Missed Call Marketing

India has 833.02 Million active mobile phone users as of December, 2014. Around 90% of mobile phones connections in India are prepaid. Giving a “missed call” is very common in India. Over the years, missed calls have been used by children to tell anxious parents that they have reached somewhere, to summon their drivers, or people to order food, receive cricket scores and bank balances and just about any other information or content.

Social Platforms companies like Facebook and Twitter are building large revenues in India by Missed Call Marketing. There is money in this business, which is why Twitter recently acquired Indian Company ZipDial and Facebook forged a partnership with Vivaconnect. It is a business that could be worth as $1 Billion of annual revenue, without putting a time frame to the estimate.

In 2013, Consumer Goods Company Hindustan Unilever Limited looked at ways to increase engagement with its consumers in Bihar and Jharkhand with Missed Call Marketing. The company sets up its own mobile radio channel along with a campaign to build awareness. Consumers to could give a missed call to a number and in return receive 20 minutes of free, on-demand content, ranging from Bollywood songs to popular Hindi entertainment. The campaign racked up calls from around 30 Million people, nearly 200 Million ad impressions and the consumption of around 500 Million minutes of content. That was the power of harnessing something as simple as Missed call.

State Bank of India and GlaxoSmithKline have also used Missed call marketing in India. It is an easy and cost-effective means for brands to reach out to a larger target audience, particularly in semi-urban and rural markets where Internet penetration is low. While most campaigns push information at consumers, Missed Call Marketing works the other way round. Companies in the business say a missed call marketing exercise could come as cheap as a few lakhs, and cost up to several crores depending on size and scale.

Missed calls phenomenon is already prevalent in Africa and Latin America, where it is called flashing or beeping. ZipDial, which has worked with Procter and Gamble India Ltd and Colgate Palmolive Ltd is optimistic about the reach and scale of Missed call Marketing. Twitter will be integrating ZipDial platform into its core platform to enrich the user experience. ZipDial mobile platform lets people follow and engage with content across all interfaces, SMS, voice and mobile web, and also facilitates offline consumption of content.

Facebook has integrated the tool into its interface for select campaigns. When a person sees an ad on Facebook, he or she can place a missed call by clicking on the ad from a mobile device. In return, the user receives content like music, cricket scores or celebrity messages, and a brand message from the advertiser. Still, companies need to realize that the missed call campaigns may not always generate high quality leads. As the tool matures, marketers need to find out what works for consumers. As users become pickier about the kind of content they wish to consume, brands will need to ask themselves why consumers would want to seek out their brand.

What Robots may do in 2045?

IT is the future of the world. Recently, Diwakar Vaish developed India’s first 3D-printed Humanoid Robot named Manav and his team is working on several other robotics projects. After 30 years, it is likely that the world’s population will include billions of people and billions of Robots, with the latter doing almost all the heavy, routine labour. People will work on improving the software for the Robots and the IT industry will be home to companies developing programmes for robots as they now develop apps for users to download and install.

To a certain extent, the boundaries between robots and humans will become blurred. Transplants using electronically controlled artificial organs and prosthesis will be a routine surgical procedure. Nanorobots will travel deep into the body to deliver drugs to diseased cells or perform microsurgery. Specially installed sensors will monitor people’s health and transmit their findings to a cloud based storage that can be accessed by the local doctor. All of this leads to a considerable increase in life expectancies.

Moreover, people will live in smart homes where most creature comforts will be fully automated. The software that runs the house will take care of energy, water, food supplies, and its replenishment. The resident only concern will be to ensure there is enough money in their bank accounts to pay bills. Our digital alter egos will finally be fully formed within a single global infrastructure capable of self-regulation and involved in managing life on the planet. The system will be geared towards distributing resources between people, preventing armed conflict and other humanitarian actions.

It will not just be dreary chores that are consigned to the history books; production of certain items will no longer be needed. Instead, 3D printers will enable us to design and create what we need. The PC might have started the whole IT boom, but by 2045, we will probably see it in museums. To be more precise, we will no longer need a single tool for working with data, which is basically a computer does.

There will be an even greater range of smarter devices and these different gadgets will steadily take over the functions of today’s PCs. For Example, financial analysis will be done by a server controlled by the organization concerned using electronic documents, not by an accountant on a PC. Not everyone will be excited by a brave new Robotic world. New Luddites will likely emerge to oppose the development of smart homes, automated lifestyles, and robots.

Metro to Marketing Train

Advertising to increase by 12.7% in the coming year, GroupM said in a report. From Digital to print advertising, businesses are fighting to give their ads and spending in crores to attract customers. Now, Companies are targeting Metro train coaches in cities to promote their business. I was travelling in one of the Yellow line metro and whole Train was covered with advertisement of E-commerce giant Amazon India.

It was very difficult for me to understand Where the Train was last up to. Everything was covered with ads from Amazon. Even the interior ad space was covered with E-commerce ads. The Delhi metro covers 190.03km across six lines and ferries close to 260,000 passengers on a daily basis. Part of it is underground and part overground. DMRC runs 216 trains with 1,282 coaches. According to a report, 8 Million people used its services in 2013-14. Presently, most of the Metro trains have become marketing trains.

Earlier companies fight for ads on TV and newspaper, now they are fighting for ads on Metro. It might a situation in India when companies will promote their business on Indian Railway, which is one of the longest networks in the World. In Delhi, after IndiaMart, Amazon, and Political parties, Myntra will be seen advertising on Delhi Metro coaches. Paytm and Snapdeal are also in discussions to do the same. Advertisers may around Rs. 25 lakh to wrap up six to eight coaches of the metro for a month i.e. on average Rs. 4 Lakh for a coach.

The companies are also hoping for similar opportunities in Bengaluru and Chennai. Mumbai smaller Metro has trains sporting ads from BigBasket, UltraTech Cement, and Oxigen, an electronic payment service. Consumer goods and mobile phones companies may also join the queue. Delhi Metro has awarded exclusive rights for displaying advertising materials including pictures, printed material, electronic media, smart posters, and visual displays. The concept is very popular in Singapore, Bangkok, Hongkong, Dubai, and the US.

This is very catchy and effective medium. This leads to increase in consumer base, more downloads of mobile apps, and increase in revenue. Even, people who are not aware of it know about companies. It becomes easy for sales person to reach out in a local market and sell products because of awareness of companies and products. What if Metro trains are also used to increase awareness of Social causes? Display ads of Government campaigns may increase awareness and it will last long. With changing scenarios of marketing in last two years, huge amount of money will flow in market and there will be more marketing trains.