 We have heard talks from various startups and mobile service providers about cell phone marketing becoming the next big medium in India. When ?
Lets have a look at what's in-play and what's holding them back ? The only successful mobile campaign is by Hutch in Mumbai. Hutch runs and manages a campaign on behalf of restaurants and cinema halls offering discounts on Tuesdays when the demand is the poorest. Another similar service is offered by burrp! - when you download business card of an establishment, you may also get a gift cupon.
What's Holding them back ?
"Advertisers want to bulk message the subscriber base of a telecom company, which amounts to spam. Telcos are very rightfully opposed to this," he says. Kejriwal has a slightly different perspective" said Arvind Rao, CEO, OnMobile
"No responsible telco will reveal details about their users. The telco will not be willing to participate until it has a business proposition and the necessary permission from the subscribers" said Naveen Chopra, Chief Marketing Officer, Hutch
"Mobile advertising is only a supplementary medium. We will need to have more traditional agencies spreading it as a part of the media mix. But there is need for intervention from specialist agencies to support the mainline agencies too" said R Lakshminarayanan, CEO, Mudra Marketing Services
Adding to their woes is low penetration of higher-end handsets which means advertisers have no choice but to test SMS based ads only. OR They can go for a model where mobile calling can be free.
Tags: Mobile India, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Advertising
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Anyone agency offiering a mobile marketing service should offer a free inbound number to all customers. This number can then be published on marketing material to generate lists on opt-in subscribers. It is simple and very effective.
At Txtlocal we offer a free inbound number to any customer who joins our free service. We only make money on the SMS text messages that are purchased in bundles. We have many hundereds of businesses that have built up their own little communities of opt-in subscribers and it is providng to be very effective.
Alastair
Ops Director
http://www.txtlocal.com