If MobiThinking's "Insider's Guide to mobile Web marketing in India" is
accurate, 90% of the country's mobile subscribers have voted for a
reality show-based contest via SMS. Half of them subscribe to regular
SMS jokes, and nearly as many use their phones to get astrology or
sports information. This is pretty remarkable in a country where many
development organizations are struggling to achieve scale for their
mobile-based health, agriculture, and education programs.
Writing for the GSMA recently, Kristen Roggeman pointed out that there
is an obvious demand for entertainment among mobile users in both rural
and urban India. She describes an innovative marketing effort by
Hindustan Unilever (HUL), whereby mobile phone users make a missed call
and receive an automatic call-back with 15 minutes of radio programming.
The service now has 5 million subscribers and sends out 25,000 hours of
programming every day. HUL has now dropped traditional radio marketing
from its advertising mix. The hunger for entertainment is not unique to
India. In Brazil, The most popular apps are for music, entertainment and
navigation, followed by photo, video and social networking. In Nigeria,
the national brewery ran a spectacularly successful SMS marketing
campaign inviting 18- to 25-year-old men to attend music concerts. The
ads had a response rate of more than 30% and a click-through rate of
almost 9%. And in the US, drug makers and insurance companies are
developing game-like apps that give points and gifts for sticking to
drug regimens. (Failing to follow drug prescriptions is estimated to
cost US employers, insurance companies and health providers around $200
billion a year.)
Development organizations might take note: even for the poor,
entertainment is a central aspect of mobile phone usage. Mobile devices
are quickly supplanting radio and television as the main conduit for
personal entertainment in developing countries. Integrating
entertainment - music, games, sports, movies, and contests - into dry
but useful information campaigns is a viable way of extending the reach
and impact of programs. Also, strategic partnerships (e.g., with sports,
music, or media groups) could help defray the cost of promotion and
generate buzz. Development organizations hoping to capitalize on soaring
mobile penetration rates frequently devise SMS-based outreach programs.
Making them more fun will require a little "outside the box" thinking,
but it could be rewarded by increased awareness, adoption, and
effectiveness.
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