SMS), pictures (MMS) or Video.

And now, Marketing Campaigns...

2007-05-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

Agency BBDO and marketer Coca-Cola UK have each made claims that mobile will eventually replace TV as the most important medium for advertisers. And agencies such as Oglivy, Publicis and Saatchi are already conducting mobile marketing campaigns using text messaging. Yet many consumer-brand companies and their agencies lack the knowledge and technology to move beyond limited message-based mobile campaigns. Agencies and their clients are failing to take full advantage the cell phone-- what an executive at Quigley and Simpson calls "an exceptional response mechanism in the pocket of nearly every consumer.

Typical mobile campaigns employ text messaging to elicit a response from the consumer. For example, to obtain the offer for a free ringtone, a consumer either enters his or her phone number at a website or sends a text message to a "short code" published on product labeling or in the primary media. These actions trigger a series of back-and-forth text messages, culminating with a message containing a link to download the ringtone.

Text-message marketing campaigns are a good first step in mobile marketing and -- due largely to their relative novelty -- produce much higher response rates than internet-based email campaigns. However, text-message campaigns carry limitations. They generally elicit a simple, one-time response from the consumer: For example, "Yes, send me the free ringtone or a joke every week." These campaigns cannot engage the consumer in further communication beyond a simple opt in. As a result, the marketer is unable to re-engage with the consumer and advance the relationship.

The essence: Mobile Marketing

2007-04-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

We’re all familiar with companies using SMS as a marketing tool. Whether it’s to introduce a new album or to get voters to the polls, mobile marketing is a tool every company needs in its arsenal. Pushing a text message to a cell phone seems simple enough. But what happens when a human can help facilitate the customer response? That’s when mobile marketers turn to live assistance. That’s right, real human beings answering the phone!

Madonna promoted her most recent album to fans via an SMS blast to their cell phones. Consumers got the option of preordering her album by pushing “1” on their phones to connect to a live customer service representative who processed the order. In the past, such live assistance was cost-prohibitive. But by using an offshore call center, companies can add live operators to their mobile marketing campaign for less than half of what it cost before.

Wireless Tech. : The hot new marketing channel!

2007-04-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Nokia introduces local marketing solution aimed at bringing localized and timed services to consumer’s smartphones via Bluetooth. With the solution, operators and services providers can advertise their own and partner services in relevant places, at relevant times. Here is a scenario:

"Early in the morning, the user receives the bus schedule into her smartphone as she approaches the bus station. On her way to lunch, she passes by a local pizzeria, and receives the lunch menu with the day's special offering. In the pizzeria, she can check the local news from her smartphone. On her way home, she receives a bookmark from a video rental store, and decides to go in and rent a movie. Again, when approaching the bus station, she can easily buy the bus ticket with just a few clicks."

The information, that the consumer receives, is filtered according to consumer's own pre-defined preferences. The content consists of service bookmarks and coupons, which are stored into separate bookmark folders in the phone, instead of message inbox. The consumer can then use these bookmarks whenever he/she wants. The bookmarks will contain relevant information of the services, like the description and the price of the service.

March'07 : GSM subsribers 6.1 million

2007-04-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

Indian GSM mobile phone service providers signed up a record 6.1 million customers in March, taking total users to 121.4 million, a telecoms industry body said.

The March increase was the highest-ever monthly rise and compared with 4.9 million new users in February, the Cellular Operators' Association of India said in a statement released late on Wednesday.

Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile provider, added 1.7 million customers in March, taking its user base to 37.1 million.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., added 2.0 million customers, taking its user base to 27.4 million, while Hutchison Essar Ltd's 1.1 million new customers lifted its user base to 26.4 million.

The Association represents nine carriers offering wireless services based on the widely prevalent GSM platform.

Reliance Communications is India's second largest mobile services provider, but most of its subscribers are on the CDMA platform.

Branding. . .

2007-03-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hyundai tells us that their cars make sense, Apple Computer offers us the power to be our best, and most of us don't believe a word of it. The fact is, when all is said and done, most people don't believe, don't remember, don't even notice, most advertising. This has always been so and always will be so. The vast majority of advertising is ineffective and inefficient.

And yet, there is a direct connection between a society's (or individual's) levels of exposure to advertising and the levels of consumption. How can this be? If advertising is inefficient, if 90 percent of all advertising is neither seen nor remembered by most people (according to surveys), if two minutes after being exposed to a particular message or brand I can no longer remember either the brand or the message, then where's the connection? How does something so banal and benign impact my consumption patterns and habits?
The message cited above for Hyundai automobiles ("Cars That Make Sense") has little or no effect either upon our personal lives or even Hyundai's sales overall. And we could say the same thing about thousands of other individual and isolated advertiser efforts. But the Hyundai advertising, combined with Apple Computer's advertising, combined with advertising for Tide detergent and Chivas Regal and RCA and Johnson's Floor Wax and the limited -time specials at your local department store or supermarket, has a very powerful collective effect indeed: it instructs us to Buy!

And it gives us, via lighthearted entertainment, permission to ignore the long-term consequences of our purchasing decisions by suggesting to us that we should not take any of this too seriously. (We shouldn't take a spilled glass of water too seriously, either. But a flood is a totally different matter.)

Advertising's real message, to buy and to buy ever more, to replace what we have rather than repair what we have, at one time served us well. When we were smaller in numbers, when we were still growing, still searching for a collective identity, when personal prosperity was touted as the primary reason for being alive, private property the only form of wealth, and when we were naive enough to believe it all, consumption and the ability to consume (choosing our livelihoods on the basis of whether or not it provided us with that ability!) was not only a way of life, it was a respectable one at that.

But we are no longer small in numbers. And we are no longer that naive. We can plainly see that advertising's collective power and our collective response to it has had, and continues to have, a profound and adverse effect upon our personal lives and upon the planet we share.
But pointing a finger at the advertising industry will change nothing. Wishing and hoping that the advertising industry will lose its innocence and suddenly leap into modern times in recognition of the situation we are all in is futile. And while the advertising industry is part and parcel of an industrial civilization now in decline, this doesn't mean we should expect the number of advertising messages and collective power of those messages to also decline in the very near future. If anything, it means we can expect an increase in the number of those messages. For the advertising industry, along with the main body of industrial society, is struggling for survival. It may be drowning, but it has not yet sunk. And in a last-ditch effort to save itself, it will flail about more wildly and make more noise than ever, as we might expect from any drowning individual.

No, what must change is us. What must change is how we see advertising in the context of the modern moment. We must recognize that its influence upon our lives and our well-being is in direct proportion to the amount of exposure in our lives, and that this exposure is an event unto itself, an experience separate from whether or not we respond to or believe individual messages.
High consumption has far more impact upon our environment than type of consumption. Buying much less and driving much less is better than just switching from plastic to paper or from "normal" unleaded to "super" unleaded. One of the first steps we must take towards consuming fewer goods is to consume less advertising.

Six Ways to Reduce Advertising in Your Life

1. Greater awareness of advertising's role in your life can help make you a conscious, instead of an automatic, consumer:

2. Don't be a walking advertisement.Remove those labels, tags and other symbols from your jeans and steer clear of T-shirt advertising, "alligator" shirts and clothing with designer logos. Why should you be an unpaid billboard?

3. Keep your counter clear of brand names.Whenever possible, transfer liquid soaps, cereals, cookies, nuts, juices and the like from their brand-identified store-bought containers into plain, general-purpose jars and cannisters. Or remove brand I.D. labels from store containers (but make sure the product is still clearly identifiable).

4. Take the road less traveled. Avoiding main highways and using local streets can help you sidestep the major arteries and commercial avenues in your locale. This will go a long way towards reducing your exposure to outdoor advertising and may even help you get to know your town or city a little better.

5. Reduce or eliminate junk mail.Department stores and local merchants will stop sending you flyers and other advertising if you ask them to. Many local direct-mail associations will also serve as clearinghouses for a request to eliminate junk mail. Check your phone directory for local listings or write to the national organization, Junk Mail Busters, Ste. 5038, 4 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA 94111.

6. Divest your possessions of brand names.Applicances, stereo components, computers, TV sets, tele-phones, sometimes even furniture almost all display prominent logos, but you don't have to live with them. Often you can cover them with tape or water-soluble colors, unscrew them or peel them away without damaging the item. (When resale value and slight damage are not concerns, you can obliterate them.)

7. Keep your branded items hidden.Store toothpastes in the medicine cabinet, detergents out of sight and return everyday foods or other frequently-used items that can't be transferred to alternate containers to cabinets immediately after use.

"Oops! that's seven! Was in the mood to write!!"

There are probably dozens of other ways to lower advertising consumption. See how many you can think of. Remember: the idea is to keep exposure to logos and brand names in your household as low as possible and to reduce it whenever and wherever possible.
It's impossible to totally eliminate advertising from your life completely, and if you could, you wouldn't want to. Much advertising serves a useful function by providing information about products and services, supporting mass distribution and helping to keep prices of some products affordable.

But ad consumption reduction can start to change the consumption-oriented mindset that makes brand names a source of status and an end in themselves.
Implementation of just one or two of these suggestions can help you begin to learn how to consume products, not advertising. And after all, isn't that the idea?

Copywriting???

2007-03-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

The future of copywriting is also going to be on Mobile Content giving advertisers the opportunity to reach End-Consumers directly.Mobile Campaigns via SMS,MMS and other Service oriented Mediums will over-take all Print and E-Commerce verticals with its Cost-Efficiency and Impact marketing.
You never know, if content writers would be hired for creating that 160 character message?!

FMCG : The next step - SMS your customer!!!

2007-03-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is one industry which is growing at a rate of 250% a year especially with the CommonWealth Games to be hostedin India in 2010.
Every major city is under development of Hotels, Restaurants, Consumer oriented stores, Big Retailers are flying-in india,etc after the F.D.I (Foreign Direct Investment) opening up.

Mobile Marketing pushes this threshold of the upper bar of Profits made by companies by reaching the level of Marketing making the consumer Super-Aware and Super-Cautious in his/her decision.
The side effect of this direct impact would be cut-throat competition amongst merchants and making life easier-as-it-comes for the consumers.

Way to go, Discounts & Vouchers are ringing your message tone guys!

Mobile Marketing in India

2007-03-09T23:52:00.000-08:00

For, Indian companies are increasingly opting for ‘Net-to mobile’ marketing techniques to promote their brands. With over 50 million people digitally connected in India, Internet analysts expect to see a huge growth in adspends on both the Internet and mobile medium in the next few months. By fusing the two, brand-owners are now targeting a wider audience. For instance, Coca-Cola India has extended its Net promotions to mobile phones to woo cellphone users. Likewise, HBO, L’Oreal India and CNN are extending their Internet promotions to mobile phones to reach out to a diverse target audience.India is one of the fastest growing mobile market in the world and with that brings immense mobile marketing opportunities for branded consumer companies. As Indian operators increase their sophistication and gain a better understanding of the demographics and usage statistics of their subscriber base, a scenario will emerge where the operator will sell this information to marketers. This is no different from a television network or radio station collecting ratings data and viewing habits for its programming, which enables it to sell commercial time for sponsors. The continued success of SMS marketing in India depends on the willingness of the Indian marketing and advertising establishment to adopt wireless as an accepted vehicle for campaigns. SMS Marketing is only the beginning and as operators upgrade their network to 2.5G/3G, MMS will allow marketers to develop even more sophisticated campaigns.
As for the reason behind these integrated marketing efforts, Internet analysts point out that Internet and mobile phones together are delivering ‘humungous reach’. “For instance, in India we have 20 million active Internet users and 35 million mobile users. It’s quite possible that 50 per cent of them are common—it still means that the two new medium can address almost 35 million users,” says Contests2win.com CEO Alok Kejriwal.According to Mr Kejriwal, the most common way of staying in touch these days is ‘send me a mail’ or ‘sms me’—which means that the two are part of everyday life. “The two new medium allow innovation, interaction and feedback. And brand-owners are having a huge party. Basically, both are ‘on-the-go’ medium. You cannot carry your TV or PC anywhere you go. But with GPRS facility, you can browse the Net on your cell phone,” he elaborates.

Clearly, the growing trend is of Mobile Marketing Mobile 'Media' Marketing as both reach the end-user instantly and has the highest conversion rate compared to the others.

M-Commerce...

2007-03-08T04:18:00.000-08:00

The Mobile Marketing and M-Commerce helps you understand what is just beyond the horizon by constructing three potential scenarios that plot spending growth for wireless advertising and marketing over the next five years.

Starting from the supposition that—in percentage terms—wireless advertising is at roughly the same level relative to interactive advertising that online advertising was in relation to traditional ad spending in the mid-to-late 1990s, each scenario begins from a plausible "what-if" position and builds to a fever pitch in 2005-2006, when many firms will throw money at this new channel, much as they did in the early days of the Internet.

Growing VAS popularity in India

2007-03-01T07:12:00.001-08:00

Growing VAS market

According to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the mobile content market in the country for 2004-05 was worth Rs 558 crore and is expected to reach Rs 1,802 crore by 2007.

Preeti Desai, President, IAMAI says, “The increased interest in and demand for personal expression applications across mobile users is driving the applications and content market. Entertainment and content applications offered by content publishers, aggregators and operators are increasingly central to the revenue and competitive positioning.”

According to Arpita Pal, Principal Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the content market comprising mobile gaming, ringtones, ringback tones and wallpapers is expected to increase tenfold in the next five years. Pal points out that mobile operators are working towards offering 3G to their subscribers to support content-rich applications.

Though none of the VAS providers is ready to divulge its revenues, there are other indications of their reach and demand: take any reality-based programme on television and you see the use of four-digit numbers for polling.

"We will use this venture capital to create a market for 3G, scale up our infrastructure, and expand into other countries"

-Arun Gupta
CEO, Mauj

The potential of the Indian content market can be gauged from the recent investment that Mauj Telecom received. The company got $10 million venture capital funding from a consortium led by WestBridge Capital Partners; Intel Capital and Sequoia Capital are the other members of the consortium.

Arun Gupta, the CEO of Mauj, explains how the funds will be utilised. “We plan to use this venture capital to create a market for 3G applications, scale up our infrastructure, and expand into geographies like the US, Britain, Canada and Africa in the areas of mobile music and gaming.”

"Ringtones downloaded from the Internet or with a short code service both need SMS. Thus, it is by far the largest
revenue generator"

-Rajiv Hiranandani
Country Head, Mobile2win

Presently, the Indian mobile market is riding high on rich media content that consists of SMS, music downloads, wallpapers and gaming, with SMS being the biggest revenue generator. Reasons Rajiv Hiranandani, Country Head, Mobile2win, “Anything that you download needs to be initiated by an MO (mobile originator). Ringtones downloaded from the Internet or with a short code service, both need SMS. Thus it is by far the largest revenue generator.”

Music comes next. According to a November 2005 survey by Soundbuzz (a one-stop online and mobile music company) that was based on reports from analysts and other sources, mobile music downloads (including ringback tones) in the Indian market are valued at Rs 400 crore. Approximately Rs 50 crore to Rs 60 crore was paid in royalties to the music industry in the past 18 months.

Gaming is still restricted to a certain age group (between 14 and 24), but it could take off with 3G. According to a Nasscom report, the mobile game-development industry is a $100 million business in India, and is growing at 100 percent year-on-year. By 2010, this industry is expected to be worth $500 million. Indian companies could book an additional $130 million meeting local demand for mobile games by then, up from the current $20 million. Presently, these games are priced between Rs 50 to 150. “In India, there are three price points Rs 50, Rs 99 and Rs 149; these depend on the brand and how exciting or relevant the game is. A generic game would cost Rs 50,” says Hiranandani. Mobile2win created a sort of record with its games on Bollywood themes. Till date its Sholay has been downloaded almost 1,50,000 times on to mobiles (excluding Reliance customers).

Says Rajesh Rao, CEO of Dhruva Interactive, whose games are popular among the gaming fraternity, “People are looking forward to sampling a variety of content on their wireless devices, and the number of VAS consumers is increasing.”

Another reason the mobile gaming market will grow in India is that it satisfies the aspirations of the common man. A niche segment has access to high-end PCs and consoles, but they are expensive for the common man. The mobile revolution has enabled millions of people to access games inexpensively.

Hiranandani opines that the content market has become competitive due to push from operators such as Reliance. “A few months ago Reliance was not charging for the content it was providing. It’s only now that it is charging. This means that now content providers are willing to develop quality content and deploy it across operators to make money.”

Along with the push from operators willing to charge their customers, experts feel that there is growing demand for content from tier II and III cities. Many feel that though the metros are growing in population, the demand for connectivity there has reached saturation point, hence players like BSNL, Airtel and Reliance are looking at tier II cities to push connectivity and content.

This shows that along with Mobile Marketing, there are various possibilities in the Mobile Content and Value Added Services segment, making Advertisers flourish there Products,Services and Brand-name across the globe.

source: expresscomputeronline. com

Mobile Ad Users : metrics by Mobile Marketing Association

2007-03-01T04:37:00.000-08:00

The Mobile Marketing Association has unveiled the first authoritative metrics on audience acceptance of mobile advertising. Results from a survey of more than 11,000 U.S.A mobile subscribers indicate that more than 41 percent of those who view or intend to view mobile video agreed they would watch advertisements in order to watch free mobile video. Additionally, 20 percent agree they would watch ads in order to watch mobile TV or video for a reduced fee. The research was conducted by research partner M:Metrics.

The report, commissioned by the MMA’s Mobile Video & Television Working Group committee, found that although only one percent of mobile subscribers currently access TV or video from a mobile phone, 23 percent of non-video users express some possibility of viewing video or television content on a mobile device within the next few months.

“The next six months are critical in the continued development of the mobile medium, and this study was instrumental in aligning marketers’ agendas with consumer expectations,” said Laura Marriott, executive director of the MMA. “The high level of consumer interest and enthusiasm on the part of advertisers, agencies and carriers suggests a promising role for advertising in mobile video and television. The MMA continues to lead the industry globally in establishing the guidelines, best practices and research to ensure a sustainable mobile marketing and advertising ecosystem.”

“This research shows that a sizable number of consumers, particularly those who are already consumers of mobile video, or express an interest in doing so, will accept advertising as part of the mobile video experience,” said Mark Donovan, senior vice president and senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Furthermore, the consumers most predisposed to advertising are younger, big-spending mobile users, creating an attractive target market for advertisers.”

The research found that 60 percent of current or prospective mobile video watchers expressed either willingness or ambivalence about sharing personal information to receive relevant offers, and those subscribers who spend more on mobile services per month are more likely to share personal information. Also, the firm found that males are more drawn to the notion of ad targeting than are females.

Why it works??

2007-03-01T04:04:00.000-08:00

In the digital age, companies that want to stay ahead need the tools to do so. Mobile marketing is one of those tools. This method of advertising allows businesses to connect to those that they need to, effectively. It allows the organization to spend messages to mobile phones to promote a product or a service. It also for them to tell their targeted audience that the store parking lot they just pulled into has something on sale. Or, it allows them to know that today is the last day for the lowest price of the seasons. Mobile marketing works for several reasons.

Convenience

Let’s face it. We are all working on finding the best way to accomplish all that we need to in the fastest, most convenient way. Mobile marketing allows individuals to receive the information they need to reach their goals, when they need it. It is convenient because it allows for not external needs. They don’t have to get online to see the ad. They don’t have to have the radio on a specific channel either. They don’t have to watch the television commercials to hear it. They get the information on their mobile phone. How many people that you know don’t take their phone with them?

Get It To The Right Audience

Mobile marketing is targeted advertising. You don’t find yourself pushing a new electronic gadget on the senior citizen that doesn’t know how to send an email. Because there is an activation process, the marketing goes to those who it will work for, those who are interested in the products and services available. There are few other mediums that can do that.

Personal Touch

The personal nature of mobile marketing also is effective for this type of advertising. The message is sent directly to them, not to a board range of people. This personal nature is quite effective at making them click and buy.

Mobile marketing is an excellent type of marketing that we can count on seeing more of down the road. Because of how well it works, more and more companies are getting it that this is the marketing of the future. Why waste money, precious advertising dollars on a ‘maybe they will see it’ type of advertising? Mobile marketing is fast becoming the advertising medium.

Source:Ezinearticles-S.Baker

Wireless Revolution in Marketing

2007-03-01T03:28:00.000-08:00

The reason why a simple SMS can deliver your Company's motto with so much more ease, lies in it's discreetness.

SMS is an extremely cost-effective, high-response-rate vehicle, which can help to acquire and retain consumers, sell and promote products, drive loyalty, and reinforce branding efforts. Have you tried SMS marketing to promote your business?

Abstract
Communication plays a vital role in Marketing. Till today we have seen newspapers, magazines, television, radio, hording, road shows and Internet as major marketing communication tools. In addition telecommunication has given new gift to us. M – Mobile.

Go through some facts:
According to one estimate, in 2005 text - based services formed a Rs 100 crore industry, approximately 30 per cent of the value-added services market. Over the next five years, it estimated that text-based services would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 47 per cent to reach Rs 720 crore in 2010.

Mobile marketing is highly personalised, interactive and has an immediate impact.

Attractive features of SMS (mobile) marketing instant, direct and fast.

2- Way communication.

Effective as it is targeted to particular age, gender or profession.

cost effective.

It can be easily promoted through cross-media like radio, TV or print.

As customer forward messages in a group it opens opportunities of Viral Marketing.

SMS is fun loving tool. It is catching up record breaking usage.

ICM telephone survey

94% of messages are ‘read’, which helps explain the high levels of response and brand impact. The best performing campaigns, the study reveals outstanding results as follows: 46% response (of any type), 27% Reply to a message, 19% visit a web site, 15% Visit a store. The average campaign delivers 15% response (of any type), which is more than twice the average other industry reports have given for direct mail (sources: Gartner, DMIS) Where is it so effective?
"Mobile marketing is suited best to drive sales of consumer packaged goods, restaurant menu items and high-street retail commodities -- sectors that have advertised very little online to date."
- Jupiter Research analyst Dylan Brooks