Next Generation Services Now Telescope

LBS-based Mobile Marketing

By Yogesh Bijlani, VP APAC Sales, Telenity, Inc.

India is a booming mobile market with over 15 million subscribers being added every month and the current mobile density almost touching 40%. With the current slow down impacting all spheres, the advertising industry is looking very closely at the ubiquitous mobile screen that offers it both addressability and personalization. Even though it is still in a nascent stage in India, its potential is well understood. Telenity Inc. being a market leader in Location Based Services and driving the solution development of Location Based Marketing and Advertising is at the fore front in addressing some of the unique needs of the India market. Below is an interaction of Yogesh S. Bijlani, Vice President Sales, Asia Pacific at Telenity with a leading telecommunications publication in India.

You have been very closely involved in the evolution of Value Added Services and its success in India. What have been the clear Mega trends and the reasons for their success?

The two mega trends of VAS in India in the last few years are Caller Ring Back Tones and Infotainment Subscriptions with the former having crossed the 20% penetration mark and the latter slowly inching towards the same penetration. The reasons for success are the same that makes us so optimistic about the success of mobile marketing in India – the vibrant music and infotainment culture that is so visible across all media of radio, television, movies, on the net and now the mobile.

How do you see the Mobile Marketing concept in India? What according to you are the key growth drivers?

Mobile Marketing as a concept is very relevant to India as it enables subscribers to get information that is relevant to them, possibly at the right time, the right location and for FREE. For the mobile operators and advertisement owners, it is an opportunity to capitalize on this by delivering advertisements to the subscriber of their interest, at a time convenient to him and possibly at the relevant location. The key growth drivers enabling this service are first a viable business model that allows subscribers to receive relevant marketing information for free. (As of today, the whole mobile service is a paid model where you have to first pay and then receive the service.) Secondly, simplicity across all handsets in the bearers that the subscribers are comfortable with. This means for the bulk of the users, the service should be enabled on voice, SMS and USSD that work on all handsets. For the high end users, it is enabled as MMS, WAP links and Video. The third key driver is a mechanism that enables the operator to easily capture the usage behavior of the co-opted subscribers and share it with the advertisement owners. Successful services like free subscription alerts provided by My Today or free CRBT with Ad content being used by millions of customers are examples that highlight the above mentioned growth drivers.  

Could you elucidate on the various forms of mobile marketing? What are the some of the global trends specifically in US/UK/Japan?

Though various forms of mobile marketing have been introduced in different markets, we observe a universal trend in all countries where the service has been successful and it is all linked to FREE. Telenity recently did a study of Mobile Marketing in 11 Countries and the result was as follows:

  • 88% of surveyors were willing to receive m-coupons for free
  • 86% liked advertising if it enabled them to keep service cost down
  • 51% were willing to receive push advertising of preferred categories

In western world, the concept of Bluetooth Marketing has gained immense heights. How do you see its relevance in India?

Viral marketing has been successful in India but limitations of Bluetooth as a technology and issues of spamming will result in limited success.

What are new technologies in mobile marketing space? What are the various challenges associated with it?

Telenity sees the emergence of USSD as a very relevant and popular technology for mobile marketing. It has various features and functionality that make it very relevant for mobile marketing.

  • It works on all GSM handsets
  • It is unobtrusive and appears as a flash on the mobile screen
  • It has a browser with a menu and sub trees

USSD services like subscription alerts, prepaid recharge services are already being offered by all the operators in India and browsing on USSD is enabled for free. Telenity being a dominant solution provider for the USSD portfolio is seeing a lot of demand from the Indian subcontinent.
Location Based Advertising is another very relevant technology in this space as it enables reaching the right customer, at the right time and location. This is a push service that is event driven where the user receives a notification (IVR, SMS, USSD, MMS) based on his preference, location or movement. For example, a person who has chosen “restaurants” as his interest area for mobile advertisements will receive a mobile coupon alert giving him discount information as he passes near a Mc Donald’s outlet.

For some consumers, Mobile Marketing is a breach of privacy. What are your views and what needs to be done to ensure the privacy of consumers?

The fundamental basis of Mobile Marketing is that the service is offered only to those subscribers that have opted for it. Within that segment it should also work only when you receive advertisements of products that you have an interest in and have chosen the same. In the case of Telenity’s Location Based Mobile Advertisement Platform, customers opt on a USSD browser to receive ads from options like Movies, Restaurants, Apparel, Food Items, Household Items or All of the above. Depending on their chosen option, they receive push alerts when they are in the vicinity of commercial shops or Malls as IVR, SMS on entry level handsets and MMS and Video on high end handsets.

What role does VAS services play in accelerating the Mobile Marketing space in India? How are these two interrelated?

VAS and Mobile Marketing are interrelated. VAS in India is defined as all services besides peer to peer voice calls that the subscribers are willing to pay for. This includes P2P SMS and all kinds of infotainment and entertainment services. Mobile Marketing on the other hand is any sponsored infotainment or entertainment service that the subscriber can receive for free and is paid by the enterprise for his target audience.

What are your initiatives in this space?

As mentioned, Telenity is a global leader in Location Based Mobile Advertising and technologies like USSD that are very relevant in the Mobile Marketing space. We have already deployed the service with BSNL and would be launching similar services with a couple of private operators in the next few months. The main functionality of this service is that it automatically broadcasts advertisement, promotion information, etc. via SMS/USSD messages to subscribers of their preferred category when they travel within a defined commercial region. As the service is free and the information is received via SMS/USSD it is accessible to the operator’s complete subscriber base.

What are your future projections for India market? Do you see any issues for operators/marketers?

We all know that India is a prepaid mobile market where at any given time one third of the mobile subscriber base is sitting on a balance of sub Rs. 10. But even this 100 million base wants to consume infotainment, wants to engage with the mobile screen, wants to choose preferred categories, receive alerts but for FREE. The issue is to enable an ecosystem that is viable for all the partners in the value chain.

Yogesh Bijlani is a seasoned telecom executive with over 18 years of business and technical expertise including regional management, sales and marketing of telecom network solutions in India and throughout South Asia. Having a mix of strategic insight, analytical mindset and a strong technical background, Yogesh Bijlani has an acute understanding of the market needs for new services and technology deployments and has been actively involved in the convergence of entertainment and Internet on the mobile. Having joined Telenity in 2009, Yogesh leads the business development and sales operations activity for Location, Messaging, Value Added Services (VAS) and Service Delivery (SDP) solutions in the Asia Pacific region.

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