Anywhere in the world, whenever there is a mention of the Indian economy and market, people often talk about the demographic advantage this country enjoys. It is a youthful country with high disposable incomes, they say. The oasis for marketing companies across the world! But there are few studies available that give insight into the attitude, behaviour and perceptions of this huge consumer base.

Blyk, which is a youth-focused brand addressing consumers in the age group of 16-29 years, reached out to its 1.68 million members to understand them better. There are three observations that I particularly wanted to share from this study. These observations are key to understanding today’s Indian youth, because it looks at the essential parameters that make them tick.

What comes out very strongly is that the Indian youth is trying very hard to balance modern and progressive outlook with the rootedness in culture and family. They are faced with contradictions of behaviour and mores. It was interesting to note that while 46 per cent admitted to cheating in a relationship, 61 per cent youth thought it was un-cool to be rude!
They are to a great degree driven by perception and are highly aspirational. For example, 3 out of the 4 youth that we spoke to wanted to change the way they look in some way or the other. And there is a significant proportion of young people in India who own more than 5 pair of shoes, use cosmetic products on a daily basis and want to sport branded clothes. Image is everything and they take good care to build a good image.

And finally, the gadget closest to their heart—no prizes for guessing this—is the mobile phone! The youth spend the most time on it. It is the most stated object of desire and used most extensively, which highlights the growing importance of the third screen as a vehicle to reach out to this group.

Having shared these observations, I would still say that this is a very dynamic group. For any brand marketing to them, there has to be a finger on the pulse at all times.

It’s time to pop the bubbly—Blyk turns 1 in India! Time sure flies when you’re having fun. And the year gone by has been nothing if not fun. From launching our services to having a subscriber base of 1.68 million opt-in profile members, the journey has been extremely thrilling.

Take a moment to absorb that number: 1,680,000 young (16 to 29 years old) people in India have voluntarily chosen Blyk and given it permission to send them marketing messages from the brands we have tied up with.

Since they have voluntarily given permission to be contacted and have shared their basic information, it makes for a very potent mix for advertisers. Our formula is simple: Basic Targeting + Behavioural Targeting (based on responses) = Relevant Content + Relevant Ads. The result—an impressive 25 percent response rate.

For the consumers, it is a no-fuss service where they get to enjoy deals, information and more in the areas they want—and only in the areas they want. At a time when SMS spam is driving people up the wall, here is a service that only sends them relevant information that they asked for. It never crosses the line between permission-based marketing and spam. Never. And this is why we are able to add 3500-4000 members every day.

In the one year of our existence in India, we have acquired deep insights into the mind of the Indian youth. We have been able to bridge brands with their consumers and built a successful three-way relationship.

In the coming years, I have no doubt we will increase our subscriber base and our client base exponentially. Our ambition, however, is to continue to enhance the user experience—both for the consumers and for the brands. Cheers!

The title doesn’t refer to my willingness to please. In fact, it refers to people who are the most difficult to please—consumers. In my last post, I talked about a study brought out by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) on permission-based mobile marketing. The premise it works on is that if you get a buy-in from consumers, your marketing efforts can become more targeted and yield higher return on investment.

The study says that permission based mobile marketing helps marketers in a big way by helping them send out focused messaging to only those consumers who would be more interested in that message. It helps them break away from the clutter and avoid sending out spam-like broad-based messages that ultimately don’t result in much value against the advertising investment.

Over time, this becomes a much richer way of segmenting customer bases, offering even more value to consumers and producing a better return on investment. Because you are asking the consumers for their preferences, the likelihood on them responding to the target message is higher.

It also helps create a more long-term, engaging relationship between a brand and its consumers. The intangible benefit that brands and marketers draw from this is that consumers are also more likely to trust a brand or service that values them. This develops into a more sustained engagement, rather than a one-off interaction. And over time, this engagement makes for brand loyalists and ultimately ambassadors for the brand.

Relationships based on mutual respect and trust last the longest. With permission based mobile marketing, brands can develop exactly this kind of relationship.

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.

There is a huge comfort in speaking, reading and writing in your own language. However, the Internet, at least in India, has largely been a bastion of English language. Of course, there have been some remarkable examples of sites in regional languages, but there is still a long distance for these languages to cover on the net.

On the mobile, in terms of both SMS-based VAS as well as apps, the story is similar. In a country with 22 constitutionally approved languages, there is not one app or service like, say, China’s Baidu. The diversity of cultures in this case dilutes the numbers.

There are enough studies to suggest that regional mobile content market is not something to be ignored. For instance, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and market research firm IMRB International have come out with a study that says there is a huge demand for regional content.

With mobile penetration higher than broadband penetration, the mobile is being increasingly seen as the medium to reach out to the Next Billion. The mobile networks have a huge potential to drive governance services in the area of education, healthcare and public information systems to those who need them.

The problem so far has been the lack of a truly convincing business model. Advertising is hard to sell for regional content. The Indian love for the movies, though, is one sure-shot direction to look for advertising revenue—promotional content for Bollywood or Tollywood or any of the regional movies.

But will that be enough to make investing in regional mobile content a viable option? I wonder.

The usage of apps on mobile devices is rising across the world. People are increasingly connecting to the internet through them. That only means one thing—clogged bandwidth pipes.

A study by mobile analytics firm Flurry came up with this interesting statistic about the US market: In June 2011, the average US mobile user spent 81 minutes a day using apps—compare that with 43 minutes in June 2010! Also compare that with 74 minutes spent by desktop and mobile web usage!

A lot of these apps, given their popularity, are also becoming vehicles for ads. These ads take up further bandwidth. Take the great Angry Birds, for instance. According to one report by Nokia Siemens Networks ‘ Smart Labs (NSN), on an Android-based Samsung Galaxy smartphone, with mobile advertising, Angry Birds generated 2,422 signals in one hour of play, which is huge! They have said they are fixing the issue, but this just illustrates the future and some challenges networks will face.

The question we need to ask is, who is making money from this huge amount of bandwidth usage? The app? To some extent. The telecom operator? Who knows! And there lies the big problem. Operators need to figure out some way to earn out of this. Otherwise, all they will be left with are clogged pipes and consequently a label of poor bandwidth availability on their service record.

There is something very attractive and almost edible about apps—especially those on a mobile device. With their nice, rich designs, intuitive interface and interesting features, apps are notching up fans across the world. According to a report compiled by consulting firm Chetan Sharma Consulting commissioned by app store GetJar, app download is likely to shoot up from 7 billion in 2009 to 50 billion in 2012. Does that mean rich media is ready to take over the world? I’m not sure.

While the numbers look attractive, how many of these apps are actually being used? According to several studies published, most apps die a quick death. The few that do taste fame burn out soon after they shoot up. Of course, there are some that might stand the test of time, but it’s early days yet to figure out which ones those might be. But, if mere numbers of downloads is not a true proof of success then what is?

Let’s focus on the popularity of ringtones a bit. Now that’s an ‘app’ that has been around for a while and is still going strong. It shows that some of the best things in life are really simple. There might be the juiciest apps available in the world, but the first thing you do when you get a phone is customise the ringtone to reflect your personality and lifestyle. No wonder then that the humble ringtone is the most popular phone app! No matter what OS your phone is running on, how fancy your handset, the ringtone changing feature remains the same. Who would create a phone without it?

The reason for that is simple—a ringtone is part of you and your personality. It says that even as you look corporate chic, there’s a rockstar lurking within you. Or that you are nothing if not up to date with the latest Bollywood numbers. Or that under that tough exterior lies a God-fearing person. A ringtone is an app that is worthy of some admiration, but it rarely receives it. So even as you buy the latest phone with all the bells and whistles, your ringtone will still be your signature. Everything else comes second.

This could give all of us some inspiration in the mobile industry when creating new apps. Do not be fooled and lured by massive download numbers tallying up to billions. Focus on the frequency of use that your app creates with an individual. That is a number that really counts. After that, everything else will follow.

With the fancy new handsets constantly flooding the market, you would think that the snazzier-looking display ads would fare much better than plain ol’ text. The fact, however, is just the opposite.

In mobile there are currently five completely different environments for brands and advertisers available—display ads through mobile web, display ads in applications, mobile search, opt-in messaging ads and everything else (from QR codes to augmented reality). All these achieve massively different results and efficiency and the distribution channels and options are numerous.

According to a recent study by global mobile advertising major Upstream, banner and display ads don’t work for the mobile. The study, which was based on consumer responses, found that most people don’t click on these ads and prefer short, precise text messages instead.

With ABI Research auguring that 2011 will see 7 trillion text messages being sent—SMS is a pretty well-used medium, wouldn’t you say? And yet, the humble text is underestimated as the carrier of advertising messages.
Not by everyone, though. Coca Cola has set text messaging as a top priority for its mobile overtures. As a company looking to spread its messages to as wide an audience as possible, that 7 trillion figure is very convincing. The pervasiveness of the text message, combined with its ability to be used for machine2machine communication (for vending machines), made Coca Cola prefer it over, say, an iPhone app.

So if text messaging is the answer for mobile advertising, shouldn’t all Indians be buying real estate, products, services, and even ways to ward off the Evil Eye? Well, ultimately, it is the message itself that counts. And the way in which it is sent so that it doesn’t intrude, annoy and disrupt. What have given text messages a bad name are unsolicited, non-profiled and intrusive spam texts. Luckily they can become history as the government is closing in on spammers more heavily.

Opted-in messages, however, continue to thrive. Well profiled, contextual and timely delivered, they are producing superior results over all the other formats, regardless how hyped and fancy those new formats have been. And there is a simple good reason for this—text messaging adheres to the natural behavior of mobile consumer. You call me, you text me and when relevant…I will answer.

As we move up the feature ladder with each phone, it is imperative to remember—some of the best things in life are simple. It’s the same for mobile advertising.

The title is not just wordplay. It is a classic misinterpretation played out in the advertising world. What type of an agency is best positioned to become master of mobile advertising? I have not heard a convincing answer to this question so far.

The way the advertising industry in general views mobile advertising is quite basic and far from inspiring. Though the mobile advertising has been “the promise” for several years, many good initiatives have simply died as the coming of mobile advertising has been delayed for too long. Meanwhile, the digital arms of the agencies have developed their skills in the fast-evolving web business. Budgets have exploded in the digital space and the results are very promising.

And then, oh yes, there is this mobile business. But with less than one-tenth of the overall digital budgets and with an at least ten times more complex ecosystem, mobile advertising in many cases does not make financial sense for agencies. Clients, however, want to be on mobile and therefore most of the agencies must master the mobile medium—but can they?

According to MobiThinking Guide to Mobile Agencies (July 2010), the top 10 agencies value mostly under $20 million in revenues, but astonishingly their staff numbers vary from a few employees to nearly 500! Their claimed reach is from nationwide to multi-regional (or even global) and they do everything from messaging to m-commerce. That’s a very diverse bunch of companies doing almost everything in mobile. Can a small market support their diversified efforts or do they say things just in case? You decide.

When will the major agency networks embark on mobile at full throttle, and how? Will it be through their existing digital agencies, stretching to cover the increasingly complex mobile ecosystems? Are they buying small independent players? Or maybe they are trying to create the needed know-how organically though their best creative and media agencies. And the biggest question of all—is there a CEO who is willing to invest in this nascent opportunity with much needed determination without a sufficient advertising spend to justify that investment?

It is no wonder that mobile ends up being a sidekick to digital in all discussions. And yet, nearly everyone admits that mobile will, eventually, be a dominant player. But when the inevitable market growth happens, catching up will be tough.

Every time I see a banner ad on a mobile phone, I see it as an opportunity wasted. Ask the first five people you come across—do any of them click on banners on their phone? And I guarantee that the result of this poll would be the same if you asked 100 people, 1000 or even more. The way it is used today, a banner ad, doesn’t add anything to the user’s life. So it gets ignored. And it should!

To my mind, the mobile phone environment needs a different thought process. Mobile works far better with push content. After all, a phone is a direct communication tool—it’s quick, relevant and selective. Of course, you can’t push it down to the customers; opt-in is a must. All communication without customer consent is unsolicited, not just those pesky real estate texts spamming. It goes for banner ads and “customer service” calls from corporations too.

With an opted-in audience, relevant and contextual messages, there is a lot you can get out of mobile advertising—including some ideas that were never possible before. It is time to break away from the outdated CPM pricing models and low response rates so familiar from other media solutions. A smartly devised, advertising-enhanced service, combined with the power of telecom and the internet, brings a new level of service that consumers have never experienced before.

The mobile environment gets a leg up if the operators pitch in to further enhance these opportunities. Operators know that the user experience in a service with advertising has to be perfect, otherwise customers just churn away. This in-built quality control is very helpful. Even though traditional web players see operators as unwanted utility players, active operator input is crucial for the success of mobile advertising.

The Indian mobile market is an enticing and inspiring one. While the big numbers dazzle many, it is important to not miss the woods for the trees. Think individual and it will translate more easily to the larger universe. Think numbers, however, and you are likely to miss buy-ins—and soon enough, those numbers will dwindle too. Focus on the user, rather than just your message. Understand the mobile usage patterns of your target group. Make it not just simple, but irresistible for the user. Make it sustainable. Inspire new behavior patterns!
I see India becoming a leading nation in mobile commerce (advertising included), which is growing at an increasing pace alongside the telecommunication business we all are so familiar with.