At the ASSOCHAM Focus09 conference, Ravi Kiran, CEO (South East & South Asia) for Starcom MediaVest indulged in some straight talk regarding mobile advertising in India. Kiran was responding to Shabir Momin, Director at Zenga, who had said that he’s having a tough time convincing the advertising industry to invest spends on a medium (rather Zenga) which he said has a niche, paying-capable audience, and is more targeted, also suggesting that it’s time for mobile to graduate from SMS.
Kiran was blunt in his response: “If you’re asking me a question about why I’m having a tough time (spending on Mobile), then you’ll have a tough time. I can tell you that it will be a tough time for a minimum 5-8 years. Marketing people, whether we like it or not, don’t move as fast as we want them to. Ten years after creation of digital advertising as a medium, that medium is still struggling. It is still 3.5 percent of the Rs. 21-25,000 crores that this country spends on advertising. If you think that people will get evangelized in six months or one year, it is naive.”
Kiran is fairly active on digital platforms, and it didn’t appear as if he was playing down the richness or the potential of the medium; rather, he was being pragmatic about how long it takes to build acceptance among marketers. The problem apparently is that the marketers aren’t convinced yet, though estimates have suggested that India has 15-20 million mobile Internet users.
So what’s your take: what’s ailing the mobile advertising business in India, and what steps need to be taken to build the ecosystem? We’ll update with your views.
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20 Comments until now.
Finally someone had the guts to speak the truth. Mobile advertising will increase in India but not to the levels the way the VCs in India are talking about.
couldn't agree more..as someone rightly said..yeh to moongfaliyon ka dhanda hai
When India is among the fastest growing market in India, why cant it be utilized for brand communication more effectively?
India has over 400 million mobile consumers, which is larger than the daily circulation of all news papers in India put together!
Here we like to talk for the whole year whether to implement new innovations or not. And decisions will be taken after the trend has passed away.
When are we going to be proactive?
Or, When it will be understood that,
Mobile is not about the device. But its about the consumer on the go!
Well said Manoj, It is about time that the advertising janta woke up to the powers of the mobile as a medium.
Being from an advtg background myself, I know the corrupting influence of traditional media over the newer age delivery mechanisms. The fear psychosis in the advertising/ media industry is the redundancy of existing professionals which would happen if mobile as a medium is embraced by the marketeers and hence the mediamen are leaving no stone unturned in resisting the mobile. Have a whole bag of reasons but that would require a complete forum to elaborate
In 5-8 years there might be 1 Billion Mobile Users – would it really take that long to realize the mobile marketing opportunity??
Here are a few reasons why mobile marketing has a slow uptake but wont for long (hopefully):
1.Till about a year ago the only major form of mobile marketing that existed was Bulk SMS, today you have several ad networks, operator portals, media sites that are taking advertising seriously – hence there is no longer a dearth for a place to advertise on mobile
2.MINDSET! – Digital i.e. internet was difficult enough so mobile isnt going to have it easy – but mindset is built by experience and experience by knowledge – there are brands out there who are now very knowlegable about mobile as a medium and hence beginning to experience it and try it out and hence have a different, more positive, mindset.. and then there are brands (far more than the previous lot) who have a knowledge gap on mobile marketing and more importantly on mobile as a medium and what all innovation is possible on it – this is the gap that ppl in the mobile marketing industry need to bridge
3.CPMs – one can argue that lets not take mobile the digital way, but if you dont provide value the advertiser wont advertise – Mobile has a big edge here – what the internet can deliver at 10 bucks can be done on mobile with 5! Mobile needs to get this paradigm right
4.We need to have more and more properties out there that make it worthwhile for brands to spend money on them and drive engagement in a totally different manner
Some stats that might support why mobile should be king:
Internet – 47 million
Print – 169 million
Radio – 180 million
Mobile – 385 million (incidentally this is way beyond now)
TV – 467 million
Source: Webchutney Digital Media Outlook 2009
Given that mobile has the biggest reach but yet gets the least share of ad spend.. there is something that doesn't fit right in the equation. The show might start sooner than we imagine!
Hi,
Mobile penetration in India is the second highest in the world today. Every month over 8 million users are being added.Then why so late.
1. the advertising agencies have to understand about the mobile medium.
2. the operator have to share the all possible stats with the media planners/agencies
for operator this is the best time to open their platform ( RBT, game, sms, USSD, PCN etc.) for mobile advertising,since they are struggling on VAS revenue
The debate about mobile advertising is a bit misplaced. IMO, the digital community has been steadily shortselling itself by translating the print ad to the internet and now dumbing further down to the mobile. The fact is that a visual ad on a phone (even a large screen smartphone) adds far less relative value to the brand as compared to an internet ad and pales in comparison to what value a print ad can provide.
The debate must shift to Marketing 101 and to exploring what value the mobile can provide to brands, and I believe there is tremendous value to be unlocked. We are likely to conclude that mobile advertising inventory does not happen to be the main value creators for brands.
Not good news for media agencies. No wonder Ravi Kiran is a skeptic.
Let's go down the memory lane to the good old doordarshan days. Was there any metric to measure the advtg efficacy then? but the brands still flocked to the medium. TAM and the likes came down the scene much later…so why get into metrics on a nascent medium like mobile straightaway. The same fate has befallen the web. Why are we so obsessed with metrics from day 1. Let the numbers come onto the platform……………….this is incubation stage and let the brands get first mover advantage onto it.
Current Media planners' obsession with traction and stickiness is far fetched. What point advtg on a medium on which you do a 4+ frequency and 60% reach etc. when you are not even sure if the ad has been seen by the TG or were they running to the loo or calling up to place a home delivery for a pizza.
For the complete unlock of mktg potential, the planners need to have an attitudinal shift and try to understand the dynamics the platform offers. This is where the advtg industry is lagging. Unwillingness to learn a new media and beating the old media to death. Let us look beyond short codes and sms mktg. initiates. There is a whole lot of stuff waiting to happen………………where there is a will,,,,,,,,,,,,,there is a way.
Agree with Ravi on the Brand Managers/ Media Managers part but this is where precisely the advtg fraternity which are brand/ media custodians come into the limelight. If sponsorships et al on really sick programs and spot buys on nondescript channels like India TV can be pushed through – why is it so difficult to convince for the mobility platform.
I guess, it is the apathy towards the mobile medium as well as the web which is responsible for the sorry state of web/ mobile in the country. On top of it, the attitude of telcos and TRAI does not help either. What help pushing things like DND/ DNC in a country grossly under-penetrated in terms of mobile tele-density. Aping the mature western mkts. is unreasonable simply because our demographics and psychographics are absolutely diff.
The entire outlook needs to change for the positive begining with brands and agencies making at least a half hearted attempt to push mobility as the most interactive media in the hands of the common man. Make the telcos see money in this age of diminshing ARPU's and then we do have a solid business case to make out. Look how content publishers are monetising stuff which run into a measly few million dollars. Even 1% of the total media spends directed towards mobility would actually make telcos sit up and welcome media agencies and brands with open arms.
With the kind of team Ravi has am sure he is finding it difficult to get his clients to believe in mobile. Get a few good folks from GroupM in your team and you will see how even advertisers with the most traditional mindsets can invest significantly on the mobile and thus enhance effectivenessof their communication. You need to learn from others and not be caught sleeping when change happens. Wake up RAVI….
Thanks for all the comments guys. My name is Ravi Kiran.
I am listening and am really appreciative. Just to clarify, I am not a mobile skeptic, quite the contrary. I am just angry and frustrated at the pace at which marketing, advertising and media people adopt technology and new media. I also believe that anything to do with new and technology powered media, gets so hyped up in the beginning and people practicing those disciplines create such a 'this is the only thing you need' kind of argument, that the real users, people with money, the marketers, find it easy to go back to the tried and tested.
PART 2:
Any of you who has worked with marketing and advertising people would know that it isn't easy changing behaviour. That is the message I was giving Shabir Momin of Zenga, a bright young man. Evengelizing isn't easy. If you are impatient, you will get frustrated quickly.
I will be happy if mobile marketing 'matures' before 5-8 years. I just hope we know what maturity means, Even after 17 years, satellite TV is far from mature.
Love the debate.
The PC internet has quite a few 'platforms' / destinations and still gets about 3-4% of the ad spends, how many such properties on mobile – none. Its a great tool for downloading VAS services, spamming via SMS and generally displaying progressive-ness amongst the advertisers but there's no stellar content platform, ad hoc metrics and an attitude of database buying (to spam). I remember turning down a viral marketing campaign for a stellar int'l platform because the spammed the bazzoongas out of my team when they tried the service.
in 5 – 8 years the distinction will be gone (between PC and mobile internet) and maybe we can all play catch-up with the world again.
Mobile invetory is irrelevant.. what activity is done on that is what will make the difference. Yes mobile cannot provide the perfect 'visual' appeal – but thats not what mobile is there for. Mobile will play the biggest role by 'adding' to an existing exceptional visual in print or TV by making that static information active with engagement and interactivity – hence will really help to complete a 360 picture. Also with audience shift from TV to internet to mobile, like is happening internationally (youngsters watch less TV than spend time on the net), – mobile may become a preferred choice even for visuals – who knows, only time shall tell.. perhaps 5-8 yrs:)??
The web is just a pipe to reach out to – you name it – communities/ blogs/ mail/ entertainment etc…..ditto the mobile. Use the mobile web to reach out to the same. The web or the mobile is not the destination in itself rather a medium to access diverse services which are platform agnostic.
Let's move out of the short code/ SMS spamming genre and get onto WAP by sponsoring diff portions of the operator's data portal or the thousands of mobile portals available. Millions of eyeballs guaranteed with pin-point accuracy on who/ when/ where/ what time/ what device/ how long accessed the particular page/ service (impressions). promotional MMS messaging/ cuponing the likes are yet to be explored. Mobile offers the best metrics and hence the debate on measurability and ROI falls flat and does not hold good. However, if the telcos offer targetted database, the age of advertising dollars on traditional media platforms could come under heavy artillery.
Its All about targetting the users basis on their browsing history !!
Completely agree with you ravi.
I've worked in advertising in the past. I know how difficult it is to make a client understand and adopt new solutions since nobody wants to be first, especially in digital. I believe by end of 2010 many of the clients will jump in to mobile either because of their competitors are on mobile or after realizing that all of their consumers are on mobile!
Hi Aman, i believe it much more beyond that!
There are options like
1) WAP
2) Games
3) LBS
4) Bluetooth marketing
5) SMS
6) Augmented reality
7) Games /Applications
…much more
The only challenge is how best we utilize the power of mobile to create great engagements between the consumer and marketer.