The mobile advertising is in its nascent stage, but is loaded with immense possibilities and endless opportunities. While the media managers are trying to decipher the way people are responding, the fact remains that it will be one of the biggest advertising platforms in the near future.
The main reason of course is the reach that it can offer with a push of an SMS. For that part Short Messaging Service has now become Sales Messaging Service. Sometimes I do wonder where I left them the number to message me. While Indian public is not too keen on being proactive to being private we are ok with a few messages coming in from almost everybody who is selling.
Now the advent of the Chinese mobile handsets with features that match the best selling iPhone or a Nokia or a Blackberry, promises to take the mobile advertising platform to a new high. Innovations in the form of applications and other software make the usage of the mobile phone convenient and more user-friendly. The most successful applications will be those who can engage the audience in its effort to create an addictive and loyal base of subscribers.
Apart from this a look at the telecom industry in India would clearly suggest the fall in the rate of Voice platform across the local/STD and ISD platforms, and this will push the operators to launch a massive VAS platform across the board. It’s going to be the days of VAS though pay per user variable will be in vogue.
The latest BCG report on telecom industry in BRIC and Indonesia makes an interesting reading when it says that the next set of users would be introduced to internet through the mobile rather than the computer. Now that’s really a great phenomenon in the making especially in India. Internet mobility has the power to redefine the idea of broadband and bandwidth. With the advent of 3G, the opportunities are going to but only increase in terms of what the bandwidth can offer and also engage the users interactively at the palm of his hand. This would throw up a quite a new wave of advertising opportunities and learning opportunities for both the brands and also the consumer.
The best part of the mobile phone is that it’s a very personal thing for the owner. Then of course the reach is instant unless the mobile is not in his hands. It can be timed and more so it can be targeted so very easily and also be seen that how fast they respond and an SMS a minute old is a lost thing for ever. That’s the pace that the industry will be driven at, they miss your SMS and you lose a customer. This is where context and timing plays an important role. Though we might find it intrusive, it is here to stay. Chances are that we might find sms telling us a new café in the neighbourhood at 7 pm or 8 pm so that there is enough time for us to really explore.
Then there is the social networking which we are a part of whether we like it or not. Our days are getting organized by Facebook alerts and twitter tweets. Its no more personal diaries now. We find the best of brands in the Facebook. Recently Vodafone celebrated 1 million fans in the Facebook, that’s a remarkable achievement by any standard.
Now the big screen is being squeezed into the smaller one albeit a 7 incher ipad or say a Chinese make Olive and sometimes with Samsung galaxy’s and Nokia. An artificially created aura around the social networking has taken its toll with us looking for updates at every other second with a ping or twitter updates. It’s a fight for one-upmanship in all the spheres of social networking and this will replace all the communication aspects in the days to come, people will say I told you so on fb and twitter. So much is possible.
And people have now started adding applications every other minute to their mobile phone with a hope that they are not gonna be selective about being on chat or fb or orkut, they are infact looking for one application which will host all these and more on their mobile screen. All this at a cost that they are no more private entities.
Will discuss this and more in the next blog. Till then happy working!!!
R Senthilkumar