Application

Phone advertising

Forget the 30-second spot on your 30 inch TV. How about getting offers through SMS or flash messages on your mobile phone's screen? Marketers are using personalized advertisements delivered by SMS or Bluetooth. TELiBRAHMA has pioneered this technology says Mohd Shariff PA

Television-style advertising is coming to a mobile phone near you. It is part of a broader push by marketers to create a new generation of ‘up close and personal’ ads by delivering text clips/SMS loaded with offers. Markets have taken a cue from the growing mobile subscriber base that has reached critical mass and consumers are slowly starting to witness applications beyond voice and SMS. This makes the mobile a fresh, attractive and powerful channel for marketers. Mobile operators are trying to open a new window of opportunity in advertising.

What kind of mobile advertising inventory are mobile operators looking at, and how attractive is the mobile channel for mobile marketers? Walk into ‘The forum’, a premier shopping mall in Bangalore, and you are welcomed with messages that contain information about all the activities available in the mall such as special offers, events, movies, destinations and more. Apart from this ‘Big Brands’ can recognize the credible customers who visited last time and communicate to them using Bluetooth/SMS.

The company whose technology powers all of this is TELiBRAHMA, a Bangalore-based mobile solutions company, that is pioneering the concept of mobile advertisements. Its solution is known as GenieTik and it is being used by brands such as Adidas, Archies, Witco, Sangeetha and Titan among others. Other brands are piloting similar technology at different outlets in Bangalore. GenieTik can be downloaded onto any GPRS phone.

Suresh Narasimha, CEO & Founder, TELiBRAHMA, said, “We have recently come out with a tool called GenieTik. This is a Bluetooth infrastructure that enables communication between brands and products and potential users of the same and our customers speaks volumes of the success of this concept.” The company has partnered with ‘Forum Mall’ and ‘Theme Infracomm’ to provide an M-advertising channel to the business establishments at The Forum mall and this facility is first of its kind in India.

Brand owners and franchisees can easily send personalized messages to a specific target audience based on their marketing needs through targeting with this personalized solution. Advertisements reach the audience who are already present at a mall with the clear intent of shopping. A brand can touch its audience right where it matters the most with point of purchase advertisements that is location and context oriented. The technology delivers a message with high impact and it is on demand with a clear no Spam strategy where the advertisers can maximize impact be sending only permission-based messages.

The technology is not expensive; it uses minimal infrastructure. It has a simple management and monitoring interface that helps marketers focus on advertising rather than infrastructure management. This solution helps businesses utilize mobile advertising to reach their customers at the right time with the right information. In a way this is a win- win situation for advertisers and consumers. The service comes free of cost to consumers and is a cost-effective medium of advertising for the retail outlet.

The upside to using cell phones as a marketing medium is that text messaging is good for short-and-snappy communication. It lets businesses see how a particular campaign, such as a discount offer, directly affects sales. Moreover, it works out to be less expensive than television, radio and print buys. Through this application a brand can build a community of consumers tied to the brand through their mobile phones, where the community members can connect with each other and exchange information. Narasimha added, “The most vibrant feature of this solution is Loyalty Management, where enterprises can build a loyalty management program to recognize and reward their loyal customers and help users to subscribe for the loyalty program on their mobile phones.”

TELiBRAHMA has developed another novel mobile/ticketing application, which is relevant for malls. It is called a Mobile E-Ticket and can be availed of by interested parties by visiting the concerned brand’s Web site using a GPRS-enabled phone. The mobile e-ticket then is downloaded onto the handset and becomes an official entry ticket. Information about the movie and details about the launch party are embedded in the mobile application with a unique bar code invitation developed exclusively for the promotion of the movie. This can be used across verticals. The delivery of the application to the mobile handsets is done using WAP [wireless application protocol]. In this application, the information about the WAP push link is published through high-traffic Web sites; people interested in getting an invite will visit the site and register to receive an invitation.

For effective campaign management, TELiBRAHMA has showcased campaign management, where delivery of welcome greetings and the application via Bluetooth routers to a guest’s mobile handset. Similarly the company has another add-on application called mobile search. Narasimha said, “We have added an innovative mobile search engine that delivers useful and action-oriented results to end users. It helps users to look for ATMs, hospitals, petrol bunks, eateries, and entertainment (cinema, concerts) based on the location.”

The company’s Event Management solution tracks all the details of an event and pushes the same to a participant’s mobile via Bluetooth. Moreover event managers can do social networking where if you know the person, but not the number, you can just send an SMS it will appear in the information that is sent out. Through this a person can understand that somebody wants to meet him, and he can do the same to confirm the meeting.

Growth at a faster rate

The company expects mobile advertising to grow tremendously. According to analysts, mobile advertising will be worth $10 billion by 2010 and it will surpass online advertising revenues by 2013. This segment of the advertising market is nascent in in India but with millions of customers being added every quarter there is a vast potential market to be tapped. Narasimha said, “Consumers may be intrigued by an ad or a promotion that they see at a festival, for instance, but have no way to interact or find out more.” A mobile campaign offers an opportunity for a brand to connect with a consumer takes things one step forward. In general it is all about innovations that help businesses and brands reach buyers at the right moment.

Mobile marketing by its personal and intimate nature, could solve some of the frustrations that advertisers have with consumers ignoring television commercials. The size of the screen may turn out not to matter and a phone’s tiny screen may be the answer.