The explosion in Russian mobile take up is pushing increased interest in mobile advertising with data showing that smartphones will drive advertisers and mobile operators to cash in.
The latest J’son & Partners Consulting Mobile marketing and advertising analysis says that in Russia mobile advertising and marketing is determined by technological take up and penetration.It says that smart phone use is growing rapidly and replacing wap access cellular technology, which dominated prior to 2010.“The limited number of advertising channels backed by low technical features and characteristics of mobile phones together with distrust and lack of awareness of advertisers, small audience of individual channels were the main factors and obstacles for mobile marketing development. SMS/MMS were the main channels for mobile advertising in 2010 occupying 40% of the mobile marketing market losing position in favor of wap/mobile internet channel.”This is enabling mobile advertising and marketing including, mobile advertising messages to inform potential clients and boost loyalty.It notes that Russian mobile advertising is set to boom against a backdrop of an expected 122% increase in global mobile advertising forecast for the next two years.“Today we are observing a rapid growth of the smart phone market which grew by 50% in 2010. We expect that the market volume will grow by 75% over the year. The key mobile communication channels for advertising and marketing will be determined by this growing market.”
The increased smart phone market is boosting mobile advertising and marketing interest, with an increased percentage of mobile phones with internet capacity expected to change the paradigm for the advertising delivery by mobile phone. This will make the mobile audience part of the internet audience, using the same tools and approaches that are widely used in online advertising. In this case, the mobile advertising channel will provide advantages such as geo location of the user, and constant communication with the user.
MTS spokesperson, Valeria Kuzmenko, agrees the mobile advertising market will grow with increasing mobile and internet usage, and increased technical sophistication, and says MTS is positioning itself to capitalize.“Nowadays, mobile operators can offer mobile advertising services with high level audience targeting, which can be useful for all mobile users. MTS is always improving mobile advertising services targeting the right audience with appropriate advertising, focusing on value for each subscriber. MTS FY 2010 revenues from mobile advertising services were up 138%. We expect the mobile advertising market to grow gradually in the next 2 years mainly on the back of growth of sms/mms advertising volumes. Above all, the market will continue to expand through a massive consumer demand and expansion of mobile internet subscriptions which will be the main mobile advertising source.Mobile advertising market has great prospects, because it involves direct targeting and integration of the content products interesting to the user. This type of advertising allows increasing effectiveness of advertising. We believe that this year the domestic market for mobile advertising will reach 500 million roubles.”VimpelCom Press-secretary, Anna Aybasheva, says mobile marketing allows for more targeted advertising, with the company keen to ensure it doesn’t become seen as spam.“VimpelCom has launched a trial project “Uznai Pervim” (Be the first to know) whereby subscribers voluntarily sign up for promotional mailing, and getting bonus minutes on their accounts. Among the successfully introduced campaigns were promotion mailing for Chupa Chups, Nissan, Uralsib, the publishing house Rosmen, Natalie Tours, Microsoft, and Valentin Yudashkin fashion house. We believe in a success and huge demand for mobile advertising which is the reason why we decided to extend the period of “Uznai Pervim” campaign. Our plans are to expand communication channels for mobile advertising services using our own means of communication together with Mobile internet tools. Moreover, we put great value on service effectiveness for both parties where subscribers receive only useful and interesting for them promotions and not perceive them as spam mailings.”