2. India- A mobile crazy nation?
India has more mobile phones than toilets- UNICEF
A growing number of cell phone users in India are suffering from Nomophobia or no-mobile-
phone phobia- Indian Journal of Community Medicine research.
In India, some people display their phone number at their door, rather than their name- Jay
Altschuler, director of global media innovation at Unilever.
Some of the headlines which everyone must have read during the past few months and would
have laughed about it….
So is India really a
mobile crazy nation???
3. Facts
As per TRAI, there are 911 million telecom subscribers in India. Overall Tele-density in India
stands at 78.10% at the end of February, 2012 while the Urban Tele-density standing at
162.61%.
On an average it has added 10 million subscribers every month over the last year.
As per Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights average Indian Smartphone user spends 2.5 hours a
day using their phones
An Indian Journal of Community Medicine research states that in terms of usage '73 percent
of students keep their mobile phone with them even when they go to sleep - the cell phone is
with them for 24 hours a day.'
Indians are definitely mobile crazy.
And definitely a huge market for mobile marketers to poach
4. Reality- Marketers have a different story
Lot of advertisers have been gaga over mobile marketing, but if look at the actual spend by
them it gives a different picture.
A recent report by Pitch Madison Media Advertising Outlook (PMMAO) shows how Indian
marketers have spent their advertising budgets for 2011. In fact there is no separate mention
of Mobile marketing in this but according to Vinod Thadani, COO Madhouse India. “The Indian
mobile media market stands at Rs.125 crore which amounts to roughly 0.5% of the total
spend
3.1 0.5
3.8 5.1
TV
Print
44.8
Internet
Radio
Outdoor
42.2
Cinema
Total ad-spend was Rs 25,594 crore in 2011.
5. Why this Kolaveri di
So, why a nation with 911 million telecom subscribers still has only 0.5 % share in the
marketers budget. Few factors mentioned below
Mobile marketing is a new phenomenon- Globally too it just accounts for 3.8 % of the
total global ad spend for all media
Marketers in India still have a very traditional thinking and are either not aware or just
wary of trying a new media
Indian advertisers who have ventured into mobile marketing have mostly tried Push
strategy like Bulk SMS & pesky calls leading to a lot of dissatisfaction among the Indian
consumers towards the medium
Very few specialised mobile marketing agencies in India who can not only add value to
the brand but also agencies who can make the traditional marketers understand the need
of mobile marketing
In terms of OS share by 2012 end, Android will be leading in India with 50 %
share, Symbian 23.3%, IOS 2.4%. But with android fragmentation, High cost of developing
IOS apps & low reach of IOS, Symbian about to be wiped out, Mobile application
development for Indian market has a lot of challenges
India still lacks proper infrastructure- Limited Wi-fi spots and with 3G technology not
taking off that well in India, marketers have a huge challenge to reach out to the masses.
Only 15 millions users are actively using 3G as per a report by Cybermedia
6. Why in spite of all this negativity, marketers should look at mobile as
the new tool in their marketing warfare
7. India will not be just mobile but smart too
We have already seen how huge the indian
market is but one of the biggest change
happening over the years is the availability of
smartphones
Branded smartphones are available at as low
as Rs.3399 (Spice Mi-270). The adjacent graph
also shows how the lowest price point for
smartphones has come down to just around
100$.
If we look at the adjacent graph it shows that
smartphones shipments have grown from 2%
in 2009 to 6% in 2011
During CY 2011, close to 250 unique 3G
handset models were shipped from
approximately 30 different vendors
In future, globally smartphones shipments
will increase from 2.9% to 9.3 % by
2016, making India the 3rd topmost nation in
terms of smartphones usage (IDC).
*Source: CyberMedia Research India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review, CY 2011,
December 2011 release
Smart phones will open up a lot of avenues
for the Indian mobile marketers
8. Bigger screens & Tablets will drive
better content &make it more engaging
Smarter phones coming with High- Resolutions & bigger size screens would help marketers to
drive content the to their users in a better manner
Tablets will also become a new medium of media consumption among the India user. Also we
have seen a lot of brands launching tablets in India. With brands like Micromax launching
quality tablets at just Rs 6,500, one would see a lot of people accessing tablets.
9. Mobile will be the biggest medium of consumption
An Inmobi report suggest that the average
mobile web user in India consumes 5 hours
of media daily and Mobile devices
represent 94 mins i.e. 33% of this time
Mobile consistently scored higher than TV
across a variety of activities for mobile
Internet users in India. These include
entertainment (41 per cent on mobile
compared to 26 per cent on
TV), information access (58 per cent on
mobile compared to 20 per cent on TV).
Mobile also overtook desktop across a
variety of activities like communication.
(72 per cent on mobile compared to 16 per
cent on desktop and laptops) and
shopping, including activities related to
shopping such as search (27 per cent on
mobile compared to 19 per cent on
desktop and laptops).
Source: Inmobi India_MediaConsumption_Feb 2012
10. Mobile will be the new ‘Idiot box’
Indian consumers are beginning to consume television content on non-TV devices like smart-
phones, tablets, and personal computers. MTNL which started with its Mobile TV service is
reported to have a subscriber base of one million active users of mobile TV.
In early March 2012, Zee New Media launched India’s first over-the-top (OTT) TV distribution
platform, Ditto TV.
Zenga, a free platform, already operates in the mobile TV segment in India is reported to have
achieved a 250 percent growth in revenues over last year and has a subscriber base of 7
million.
YouTube has released over 19,000 Indian TV Shows to watch Online
While the TRPs for IPL 5 hit a five year low this year, IPL website ipl.indiatimes.com, in
partnership with YouTube, has already recorded 13.7 million views, as against 8.8 million
views last year. Almost 0.6 million viewers have enjoyed the match action on their mobiles
over the last week on Apalya mobile TV platform. This is double the traffic registered last
year.
11. Mobile will be the new ‘Idiot box’
The above graph shows that by 2016
Internet users will soon come close to
television viewers. And with more content
being available online, we will have a huge
audience accessing TV content on go. i.e
mobile, tablets, laptops.
With 3G rates coming down & mobile
becoming the major medium to access the
internet we will see Mobile becoming the
new idiot box.
12. Mobile video consumption on growth curve
YouTube mobile worldwide gets over 600 million views a day, and traffic from mobile devices tripled
in 2011
As per Google India, 29% of YouTube views in India come from mobile.
Of 50 million views of the famous song, Kolaveri Di, 30 per cent views were through mobile phones.
Graph below shows how smartphone users in India are interacting and engaging with video
platforms
YouTube has definitely demonstrated that there is an increase in
video consumption through mobile phones.
13. Mobile ads- India leads the pack
India is the leading nation with the Ads Served (Q4 2011) in
maximum no of ads being served on millions
mobile
12,000
India overtook Indonesia in the fourth
quarter of 2010, India held onto its number 10,000 9,557
one ranking throughout 2011. Now ads
served in India is almost double of what 8,000
Indonesia does. Annual growth of ad
impressions was a whopping 197% 6,000 5,600
India
Another interesting fact is that the reach is Indonesia
almost 93 million unique users per month 4,000
2,810 United states
with 77% of the audience in the age group
of 20-34 2,000 1,383 Canada
Indian consumer are also more open to
Mobile ads. An Inmobi study states that 0
73% Indians are more or equally
comfortable with mobile advertising vs. TV
or online ads. Source: Buzzcity.com
India with its huge mobile population definitely seems to be the country
which will dominate mobile advertising for a long time
14. Mobile apps- The magic wand
Mobile apps have become a way of life. Apps have become so dominant in our lives that we
decide whether a phone or OS is good, not by its specifications but by the inventory of apps it
provides. In short they are the magic wands of our smart phones.
According to search engine giant Google, there are 30 million apps downloads in one week.
While according to a Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights an Android user installs an average of
19 apps in a month compared to 10 apps for a Symbian user.
Beside’s Each OS app stores, nowadays lot of telecom service providers have also ventured
into apps. Vodafone India's Beta app store (launched in December 2011) crossed 2 million
downloads.
Moving from an operator-dominated ecosystem to a handset-makers platform has also made
a lot of developers getting into it. Nowadays, developers have a margin of 70 per cent for
themselves.
At the same times, a study by Flurry indicates that only 5-10% of users continue to use an app
after 6 months of download, making retention of users as one of the biggest challenge for
brands and developers.
Indian consumers are open with having apps on their mobile but getting them hooked on
to it will be the biggest challenge for Indian marketers
15. Mobile Gaming will push mobile marketing to a new level
A 2011 study by Nielsen states that in India 84% of Android users played a game in the last
month compared to 59% for Symbian users
The mobile gaming market generated revenues of about INR 4.3 billion in 2011, growing 55
percent from last year. It is anticipated that the segment will grow at a 31 percent CAGR to
INR 16.6 billion in 2016, driven by the increase in mobile internet users.
Definitely, mobile gaming is one of the biggest weapon that the marketers have to reach out
their TG effectively. At the same time marketers should make sure that they don’t bombard
the gamers with ads and interrupt their game play. Few golden rules followed by marketers
here would make a win- win experience for both marketers as well as the gamers.
Instead of interrupting gamers during the game-play, reward him with a product
discount/freebies for passing a higher level. E.g. Kiip.me- This service awards the gamers
when they reach a certain level without obstructing their game play.
Integrate social networking components into gaming.
Multi player games have more chances of success and even better chances of consumer
bragging about it
If one is working on a smaller budget, instead of creating expensive games from the
ground-up, consider theme or character-based placement within popular applications.
Not only is it more cost efficient, but you now have access to an already existing user
base. E.g.: Samsung-sponsored Angry Birds Christmas game gets half a million hours of
brand exposure
16. Mobile & social media will re-define the purchase process
Facebook and Forrester had commissioned a study to understand the digital consumer called
‘Building Brands For The Connected World’. As per the study…
To succeed in the connected world, marketers must create connected brands: brands that
continuously engage with people when they want, where they want, and how they want
The Connected World Has rerouted The Customer Journey- From a Linear funnel to the
continuous process of exploration and interaction.
The journey is not isolated to just one person at a time — the entire connected world
influences it.
17. Indian mobile consumers in the connected world
Mobile is becoming the primary medium for being connected and even accessing social
networks. Hence the Connected model applies well to the mobile user. And from an Indian
perspective this is how it works
Learn- Large number of Indian users are accessing internet to gather new information
about products. In fact we go by stats *56 per cent of smartphone users in the country
access the Internet multiple times a day and 78% of users access search engine through
smartphones.
Investigate- Smart shopping, stretching one's money and getting great deals have always
been part of the Indian consumer's shopping psyche. Mobile is only going to enhance it. A
survey by Nielsen says that Recommendations from friends and family with 91%, online
consumer reviews with 77 %, are the top 2 trusted forms of advertising for the Indian
consumer. Mobile will be the biggest medium of being connected with friends & families
and accessing consumer reviews
Interaction- Mobile is also becoming one of the biggest ways for consumer to interact
with the brand. *After noticing a mobile ad, 41% of the smartphones users have clicked
the ad and around 34 % have visited the websites. *65% Consumers are also using mobile
to access social media- a platform where brand can interact & engage with users
Purchase- Consumers are also using smartphones to transact & buy products. *50% of
the users have purchased on smartphones while 40% have used it for online banking. As
per Juniper research, in 2014, more than 500 million people will make m-payments on
the Indian Sub Continent.
Source: *Our mobile planet
18. Daily Deals will become even bigger with LBS
According to trendwatching.com, in 2012, not only will consumers continue to hunt for deals
and discounts, but they will do so with relish if not pride. And the same applies even more for
the hard bargaining Indian consumer.
As per the latest reports there are more than 30 deals sites in India and as per a Comscore
study in November 2011, 7.6 million Indians visited coupon sites.
Daily deals will become more bigger with Marketers using LBS technology to give their
consumers better & more specific deals
Brands like Aircel have in fact gone a step ahead and launched location based services without
a GPS enabled handset. All these measures will help LBS to reach across to masses at an even
faster rate.
Also with 3G getting launched, getting daily deals with LBS has become more ease than what
we have been experiencing.
19. Indian Consumers ready to
trade privacy for better deals
Privacy has been one of the biggest threats for the digital consumer. With him being
connected every time, there is always a fear of being monitored 24/7 and having no privacy.
In a study by KPMG in 2010, 78% Indian respondents said that they worried about their
privacy. And at the same time 65% said that they would be willing to trade their personal
information and let service providers use it for marketing or context-based tracking in return
for incentives such as discounts, personalized offers, content or new services.
What will be important for marketers is to make sure that they use consumer privacy data for
consumer benefits. Anything else would only begin to haunt the marketers.
20. More regulation on Spam
Till now consumers associate mobile marketing with spam and pesky Tele callers . One of the
biggest reasons why mobile marketing has not been a hit in India
As per TRAI data, an urban mobile user receives approximately four marketing or promotional
messages in a day on his device
Thankfully with new regulations like DND and the regulatory bodies taking a tough stand
against spammers we could see this changing
According to the regulatory body, as on 29th March 2012, 161.66 million customers have
registered with the NCPR (National Customer Preference Register).
TRAI has disconnected 22,769 subscribers and issued notices to 36,156 subscribers, who
were found making unsolicited calls and sending spam SMSs, violating the TRAI’s SMS
Spam regulations.
Spam will be the biggest challenge facing the Mobile Marketers and the way they
approach this issue will decide how the Indian mobile marketing market sets up
21. Few golden rules
India definitely has the potential to be one of the biggest market for mobile marketing
Indian Consumer has already shown his love for mobile
With so many favourable factors, it will now purely depends upon the marketers on how they
use this powerful weapon to reach out to the junta.
At the same time, Mobile Marketers will have to start respecting the Indian consumer and
also be extra careful to make sure that they don’t go overboard and bombard the consumers
with irrelevant content
In simple words, Indian marketers should
not get over excited and kill the Golden goose
22. Thanks
Jeetendra Lalwani
Please share your views on
Twitter@jeetendra25