BANGALORE, INDIA: Of late, brands are going a step ahead in leveraging on value added services that are specific and measurable so as to reach audience, who may or may not have access to the conventional forms of advertising modes.

It is here that mobile advertising comes into the frame. Mobile advertisement, a subset of MVAS, is in its nascent stage but soon to become a rage as more and more players are cashing in on it.

In this backdrop, Abhay Singhal, co-founder and head, global ad sales, mKhoj, shares a few thoughts with CIOL.

Excerpts:

CIOL:  How is Indian market responding to mobile marketing and advertising?
Abhay Singhal: The mobile advertising market largely constitutes two categories of advertisers – the mobile content players or WAP sites on one hand and the brands such as FMCG, consumer durables, insurance and the like on the other.

Mobile advertising is related and similar to online advertising, but reaches far greater number of members who can be categorised based on various parameters such as handsets, network, geography and go even a step further to tap on the demographics collated and the psychographics inferred, leapfrogging other forms of media in terms of precision.

mKhoj has seen two billion impressions and adds close to 500 million impressions every month. Our experience of more than 100 ad campaigns underscores our hypothesis that mobile advertising is here to stay and is set to scale new heights.

We can infer from our data that this industry is in its infancy at the moment. Advertisers initially spend small budgets, however, once they are comfortable with mobile advertising and have experienced our efficient ad serving through precision targeting and advanced analytics they come back with much larger budgets.

CIOL: How has VAS market evolved, in India, particularly in the past one year?
AS: Mobile value added service in India is evolving rapidly and has brought revolution in the music Industry. Mobile advertising has begun to find its mention as part of MVAS services.

The market is in a stage of evolution and innovation is the key. Advertisers and service providers are entering the industry to tap the largely unknown potential so as to leverage the advantages of precision targeting and advanced analytics. The advertisers and the service providers are excited to develop and incorporate the business models that are best suited for their requirements.