Trend: Advertising on Mobile Phones in India

Though Indian companies still spend 80% of their advertising budgets on print and television media, some are recognizing the power of mobile advertising.

Hindustan Unilever and Coca-Cola, two of the biggest advertisers in India, have entered mobile space for the first time with the launch of ad campaigns for Cornetto ice creams and Sprite respectively. Both the campaigns are being executed by Oxigen, an integrated value-added service provider for mobiles. The Coca-Cola initiative comes after studies by the company showed that there was an overlap of nearly 230 million mobile users and Sprite consumers in India. Their campaign is in the form of a contest called ‘Sprite Kholega to Bolega’ (which translates literally as ‘Open a Sprite and it will talk’). As part of the contest, all Sprite bottles sold in India have a nine-digit alpha-numeric code under the crown. This code is to be sent as an SMS to a designated telephone number, giving users a chance to win free talk-time ranging from Rs 50 (US$1.25) to Rs 5,000 (US$125). The Hindustan Unilever campaign for it’s ice cream brand Cornetto is in the form of a scratch-and-win contest (the codes are printed on Cornetto packaging). Users have the opportunity to win virtual credit through Oxigen’s Oxicash solution for mobiles. In addition to these contests the companies are also in the process of creating micro websites which give mobile users freebies like ring tones etc.

Trend Impact
As traditional forms of advertising get saturated companies are turning to mobiles phones for large scale but personalized advertising, collaborating with mobile service providers to access their consumer base.

Rate this post:

current rating: 4.0