Mobile Media: A New Era for Commercials

The only number which comes close to the population in India is the number of mobile connections. By the end of December 2011, there were close to 650 mn GSM connections in India with about 6-7 mn new connections being added every month. The growth rate is really high in terms of both usage and utility for various versatile tasks.

While the mobile penetration increases, another revolution which is happening in parallel is the increased use of mobile internet. India is witnessing ~230% y-o-y growth in mobile internet usage due to very aggressive data plans from operators and multimedia capable handsets available at very reasonable price points. It is expected that the mobile internet population in India will exceed 100 mn this year and possibly be 300 mn strong by 2015.

Since mobile is such a ubiquitous and personal multimedia device, available to a user anyplace, anytime to his or her convenience, brands now fully realized its potential to connect with the target groups. Businesses are doing mobile marketing through several means such as WAP site promotion, SMS text campaigns, IVR campaigns, CRBTs, mobile apps, and the latest addition-Mobile Video Commercials (MVC).

Just like TV Commercial (TVC), MVC is a 30-second ~1.5-minute mobile video sent directly to the target audience via several techniques and used for variety of purposes, such as branding, lead generation, mobile viral, product information dissipation, mobile invites, external and internal communications, tutorials and training, etc, to name a few.

How MVC Works

An MVC is fundamentally different than streaming a video on your WAP site. Video streaming on your WAP site poses challenges due to network congestion. It is also a very short-lived transient consumer-brand interaction. An MVC on the other hand gets downloaded on the consumer's handset and is available for repeated playback leading to a very high brand recall. Think of the possibility of your product presentation' readily available to the prospective buyer as a video on his/her mobile for immediate reference. MVC applications are endless. In the recent past, several prestigious brands across varied industry verticals have run MVC campaigns for a variety of end objectives. These include industry leaders such as HDFC, PNB Housing Finance, NIIT, Unitech, Mercedes (T&T Motors), BJP, MAAC, Dominos, Mehrasons Jewelers, etc. The movie Ramayana was promoted pan-India by making mobile users download the trailer directly on their mobile.

An MVC can take many forms. It could be a fully animated 30-second clip created for a mobile viral through video SMS campaign. It could be your brand TVC adapted for mobile, reaching your target group through mobile internet. Such a campaign results in much longer shelf life for TVC and also leads to repeated playback leading to a higher brand connect. An MVC could be simply a presentation about your organization or specific product. It could be a mix of all-text, images, and videos-and can be used for personalized invitations for your guests, sales meet, or conference attendees.

An MVC can reach your target group through several means and in a way can be included in all other media plans, apart from SMS and mobile internet, such as Facebook, TV, FM, and even print. In fact, it is such a versatile and powerful medium to connect with new or existing clients, that we believe in the next 2 years or so, consumers will start asking brands for MVC as they look for the website today. Some of it is already happening like prospective property buyers asking the builders for a MVC to see the property walk through on their mobile.

Mobile Traffic on the Rise

As per market research from Morgan & Stanley, more than 50% of mobile internet traffic in 2012 will be video centric. As is always the case with excess availability, consumers will become discerning on what kind of videos to download on their handset for repeated reference. While entertainment will continue to be a big driver, consumers will also start to look forward to getting some really useful information from brands via mobile video for ready reference, such as the complete specifications of the latest car model.

As the mobile internet traffic grows with a CAGR of 154%, as per Cisco, more WAP sites will offer better profiling of the audience visiting. This will enable the brand manager to run mobile marketing campaigns with a high level of confidence on the TG being reached and thereby giving better RoI.

Apart from direct video delivery on mobile, mobile app market will see significant growth. Brands will use more and more in-app advertisements. However since the app space is already crowded and becoming more crowded with every passing day, discovery of the app and reaching the required TG to download your app will become more and more challenging.