Exclusive | Engaging brand research via mobile: Jana's Anurag Banerjee

The Sanskrit word for ‘people’ is Jana. Taking a cue from this word Jana Mobile, was set up in 2006 as a mobile market research company. The company’s mission is to redirect the world’s advertising dollars to airtime. It works towards more effective advertising, better insights and more disposable income in the pockets of consumers. That’s a win for commerce in every direction.

Based in Boston, Jana has built the world's largest rewards platform in the fastest-growing markets, where mobile airtime is often viewed as equivalent to cash. By integrating into the billing systems of 237 mobile operators in 102 countries, Jana can instantly reward 3.48 billion emerging market consumers with prepaid airtime in local currency. Many global corporations are already using Jana to understand, acquire, and retain emerging market consumers. Jana's airtime platform rewards such consumer actions as trial (registration, app downloads), engagement (watching a video), advocacy (referring a friend), and product purchase (airtime rebates). With every action that it rewards, Jana delivers rich consumer insights to participating marketers.

So how does this actually work? Says Anurag Banerjee, Head of Sales & Managing Director APAC, Jana, “we use the power of giving someone money on their phones to make them do things. When people buy products they in return give us information such as age, gender etc. such information is super cool. The idea is that to satisfy somebody and equally give brand insight information. The brands pay money as incentives to the consumers which is much less than what they spend on conventional ads and promos.” He was speaking to Adgully.

The company mainly works in emerging markets and not in countries where the telecom market is already saturated. “In Asia, India is the most important market due to its population followed by Vietnam as it has more than 12 million people on mobile. Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand too are fascinating,” says Banerjee.

In India, the company has integrated with all the major telecom service providers. Says Banerjee, “For us India becomes interesting market as here people usually get air time recharge easily and there are 100 million users on post-paid. People always talk about mobile strategies, so mobile is something which is going to stay but according to me knowing consumer mind is also important. Our whole focus is to closed the loop and create more educated conversation for our brands and clients, optimizing dollars and reach more people for bigger plans.”

As for challenges, Banerjee says, “Every market has its own challenges and opportunities. The Indian market is the most sustainable market but it depends upon the kind of consumer I am targeting. For example if I am selling Kingfisher beer than the approach and consumer would be totally different. There are all kind of consumers, so dealing with all the categories is a different task and challenge. as the consumer psyche is different for every brand. Hence taking a feedback is a challenge. With this the strategy for each brand also changes.”

The company has become a global provider of mobile-based market research that is revolutionizing the way brands engage their audiences. The company has provided its market research techniques to a variety of global brands, including Microsoft, Danone, Unilever and Ponds, as well as broadcast news agencies CNN and Al Jazeera.

Impressed by Jana’s business model and growth within a short span of its existence the Publicis Groupe has recently announced that it is making a $15 million strategic investment in Jana Mobile. The Publicis Groupe’s strategic investment brings Jana’s total capital raised to approximately $25 million from investors including Todd Dagres (Spark Capital), Rohini Chakravarty (NEA), Jon Miller (AOL / News Corp), Paul Sagan (Akamai) and Esther Dyson.

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