Preeti Desai, Country Manager, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), India spoke with The Free Press Journal on mobile marketing and why she believes it has a great future.
What is Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) all about?
The Mobile Marketing Association is the world’s leading global non-profit trade association comprising of more than 800 member companies, from nearly fifty countries around the world. Its members are predominantly brand marketers plus it has members from other crucial faction of the mobile marketing ecosystem that includes agencies, mobile technology platforms, technology enablers, researchers and others. The MMA’s mission is to accelerate the transformation and innovation of marketing through mobile, driving business growth with closer and stronger consumer engagement.
What can we expect from MMA in the advertising space?
The primary focus for MMA India is in proving the effectiveness and impact of mobile through research providing tangible ROI measurement and other data. We would also be working in parallel with agencies, marketers and enablers to build capability for mobile marketing success – so education is going to be critical initiative to foster know-how.
MMA Forum, SMARTIES and other partner events will help inspire and educate brand marketers by showcasing the innovative work and industry leading initiatives that MMA members are driving.
Do you think mobile advertising is the next big thing in India?
Mobile is the third largest mass medium after TV and Print. There has been tremendous depth of discussion regarding mobile marketing in India since the last few quarters and one thing is clear: mobile marketing is on the upswing and we will see a dramatic growth in the upcoming quarters.
MMA India is hoping to solve some major hurdles that prevents marketers from taking full advantage of the mobile in their marketing campaigns, and what needs to be done in order for the industry to bypass these.
As the industry continues to push for more budgets to be allocated to mobile, it’s also time to step up our efforts on putting sound measurement parameters in place. This will enable us to reference mobile effectiveness in the same manner as other media like TV, radio, print and online are measured.
Whatever the reason, the value of the mobile medium is not in question – it is simply a matter of understanding the strategic value it delivers and to find strategies that make best use of the space.
How do you compare TV advertisement vis-a-vis Mobile space?
Our understanding and definition of TV will shift to consuming video content on any type of device, especially on smartphones and tablets.
The fact is that the amount of videos that Indians today are consuming on mobile is booming and propelling content creators to stay in sync with their demand and many TV channels are already working on TV everywhere.
From advertising perspective, Mobile complements TV advertising and helps engage with the brand much more meaningfully. This means that understanding the mobile video ad space and how it will affect brand’s position versus competitors is more important now than ever before.
Do you think that Mobile Wallet can replace Cash on Delivery?
Both forms of payments: be it Cash on delivery or Mobile Wallets – create ease of use to different sets of target segments and hence will co-exist with many other forms of payments.
But please note that Mobile wallets are not just going to be utilised to pay for shopping online we will also start using the mobile wallet to share / lend money be it our peers, our family or our friends. Mobile Wallet is set to change even the way Customers, Companies and SME’s pay online or each other for various services.
Anything that is habit changing will take a while to change.
What are the upcoming plans for MMA?
We had the MMA India Forum last year followed by the SMARTIES awards that recognized talent and creative solutions in the mobile marketing and advertising space. The next few quarters will determine the work we’ll do collaboratively with various organizations.
Another important initiative we are working on is MM50 where a core group of marketers will work collaboratively with the MMA and the industry at large to identify areas of opportunity; initiatives and research that will allow marketers to more effectively and efficiently integrate mobile as core to their marketing strategies.
(As told to Prasanth Menon)
