The burgeoning market for mobile advertising in India: Anita Nayyar

Fastest defines the Indian mobile market and advertising therein. 

Across reports, India is the fastest growing mobile market in the world, where mobile advertising is growing the fastest in rural at a higher rate than urban, with spends set to reach Rs 10,000 crore by end 2018. 

India has leapfrogged to mobile and 4G such that a 4G mobile could very well be the first device for the common man. With Aadhar linking to mobile, mobile doubling as a device for music + entertainment, WhatApp and Facebook being essential pulls; it effectively means the immediate potential consumer mass of India is on mobile or getting there and thus, reachable by brands – all ripe for advertising. 

From a reflection of a brand website, mobile has shifted and evolved into a powerful, full-fledged indigenous medium for which even the likes of Facebook had to create content, services and strategy. 

With freely popping ads, Ad-blockers have sprung up and will grow, challenging revenues. The PageFair Ad Block 2017 report cites India mobile ad-block penetration at 28 per cent and usage having expanded to 59 per cent of the smartphones. Good content, permission marketing and native advertising (also on the rise) are more appealing to customers. 

The potential of Programmatic with its ability to catch the right audience in its moment has yet to be utilised by marketers. Appealing to the senses, Video and GIFs are driving in more clickability, making online video ads more popular. The engaging nature of Gaming, coupled with 4G data offerings, will make it rampant, opening opportunities for in-game advertising – though niche. The digital economy, with digital payments which came to the fore post demonetisation, has been firmly established. From the other side, it gets even closer to the customer and helps understand his preferences. 

For start-ups and SMEs ‘the mobile’ is a welcome, cost-effective and direct reach mechanism to offer products and services to today’s Indians, allowing them to also retain, service and scale, their customer base. 

(Anita Nayyar is CEO - India & South Asia at Havas Media Group. She is also part of the esteemed Jury Panel for the upcoming MOBEXX Awards 2017. For details, please visit: https://www.adgully.com/mobexx-awards-2017/)