If I asked you nicely and gave you deals, discounts and gifts against things you wanted to buy anyway, would you allow me to share my marketing message with you? That is the premise that permission-based mobile marketing works on. It is marketing that has a buy-in from the target audience. It is not just about transactions, but about building a dialog between the consumer and the brand.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) recently came out with a white paper detailing case studies from around the world on permission-based mobile marketing. Supplied by the MMA Task Force, of which Blyk was a part, the case studies illustrate what I have long held—if you get a consumer buy-in with customised and targeted marketing, instead of blind mass-dissemination, you have a consumer for life.

The basic premise of permission-based mobile marketing is simple—it is about value exchange. It is a tacit agreement between the consumer and the brand. In exchange for their contact information and personal preferences, consumers expect the brand to respect their privacy even as it offers them value in tangibles like coupons, offers, deals, samples, or intangibles like apps and content.

It is essentially a four-step process. You start with giving the consumers the chance (and, of course, a compelling reason) to opt in. When they do, we can create a database of their preferences, which are then shared with the brands. The preference profiles are kept updated so that the engagement remains relevant for the both, the consumer and the brand.

For the brand, the benefit is the potential of a long-term relationship and compelling engagement with the consumer. And we all know that translates into higher return on investment. For the mobile networks, it is a chance to increase customer satisfaction and stand out among their peers with compelling content.

The study also illustrated that this type of marketing is best suited for a device as personal as the mobile phone. It is a device that offers the best one-to-one platform for interaction, giving the consumer personalized content and services.

Even though it is new in India, permission-based mobile marketing is already beginning to take off. After all, gives Indian consumers what they’ve never had—a break from being treated by marketers as just a huge mass.

Even though the Indian market is dominated by the traditional forms of media, namely print and television, there is a lot of buzz around the digital medium. And this has been the case for some time now. Companies often talk about how digital is a key component of their marketing strategy and they see more monies being spent on it in future. If one goes purely by overall statistics, the medium does not look very appealing as a vehicle to reach out to larger audiences. There are around 12 million people with a broadband connection, compared to roughly 100 million in neighbourhood China. But when one looks at the socio-economic and demographic profile of the internet user in India, it becomes a compelling medium for the advertiser. And with the advent of 3G and a huge mobile subscriber base, more and more people will be surfing the web through their handsets. Going by this, one would assume that internet advertising will already be significant in India, if not substantial, and definitely grow rapidly in the future. But when one looks at the numbers shared in various reports, they seem to be on the conservative side.

Recently, the consultancy firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, released its global outlook for the Entertainment and Media industry (2010-15) which spoke of the next five years being the “golden age of empowered consumers”. It also pointed towards an increase in demand for digital by consumers all over the world. In India, internet advertising will be growing the fastest among all mediums with a CAGR of 25.5 per cent. But again, when one looks at the numbers for the size of internet advertising in India, it looks conservative. I think the medium will be attracting much more advertising monies in the next five years than the current estimate of Rs. 24 billion.

Part of this conservatism stems from a lack of standard measurement tools to measure the reach and impact of digital media campaigns. Majority of media planners are comfortable with traditional media, for not only it is huge, but also there are standard measurement tools which give quite a detailed picture. You might argue, how representative they are or how much do they reflect the ground realities, but they are accepted by the industry. When it comes to the digital world, there is no such tool. People call for developing standards but somehow I feel that it cannot be created by forming committees of experts. When Google started its search engine services, it came up with its own advertising measurement tools and they became the standard. Likewise, there will be digital companies who will be able to develop a tool through which the advertiser will be able to measure the impact till the last dollar spent. So while committees are good, I think the digital world will itself churn out a solution.