Now invite ads at your convenience

Mobile marketers see value in being non-intrusive and sending customised ads on request.

Mobile marketers are becoming more sensitive to the fact that unsolicited mobile advertisements are a nuisance for mobile users. With the realisation that the mobile is a very personal device, they are now becoming more selective with the help of the 3Ps to simultaneously enhance the efficiency of mobile advertising— they are ensuring that the information is pushed to people at the right time, with their permission, and after personalising it.

For instance, you buy something from a retail store and want to be updated with the new arrivals. So you ‘invite’ information from the store on new arrivals and it will send multiple SMSs every month telling you what’s new. And you have the right to opt-in and opt-out.

Called invertising (from ‘inviting’ advertising), the move is aimed at ensuring a spam-free world for customers. Moreover, customers can become publishers, choosing to share what they have received with their social networks (viral spread).

“Invertising is one level above mobile advertising. It is information as content that people choose to receive, creating a direct relationship with the brand. So, advertising helps in acquiring new customers, while invertising is about reducing the incremental cost of contact while engaging with them,” explains Chirag Randeria, vice-president, mobility sales, Netcore Solutions (a mobile products and services provider which owns MyToday mobile media).

Such SMS ads tagged with opt-in and opt-out content are becoming a hit among advertisers as half of the mobile subscriber base uses SMS (only 3 per cent use the mobile Internet). Mobile marketing is a Rs 50-crore industry.

The results are there to see. Netcore, for instance, is doing campaigns for Meri Saheli. Western Railway (52,786 subscribers) also publishes regular updates on its services and new trains and facilities they are coming up with. Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) (110 subscribers ) used this interesting format when it launched its water purifie PureIt. Colgate (3,683 subcribers), Amul (3,893 subcribers) and The Economist (6,608 subscribers) also ran campaigns inviting people to subscribe to short SMS channels.

Invertising creates a hotline between the brand and the customers. It delivers to advertisers on a higher level because customers invites ads from the brands they like, the shops they visit and the companies whose products they buy. Randeria adds: “It supports ‘do not disturb’ call registry formula. It’s an accountable channel. Advertiser pay per subscriber or number of messages. In the coming months, we will also come up with permitted caller ring back tunes.”

A brand can take 20 per cent of its customer base — the most profitable ones, who are also the most vulnerable to competition — and build a daily relationship with them for just Rs 2 per customer per month.

Nielsen recently did a survey of over 2,000 subscribers of MyToday which reported that the average age of the subscriber group is 25 years and nearly 80 per cent belong to the premium segment. Seventy five per cent of the subscribers read every SMS that they receive, 40 per cent read all ads, and 30 per cent of them have taken action on the ads that they have seen. MyToday has worked with over 120 advertisers in the past year who have run more than 200 campaigns.

Naveen Tewari, CEO, mKhoj, a mobile advertising company, says: “While the Internet is being touted as the metric-based advertising channel, more than 40 per cent of contact information provided by audience in the post-click forms is incorrect.” mKhoj has advertised with 50 brands on invertising model. Unlike Internet, mobile number allows consumers to be uniquely targeted. It reaches the right target audience, comes directly on user’s mobile and there is no chance of getting the mobile number wrong.