AgVoice | Mobile Marketing - A Gradual Evolution

In the last decade the socio economic impact of mobile phones has changed the way consumers interact with businesses. Consumers can now do things such as mobile banking, purchasing goods and even transferring shares on their mobile phones which they never thought would be possible a decade ago. The mobile phone has now become an important tool amongst the masses in India that empowers the poor, such as farmers, drivers and the humble dabbawallas in the way they do business and reach out to consumers.

Very few people used their mobile devices to access the Web.

In the interim, marketers looking to leverage mobile devices as an alternative delivery platform used to face concerns over privacy, effectiveness and sustainability of these devices which led to thin mobile marketing budgets. Furthermore, there were no standardized metrics to measure key performance indicators such as the effectiveness of the campaign and its sales conversion rate. So far this mindset has changed due to more market research done in this field leading to more opportunities in mobile advertising.

Access is more open now and much more affordable for many, also in large part a result of better and more affordable handsets. Content is much less segregated in "walled gardens' allowing ad networks to develop alternate revenue models for many content developers. Some of the content channels available on mobile include cooking, music, gaming, sports, movies and many more.

Dr KF Lai is co-founder and chief executive officer of BuzzCity, one of world's leading mobile media companies in the development and marketing of mobile services and entertainment to a global audience.

Established in 1999 in Singapore, BuzzCity's business focuses on two distinct audiences: the newly connected emerging middle class in developing markets and the blue collar sector in developed regions.

These "unwired" consumers are accessing the mobile Internet on their phones due to widespread and affordable wireless access. Prior to founding BuzzCity, Dr Lai worked as an applied researcher in laboratories funded by the Singapore government, specializing in pattern recognition and text retrieval.

He graduated with First Class Honours in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore and obtained his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.