Airtel makes an entry into Ad Tech industry with Airtel Ads

Airtel has entered the advertising business with the launch of Airtel Ads, a brand engagement solution. Airtel Ads allows brands of all sizes to curate consent based and privacy safe campaigns to one of the biggest pool of quality customers in India. Airtel has over 320 million customers across its businesses – Mobile, DTH and Homes. Airtel’s Mobile customers have the highest average monthly data consumption at 16.8 GB and the highest monthly ARPU of Rs 166. Airtel’s fast growing DTH and Homes networks serve premium households across the country, said a statement from the company.

Using Airtel’s deep data science capabilities, Airtel Ads allows brands to create high engagement and high impact campaigns to the most relevant customer cohorts. This also means that Airtel customers receive only the most relevant brand offerings and not unwanted spam.

Adarsh Nair, chief product officer, Bharti Airtel, said: “Airtel Ads breaks new ground in the USD 10 bn Indian advertising industry. By abstracting Airtel’s unique strengths of quality customers, best-in-class network and world-class digital platforms, Airtel Ads offers innovative channels for brands to reach the right audiences. What truly differentiates Airtel Ads is its razor-sharp focus on quality over quantity and real impact vs vanity metrics.”

Airtel Ads delivers superior returns on brand spends and focuses on relationships with customers rather than just delivering online impressions. Its rigorous compliance with ad-tracking standards and norms allows complete transparency with advertisers and ensures ZERO Ad Frauds in the form of false impressions and clicks.

“Advertising is an adjacency to our core business of delighting our customers with great services. Therefore, we combine the privacy that is paramount to our customers with the trust and transparency that is vital to the brands we serve.” Adds Adarsh Nair.

During the beta phase, Airtel Ads delivered successful campaigns for over 100 brands across multiple categories – FMCG, BFSI, Digital Startups, et al. Early advertisers include PepsiCo, zomato, CRED, Tata AIG, Lenskart, Apollo 247, Cars24, Gameskraft, Vahan, Harley Davidson.

Gajendra Jangid, the CMO of Cars 24, said: “Airtel Ads is a marketer’s delight and offers the most comprehensive set of customer cohorts, including premium. We believe that going forward telco-platforms will emerge as an important platform in the media mix for brands to deliver high performance campaigns in a digitally connected world.”

The Indian advertising industry is expected to grow to USD 19 billion by 2025 from the current USD 10 billion. Airtel Ads is well positioned to capture a meaningful share of the growing pie with its sharp focus on quality, added the company in its statement.