OnMobile launches Ad RingBack tones

MUMBAI, INDIA: OnMobile, India's largest telecom VAS company has announced the deployment of an innovative mobile marketing offering, Ad Ring Back Tones (AD RBT). This service has been launched with one of the leading Indian GSM Operators in Mumbai and will be extended to other regions in a phased manner.

When a user subscribes to Ad RBT, callers to that user will be presented with audio ads, which are personalized to the caller's profile. The OnMobile adRBT platform has a unique call-to-action feature which allows interested users to respond to the advertisement instantly with the click of a single key. Users who have subscribed to Ad RBT will receive special discounts and offers from the Operator to participate in this program.

Arvind Rao, CEO and Co-founder of OnMobile said, "Ad RBT is a disruptive evolution in mobile advertising and marketing which so far has been limited to SMS text or small WAP banners. Marketers now have the ability to create rich, interactive, audio ads which are played straight into an individual's ear for high impact and recall value. With users receiving an average of 10 calls per day from multiple callers all over the country, advertisers have the ability to reach out to a large and diverse audience in a very short period of time with full rich MIS in real time which is not possible on other advertising channels".

Many mobile advertising solutions tend to spam users with unwanted ads or generic, not personalized ads which irk the consumer. With Ad RBT, Callers are presented with ads that are targeted and relevant to them and allow for impulsive response. Further, the audio ads can be in any regional language, making this solution very attractive to the consumer and to the Indian advertisers.

A special feature of Ad RBT is the fact that ads have the undivided attention of the consumer, while waiting for the other party to answer the call. This significantly enhances the ability for the brand to connect with their audience and gain salience. With current mobile advertising solutions, the recipient could delete an SMS ad without reading or they could easily miss the ads on the small WAP screen. Another first is the ability for the advertiser to get almost real time feedback on the progress of the campaign, enabling the Marketing Manager to react quickly to the market response.

With AD RBT, OnMobile is creating a new market for advertisers looking to capitalize on the huge mobile subscriber base which is growing rapidly as well as the rich, interactive capability of this channel.