Retail Marketing in India Goes Cellular

"As marketers see a critical mass developing in the mobile subscriber base, brands are opening up to the idea of marketing through the mobile," says Raj Singh, executive director, ActiveMedia Technology India.
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Marketers are waking up to the power of the mobile handset like never before. With SMS and short codes becoming passe, the ubiquitous handset is offering new opportunities for brands to make inroads into the consumer's mind space.
Mobile coupons, location specific services, mobile portals and advertising on the mobile are just few of the tools being deployed by marketers to reach the 90 million strong mobile subscribers base in India.
In what could be termed as the second generation of mobile marketing , subscribers can look forward to an array of segmented marketing and advertising initiatives on their mobile screens.

Mobile Coupons
Wireless marketing technology provider Activemedia Technologies has partnered with mobile operator Hutchison Essar to deliver m-coupons, which can be cashed across 40 retail outlets such as Barista, Domino's Pizza, Lifestyle and Kaya Skin Clinic.
Similarly, Airtel has joined with Enpocket, a global leader in intelligent mobile marketing, to give advertisers a convenient, effective way to reach a major cross-section of the country's population. Also, mobile2win is in talks with mobile operators to start location-based services that will enable marketers to reach out to the prospective customer while he is in the vicinity of the outlet by giving various incentives and offers.
With richer capability handsets enabled with GPRS and WAP invading the Indian market, it's becoming easier for marketers to reach out to consumers.
"As marketers see a critical mass developing in the mobile subscriber base, brands are opening up to the idea of marketing through the mobile," says Raj Singh, executive director, ActiveMedia Technology India. ActiveMedia Technology is working with Hutchison Essar to deliver the "Hutch Tuesday" program, wherein Hutch subscribers have exclusive access to offers across retail partners being test marketed in Mumbai.
Hutchison Essar hopes to add more partners to the existing 300 as they go along with the scheme. "We intend to give more offers and privileges to our subscribers in the future through these electronic coupons," says company's operations director Harit Nagpal.
Pepsi Reaching Consumers
Pepsi is also getting into the action. It has recently launched a mobile portal called "Pepsi Globe Smart Client."
"Mobile marketing for us is about delivering to our consumers engaging and interactive content rather than using it as a reach building device," says Vipul Prakash, executive vice president, marketing, PepsiCo India.
Differentiated content from the mainline media is also a key in making mobile campaigns work. Pepsi would be undertaking big cricket campaigns in the future and expects to spend 5 percent of its overall ad spends on mobile and wireless. "Mobile marketing is not a spend intensive industry but a content intesive one," adds Prakash. In the first month, the Pepsi mobile zone has gotten 55,000 downloads, although it is still in the test run stage.
Location-Based Services
Location-based services is another marketing tool being explored by content providers such as mobile2win. "We have the technology ready for location based services. It's the mobile operators who have to give the go-ahead," says Rajiv Hiranandani, country head, mobile2win.
This service will enable marketers to reach out to the prospective customer while he is in the vicinity of the outlet by giving various incentives and offers."
With forecasts of mobile marketing revenues reaching US$3 billion globally, according to RBC Capital markets, Indian mobile operators are also upping their ante to latch on to this revenue generating stream.
Airtel recently appointed Enpocket, a global mobile marketing solutions provider, to provide ad serving technology for mobile Internet via the Enpocket marketing engine.
The Enpocket solution will enable Airtel to offer mobile advertising opportunities to brands and companies. Worldwide, Enpocket provides mobile marketing technology to Vodafone, Sprint, Alltel, Singtel, Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic, BenQ-Siemens, Trinity Mirror, TNT, Pepsi and Nike.
© 2006 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. All rights reserved.© 2006 ECT News Network. All