Indian company to introduce audio ads in mobile phones

How many times have you called your friend on his mobile phone and heard a song instead of the usual ringback tone? It’s quite common these days, right? Well; we’re about to get to the next stage of it. How about getting some audio ads instead of ringback tones?

OnMobile, an interactive advertising company in India, has come up with this idea. Suitably named AdRBT (Ad Ringback Tones), the program allows mobile users to opt in to the program which will replace the usual ringback tone with a variety of audio ads. In exchange, the user will get special discounts and offers.

OnMobile is confident that these audio ads will have high response rates and excellent recall rates and the impact might be huge. However, I think it’s only a 50/50 chance. Not many will be excited at the prospect of replacing their ringback tones with arbitrary ads and it might not be a smooth sail for the company initially. The way I see it, even people who are fine with text message ads and banner ads might find these audio ads a tad intrusive. But then, it’s just my opinion. And the Indians in general are not as finicky about mobile ads as their US counter parts. So, I might as well be proved wrong. Either way, it will be interesting to see the progress this company makes.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile advertising in India will be a $100 million market soon

With over 270 million mobile users, India is considered probably the hottest mobile phone market in the world. With this being the case, mobile advertisers are trying to cash in on the opportunity, as expected. As we’ve already seen, Indian operators are excited about mobile advertising and they see it as a potential long term revenue generating model. So, it’s only a matter of time before mobile advertising takes off big time in India.

Industry experts have predicted that mobile phone advertising in India would be worth more than $100 million in just a few years from now. Considering the market is currently valued at a measly $1million, it looks like quite a prediction. But experts firmly believe that the Indian market has the potential to become one of the top players in the world as far as mobile advertising is concerned. However, there are a couple of issues which need to be addressed to make this happen.

First, the cost of mobile web should be brought down. Though data plans in India are pretty much affordable, mobile web is one area where they can bring down the cost furthermore to attract more users to use the mobile internet facility regularly.

Second, the issue of revenue sharing between advertisers and mobile operators is an area of concern. Right now, the ratio is 70:30 with 70% of the revenue going to mobile operators and 30% going to advertisers. Understandably, advertisers are not exactly happy with this disproportionate sharing and they want this ratio to be revised.

Experts say that if mobile operators and advertisers could address these issues, the market may reach the $100 million mark sooner than later.

I actually think the issues mentioned here are common for markets all over the world. Even in the U.S., not everyone with a web-enabled phone is enthusiastic about surfing the web regularly, as the data plans are pretty costly. And the issue of disproportionate revenue sharing is not unheard of either, as the spat between Verizon and Google is well known. So, it’s basically an inherent flaw in the system. Unless people address this issue, there will always be hurdles in the path.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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South African students to learn mobile marketing in classrooms

South Africa has always been a special market as far as mobile marketing is concerned. With more than 80% of population having mobile phones, mobile phone has almost replaced TV and other such media to become the number one medium for marketing and advertising purposes. To add another feather to its cap, South Africa has introduced something which is truly one-of-its-kind. Soon, university students in South Africa will study a course in mobile marketing.

As incredible as it may sound, it is true. The UCT Graduate School of Business has unveiled a course in mobile marketing which is scheduled to begin next month. This course, I’m told, will focus on getting students used to mobile marketing the right way. It will take a proactive approach to educate the students to reach the 36 million mobile users in the country.

I really hope this course equips students to get acquainted better with mobile marketing techniques and develops an ability to devise different strategies for mobile marketing. Didn’t we hear someone say ‘the future is mobile?’

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Will the music industry go mobile?

After newspapers, it seems it’s the turn of the music industry to go mobile. I mean, let’s face it. The music industry is not what it used to be and CD sales have dropped considerably. The industry has stagnated to say the least and going mobile to reinvent itself seems to be the only option left. Thankfully, some artists have already realized that and have taken the next step.

A few months back, we saw Madonna sign a deal with Vodafone wherein Vodafone users were able to listen to the album Hard Candy before it was even released in the market. Similarly, earlier this month, British pop sensation Natasha Bedingfield signed a deal with Verizon and will headline a Verizon VIP tour. Verizon users will have exclusive access to Natasha’s albums and users who download ringtones and other such content will get free tickets to her concert and other such promotional items. Usher Raymond has signed a similar deal with Sony Ericsson which will be the primary sponsor for Usher’s musical tour which is scheduled later this year. Though AT&T is yet to sign such deals with musicians, it has already signed deals with music websites such as Napster and eMusic.

The future, everyone says, is mobile. The dipping sales of compact discs and the alarming growth rate of pirated discs have made musicians take some serious decisions regarding the future and some musicians have already set the precedent. Now, it remains to be seen how quickly others can adapt to this new age medium. What do you say?

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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Will newspapers go mobile?

Websites are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Corporations are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Advertisers are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Banks are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. What’s next on the list? Newspapers, they say.

When you look at the current scenario, it looks like an obvious transition for newspapers. The circulation is declining by the day as people are more and more getting used to the content available on the internet and the mobile phone. In this case, newspapers hardly have a choice.

Fortunately, the bigwigs of the newspaper world have realized the need for this transition. Already, we have seen Associated Content launch its mobile portal and I have no doubt it will be followed by other news networks. The writing is on the wall. With 3.3 billion active users, mobile market is the biggest market there is. Realizing this, U.S. mobile carriers have invested an astonishing $40 billion to retool themselves according to the new mobile age.

Currently, more than 30% of mobile users surf the internet on their mobile phone. The number is rapidly rising as new mobile users these days mostly go for web enabled mobile phones. With this being the case, newspapers have to find a way to get into the mobile phone at any cost.

The newspaper, fortunately, is almost tailor made for a medium like mobile phone. The specialty of newspapers lies in their ability to provide local content, which is exactly what mobile users want. The more local your data is, the better it will be for the users, since most of them use their mobile phone to find out local information like weather, local events, and so on. So, the transition will be seamless, so to speak. When newspapers go mobile, it will also mean a huge opportunity for mobile advertisers to be able to display highly targeted ads along with the local news content.

What needs to be done – this everyone seems to know. When will it get done? That’s the question. Don’t you agree?

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

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