Mobile SMS Advertising in India

Any phone that exists in India is capable of sending and receiving SMS text messages.

According to the latest report published by trai.gov.in, subscriber base for year 2007 and 2008 is as below:

Mobile SMS Advertising in India

A total of 9.16 million wireless subscribers were added in the month of August 2008 taking the total subscriber figure to 305.24 million. This figure includes wireless subscribers for Gsm, Cdma and WLL phones.

Now have a look at the mobile web user profile as in opera.com latest report:

Male: 97.2%
Female:2.8%

Age groups:
Less then 18 years: 5.6%
18-27: 75%
28-37: 13.8%
38-47: 3.8%
48+ : 1.0%

75% mobile web users fall in the age group of 18-27. This age group is also a big fan of SMS messaging. This group is one of the most attractive demography which is hard to reach via other media. However this elite group could be easily reached via SMS advertising. The most popular types of advertising on mobile phones are “Pull” and “Push” advertising.

Pull Advertising : Advertisements placed in free wireless content.

Push Advertising : Advertising message sent to the user mobile via SMS text messages. These messages vary between 40-160 characters.

Push advertising is far bigger and effective then pull advertising in the current times. Push advertising(smsa advertising) could however cause some legislative concerns. Best way to make push advertising work without meddling with privacy or consumer rights of the users is via “OPT IN” method. Here user agrees to receive advertisement.

This is what websites like 160by2.com and way2sms.com is doing. Out of 160 character limit of SMS, these websites provide the first half i.e. 80 characters to the user absolutely free. The unused character space is utilized for placing ads.

Let us have a look at some of the benefits of SMS advertising:

  • Independent of web browser on mobile phones.
  • All mobile devices can receive these ads.
  • Users accept advertisements
  • Ads are relevant, targeted and personalized
  • SMS has larger audience then PC
  • People do not delete messages before reading it.
  • Best for branding products
  • Mobile is very personal and people seldom leave them at home. Hence, instant reach ability.

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