Mobile video advertising’s the way to moolah

Are you among those who believe that poor data pack ecosystem in India is going to play spoilsport in the smartphone buzz? You may not be totally mistaken, but silver lining’s on the horizon — in contrast to 2012 Q4, most of the telecom players in India are slashing their 3G rates by 60-70 per cent now, followed by leading telecom players recently announcing that on-the-go 3G charges are going down by another 80 per cent.

These developments will make way for scale, and top mobile video advertising players, like Vdopia, are banking on it. Technologies to monetise mobile video advertising are in place and it’s a matter of time and scale before they start raking in the moolah. While, it’s true that India is predominantly a 2G market, Vdopia’s patented technology [.VDO] allows video advertising to happen seamlessly over 2G and 3G mobile devices automatically. The technology identifies the mobile device’s capability, if one’s running it on a 2G or 3G and it streams video accordingly. And the quality of the video output is same in both 2G and 3G. How? Technically speaking, it’s frame-rate-per-second that gets deferred.

But, given the fact that mobile advertising is less than 4 per cent of the overall advertisement pie in India, what is the kind of consumer attention one can look at looking at? During my recent meeting with Srikanth Kakani, co-founder and CEO of Vdopia, an air of optimism from this Stanford alumnus greeted me. “Consider the growth trajectory of mobile TV. By the end of 2012, the entire mobile TV ecosystem in India, if I just count the apps, was not even $1 million. By the third quarter of 2013, the whole ecosystem today stands at $10 million. Advertisers cannot ignore it,” said Srikanth.  

In pic: Srikanth Kakani, co-founder and CEO, Vdopia. Pic credit: Dalip Kumar

Next, look at the pure numbers: we have 27 million smartphones in India now, according to the latest IAMAI report. The report says that 40 per cent of internet accessibility in 2014 in Indian market will come from mobile devices. And the data players are realising this. Today, none of their ads talk about call rates. It’s data. What we are witnessing today is, mobile handsets are coming closer to Rs 6,000 price bracket, data packs are coming bundled in the phone, and it’s penetration in tier 2 and tier 3 cities is also poised to happen, because the conversion from feature phone to smartphone is happening at the rate of 40 per cent annually in India. At the end of 2014, India will already have 100 million smartphones with data pack and video capability. When the market is explode at this speed, the direction of monetisation or the marketing-dollar spend will also have to move in that direction.  

In fact, when it comes to video advertising, mobile is more flexible than other mediums, which make it cheaper — not because an advertiser is going to spend less money, but what he spends per impression in mobile will be much less than any other medium. That way, an advertiser will be spending less money per effective impression he is getting in mobile. And the best part: Srikanth claims, “TV advertising is fiction!” He reasons that how does one know if a TV ad is seen by the audience? How can one confirm if the audience didn’t ignore a TV ad by turning to other channel(s)? You don’t know, but in the digital platform you know. Television may be a popular platform for advertisements, but Srikanth’s incredulous unless analytics or data supports the claim. It’s a bold statement to make, but Srikanth stands his ground.  

The law of attraction

A lot has been said and written about brand appeal, brand trust and loyalty. But did you realise all these brand properties are also governed by the basic laws of attraction? If appeal is the inherent force of attractiveness of a brand that interests, stimulates or makes a brand desirable (or not), trust forms the basic platform for any exchange, which largely depends on the powerful intangible force — attractiveness.
Why attractiveness? When I spoke to N Chandramouli, CEO, Trust Research Advisory, in Delhi sometime back, he explained the rationale: “If one attempts to send a rocket from earth to the moon, and need to chalk out a trajectory, he needs to know the forces that govern these planetary bodies. Likewise, if you want to take your brand into a certain trajectory, you will need to know the forces that govern the brand.” The forces that determine attraction, broadly, are rational and emotional appeal, which are usually part of many contemporary communication exercises.
To understand this, let’s look at Amul, India’s most attractive brand in the food and beverage category and 18th among all categories, according to India’s Most Attractive Brands 2013, a study by Chandramouli's Trust Research Advisory. Its emotional quotient leads to a patriotic feeling Amul, the taste of India). From butter to ice-cream, the rational quotient of Amul lies in its undisputed quality of products. Its aspirational quotient is the happy feeling the brand tends to bring in, and recognition of the brand among competitors as well. Consistency with ‘utterly butterly delicious’ Amul girl, for over a half century now, is the hallmark of its communication quotient.
Every brand has to attract its audience. Having said that, attractiveness arises from various facets of a brand that helps in creating an overall aura around it. Not surprisingly, brands spend billions in marketing and advertisements trying to be attractive to customers. If the basics of attractiveness quotient are understood and applied to brands, there are immense benefits to be reaped, says the study.

And this romance with brands is no different from humans. Their bond with consumers might, in many cases, begin with an intense desire, and, with the right approach, turn into understanding and companionship. Attractiveness of a brand, by textbook definition, is its intangible force which goes beyond the physical appeal. It is the overwhelming pull which unconsciously but irresistibly draws the audience towards itself, and every such intimacy has a different tale to tell.
Taking on the competition to local mobile manufacturers after toppling Nokia to become the market leader in India, Samsung Mobiles surely have many a tales to tell. After all, it is no mean feat to emerge as the most attractive brand in the country! The aggressive marketer tops the list of India’s Most Attractive Brands 2013 among all categories, closely followed by Sony and Nokia, according to a recent research-based report by Trust Research Advisory. India’s fourth most attractive brand is LG.
Samsung’s key lever definitely lies in its turnaround strategy. Till a couple of years back, there wasn't much expectation from Samsung in the mobile handset category. Then suddenly it transformed to offer customers some great products in terms of technology, innovation, pricing and performance. Now look at Apple. Apple has become a great brand by virtue of its exclusivity. Restricted accessibility is in the DNA of Apple¬ — a conscious strategy to keep customers interested.
Samsung Mobiles, on the other hand, is an available brand that is also good in many respects. Marketers believe, this is where Samsung will gain in the long run. After all, a brand cannot keep its customers on the edge forever. Nokia, has also been a robust and available brand. But it lost market and attractiveness to Samsung due to a lack of enthusiasm to hard-sell products. Samsung doesn’t rest; it is always hungry and survives on a positive desperation, says the study. It is one brand that is truly paranoid about its customers, in a positive way.