Adgully Exclusive | Mobile advertising is the new frontier of advertising: InMobi's Naveen Tewari

InMobi, the world's largest independent mobile advertising network, was founded by Naveen Tewari in 2007. Since then, in the Asia-Pacific region, InMobi has grown tremendously and reaches out to over 300 Million consumers with 32 Billion ads per month across 125 countries.

The company's network is growing fast and now it delivers the unprecedented ability to reach 194 million consumers, in over 115 countries, through more than 24 billion mobile ad impressions monthly.

InMobi is venture-backed with marquee investors including: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. The company has offices in London, San Francisco, Bangalore, Tokyo, Mumbai and Singapore.

Adgully caught up with Tewari, Founder & CEO, InMobi to know more about the company's growth plans.

Talking about the challenges in going about with a start-up, Tewari says, "The biggest challenge has been in pushing people to think beyond the traditional approach. This is a very new space and people tend to stick to the time tested methods that have been successful in the past. It took us a lot of effort in trying to convince clients to try out the mobile medium and leverage it in the right way. Slowly, this is getting easier to do as we start to have more success stories to showcase as well as the industry is getting more cognizant of the capabilities of the medium. However, this was not the case when we started and we had to begin with first educating people about what mobile advertising is."

He further adds that in the realm of the digital industry, InMobi comes from a niche sector ' mobile advertising. So in the mobile space, the technology development has been exponential in the past few years.

"It started over a decade ago with mobile devices being these big bulky black phones that could be used to make calls but at a very high price. From there, it took the better part of the decade to move to smaller and smarter phones. Today, each phone in the market is giving the other phone a run for its money. The user experience on phones is phenomenal. So much that the mobile device is no longer looked at as a device to make voice calls. In a matter of just a few years, mobile devices have become ubiquitous and help its user in every aspect such as voice calls, video calls, connecting to the internet, providing directions, calculating currency in a foreign land etc. It has become an inseparable part of its owner," Tewari adds.

As technologies evolve and brands get a better understanding of the medium, InMobi has started seeing a lot more traction from advertisers in the local and global market.

Tewari explains, "The understanding of mobile advertising was limited to SMS advertising in the past. This has been the biggest hurdle which we had to overcome. Now, advertisers understand that mobile advertising is much more than the limited, un-targeted and intrusive SMS advertising. Advertisers have begun considering display advertising on mobile a serious advantage in their campaign strategy and have begun working with us to leverage the medium to its best efficiency."

Globally, mobile advertising is expected to reach $60 billion in the next three years reaching out to over 4.5 Billion users with a highly targeted, impactful, and measurable creative that will greatly improve ROI.

When asked what will be the three key things that will change the clients approach towards the mobile medium, Tewari states the following pointers:

"Education and awareness - Marketers need to be educated on producing relevant campaigns and exploring the full potential of mobile technology as an advertising medium.

Quicker development of infrastructure in certain developing markets ' Limited mobile browser constraints, low data charges, smoother 3G rollouts etc will further facilitate growth in these markets.

Establishment of regulations, guidelines, and metrics ' The industry as of now needs both regulatory structure as well as a standard set of metrics to ensure accurate measurement of mobile successes."

Talking about the internet business five years from now in the country, Tewari says, "It's going mobile. The advantage that mobile has over other media is the ability for consumers to carry the medium around. This mobility not only allows the consumer to interact and engage with mobile advertising, but also allows the consumer to interact with other traditional media like print, television, internet and even radio while on-the-go. It is almost like all mediums packed into this one small and smart device."

He points out that with lower smartphone costs and cheaper broadband and 3G, mobile advertisers are now able to offer consumers a much richer media experience. "The convenience of mobile integrated into a completely immersive campaign makes the medium that much more exciting to the consumer. This can be seen in the way mobile devices complement existing media like television, linking the visual and often emotional aspects of the media to the experiential elements of mobile. Mobile advertising is the new frontier of advertising and comes with a plethora of advantages," he adds.

Tewari plans to scale up the business across 2 dimensions simultaneously in 2011 and that being:

"Innovation in product and technology: Digital marketing is all about a strong platform. Inefficiencies are best solved with good technology. If we can provide the right technology and tools for the mobile ecosystem to create higher monetization's, it will naturally lead to higher yields. To achieve this, we will simply have to put smart engineers to build the technology solutions.

Geography dimension: Mobile advertising is a very global business. Everyone today has a cellphone. That's vastly different from PC business, where the utilizations is concentrated in the developed markets. We make sure we are a global solution and hence we provide ways of mobile advertising in all parts of the globe."

As a mobile ad network, InMobi works mainly with advertisers, publishers and app developers. So owners of mobile web sites and application developers usually have space on their mobile page/app, which is available for advertising. "We bring in advertisers who would like to show their ads on this space with these mobile property owners to show the ads. We also provide options to target these ads to the right users by providing various targeting options like country, city, demographics, handset etc. This ensures that the right ads reach the right users," Tewari adds.

InMobi has mainly 2 differentiators from all other ad networks. The first is the company's understanding of local markets. Secondly, the company is dedicated to providing its customers with as much data as possible about their performance. "In the current day and time, it is not sufficient to just analyze the number of clicks on each ad. We are a technology company and we have invested in building a product which goes a step further and analyzes the data collected after the ad was clicked on. This means, clients can look at the data and better streamline their targeting parameters to consistently improve ROI," Tewari points out

Internet and mobile advertising are considered as poor cousins in the media mix¦ so what do you have to say about it?

Tewari says that the industry has managed to change that perception over the past few years. "In fact, it is very possible for certain industries to make mobile its primary platform to reach out to their consumers. Marketers realize that a mobile device is probably the most personal gadget that a user owns and reflects one's personality. Hence being associated with mobile, makes their users connect with the brand. There have been a few campaigns launched in the past which purely existing on the digital space, including PC and mobile. Dedicated Twitter and Facebook campaigns, campaigns asking users to upload photographs or complete slogans etc. are a few examples," he says.

Tewari says that what mobile offers is reach and a ready audience. The number of mobile phones in several Asian countries exceeds the population itself while most countries have up to 50% penetration. He also points out that the adoption of smartphones has also become more prominent. And which has led to an increase in the demand for cheaper data plans in such markets.

"As competition among telcos further drives the prices down, mobile internet adoption will increase that much more making it an ideal medium for reaching the always on-the-go consumers of today. Be it urban or rural areas, young or old, at home or on the go, here is a device that reaches everybody," he points out.

An InMobi research study last year showed that over 70% of the Asian audiences are open to receiving relevant, useful content on their mobiles. They are also more willing to engage in mobile experiences that add value to their lives. And a recent InMobi study on mobile shopping and mCommerce showed that 80% of Asian mobile web users have made a mobile shopping purchase recently and shoppers across the 15 to 64 age group prefer mobile to PC shopping by more than a 2 to 1 ratio.

So do you think the mobile internet will surpass the internet business?..

Tewari nods assertively and says, "Yes. Mobile Internet is growing faster than PC web ever did. In most developing countries, mobile has already become the first screen. Fixed line connectivity in the lot of Asian markets is unreliable or non-existent. In such markets, mobile web forms the primary and only source of connectivity. As mobile internet becomes more affordable and smartphone penetration begins to increase, mobile will begin to replace the PC in a lot of countries."

While signing off Tewari says, "The engaging and interactive nature of the mobile device will fuel the adoption of mobile web. The PC or any other medium cannot provide the user experience and level of engagement that a mobile device can offer nor can it help advertisers to target the precise users who the ad should reach out to." | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]

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