Now, ads directly on mobile screens

Till now, the only way an advertiser could place an advertisement on a mobile phone was through a formal SMS. When you opened an SMS, the advertiser’s message would be found at the bottom or the SMS itself would be an text ad. How about a new advertising platform where the beep sound of an SMS would not disturb the user and in fact the user will not even have to even key into the inbox to read it?

Hyderabad-based technology company, NowPos (short for NowPossible) Online Services Private Limited, has developed a new process — Beep — where one can place brand logos or miniature advertisements on mobile screens.

Ayyappa Nagubandi, chairman and CEO, NowPos, said: “The idea is to create an image-based advertising platform, where a mobile phone user can see the advertisement directly on his screen — as long as the advertiser wants him to — anywhere from one minute to 24 hours.”

Claiming the Beep software to be the world’s first, the company had recently filed a patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, he added. The software occupies 112 KB of memory in a mobile device.

NowPos has tied-up with Airtel to run a pilot of its GSM-based Beep software in Andhra Pradesh. The firm is offering Rs 100 free talktime to the latter’s 25,000 subscribers for downloading the software on their mobile phones.

“The Indian mobile industry is possibly among the fastest growing sectors in the country. From 280 million mobile phones in May 2008, the industry is expected to grow up to 737 million mobile phones by 2012, making the mobile screen one of the most visible and sought after media in the world by every advertiser,” Nagubandi said.

The closely-held company is currently in talks with other mobile operators in India including BSNL, Vodafone and Idea, besides initiating talks with telecom companies in West Asia. “We expect these talks to reach fruition by the end of next quarter,” he said, adding the company expected its subscriber-base to touch 100,000 in a month.