1) Operators are well-positioned to play a key role in mobile advertising due to their knowledge of subscribers, established relationships, and control over mobile channels. 2) Advertisers currently find mobile advertising challenging due to the difficulty in targeting users and coordinating multi-channel campaigns without the operator. 3) Operators can improve the mobile advertising experience for both advertisers and users by leveraging their subscriber data and relationships to enable better targeting, integrated multi-channel campaigns, and providing users with control over the types of ads they receive.

1. The Operator’s Role in
Mobile Advertising

2. The Operator’s Role in Operators Can Do It Better
Mobile Advertising Why is it important for the operator to have a key role in
advertising? What value does the operator add?
It is in the interest of all parties that operators play a key Let’s take the SMS advertising experience for example.
role in mobile advertising Today, the advertiser needs to contact an SMS aggregator
and provide a list of phone numbers to send SMSs to. If
Staking a Key Role in Mobile Advertising the advertiser does not have a database of customers, this
database is usually acquired by running a campaign asking
With brands seeking media channels that can reach more
users to opt in (send an SMS to a short code, register online,
people and provide a better return on the advertising
etc.) This of course, makes things more complicated and
dollar and with the communication space becoming more
more costly for the advertiser. And for all of the effort and
and more crowded, it was only a matter of time until
expense, the only information the advertiser obtains about
the full attention of advertisers would turn to the mobile
the users is their phone number and their interest in the
environment.
campaign.
This creates an excellent opportunity for operators to stake
The same goes for advertising through ad networks on the
a role in the mobile advertising arena — and there are
mobile Web. Ad networks, in pretty much the same way
compelling reasons why this role should be a prominent one.
as Goggle Analytics over the Web, can provide information
about the OS and handset used to display the ad, the
In many countries there are many more people who have
amount of time the ad was displayed, the country, IP address,
and use mobile phones than there are people who have
etc., but no real information about who the users are — and
and watch TV, read newspapers, etc. Mobile phones go
surely no indication of their interests and habits.
everywhere with users, offering a real personal connection
through multiple touchpoints: from SMS, through mobile
An advertiser interested in having a coordinated multi-
Internet to ringback tones and more. Moreover, advertising
channel campaign with SMS messages as well as mobile
over the mobile can target the users who will find any given
video ads for example, would need to contact each
ad most relevant and valuable, and therefore are highly likely
aggregator separately, making it very hard and costly to
to respond to it by clicking or purchasing. For these reasons
manage and execute and evaluate the effectiveness of such
and more, the mobile environment is an attractive and
a campaign. For this reason, such campaigns are rarely
effective way for advertisers to directly and effectively reach
attempted.
their buyers and potential buyers.
The user experience of off-deck mobile advertising without
Today, there is already much activity in the mobile advertising
a prominent operator role is also poor — the user does not
domain, with increasing numbers of consumer brands using
have one central place to manage the mobile advertising
the mobile to promote their product to consumers through
experience (opt in/out, choose interests, etc.), so the ads are
the mobile phone. Some mobile advertisers seek to be
less targeted and therefore less relevant.
first off the line to be perceived as innovative, but most
are eyeing the solid potential and benefits of meeting the Operators – Owners of Key Assets for Mobile
consumer on a one-on-one basis. Advertising
Many of the mobile campaigns done today bypass the As a result of the advertiser needs identified above and
operator completely, mostly by using bulk SMS and mobile the potential for significant revenues, the new emerging
Internet banners that lead users into WAP mini-sites. For advertising ecosystem is drawing many players to the field.
running money into the mobile advertising pipes and having Yet the network mobile operator holds key assets of great
an educating role for the industry, these off-deck campaigns value that cannot be replicated by any other player. These
are welcomed. However, bypassing the operator in the include:
mobile advertising value chain provides advertisers with
inferior results. • Subscriber Knowledge: The mobile operator, extracting
information from the network, knows exactly who the
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3. end user is, behavior and browsing patterns (behavioral • Real-time Metrics: Knowing how many and which
targeting), and more. This puts the operator in a users called to receive more information is valuable
unique position to profile its subscribers and use the knowledge that only the operator can provide. Analyzing
information for better targeting, both for the advertiser in real time which subscribers respond and which don’t
(better returns) and for the end user (meaningful, enables the advertiser to modify the campaign on the go
relevant ads vs. spam). This enables the advertiser to to maximize the campaign’s effectiveness and success,
target users according to relevant characteristics such as taking the best approach with each of these groups.
their age, gender, income, hobbies and not settle for a With this real-time information and post-campaign
list of phone numbers. reports, mobile operators can demonstrate and quantify
the success of campaigns to advertisers to prove the
• Subscriber Relationship: The operator has a trusted value of their mobile advertising spending.
customer care and billing relationship with the end user.
This enables the operator to bundle services in order to Case Study - SingTel
enhance advertising monetization and offer easy self-
care management of service opt-in/opt-out, etc. Singaporean quad-play operator SingTel announced the
launch of SingTel iMedia, its advertising service offering
• Real-time Triggers: The operator knows the users’ businesses a targeted and effective means to reach
location and can use it as a trigger for campaigns. Also customers across three media — the mobile, TV and the
users’ billing situation can trigger advertisement. For Internet.
example, when the subscriber tries to make a call or
download a ringtone and that subscriber is out of credit, SingTel iMedia offers advertisers innovative profiling tools to
this can trigger an internal campaign to provide the understand customers’ needs and preferences. By analyzing
desired service for free if the subscriber opts in to an customer profiles, advertisers can place ads that are relevant
advertisement service. Benefits to the advertiser include to customers so that they can make informed purchase
meeting users when they are most attentive. Upon decisions. Advertisers can also activate ads that include direct
topping up balance, users are most likely to accept response mechanisms, providing an interactive, targeted and
receiving ads in return for more credit (minutes, airtime, measurable advertising approach.
etc.)
Advertisers are able to run campaigns through several
• Multiple Channels: Full control over the various mobile channels and manage them in a central place using the
communication channels enables the operator to offer: SingTel iMedia online media planning tool. This tool provides
assistance to SMEs and media agencies:
-- A unique, broad and rich inventory for advertisers
(person-to-person SMS, system notifications, • Online Self Help: Advertisers have complete control
ringback tones, interstitial ads displayed between and visibility over the whole advertising campaign
browsing pages over the mobile Internet, MMS, anytime. This ranges from creating a SingTel billing
banners and more) account, booking ad space and creating campaigns
online, with the ability to generate estimates of the
-- The ability to recommend the best channel to reach campaign cost.
an individual user
• Online Report: Advertisers can track the results of the
-- The ability to reach all users through various campaigns in terms of the number ads sent or displayed
channels: from voice advertising on voice calls to and the number of customers responding to them.
multimedia advertising on IPTV
• Online Preview: Before the ad is displayed to
• Value to Subscribers: The operator can offer its customers, the system allows advertisers to preview how
subscribers incentives for agreeing to receive advertising, these messages will appear on the customers’ mobile
increasing attractiveness of the medium and user phones.
responsiveness. With the right profiling, the end user
receives meaningful ads (and not spam) in a controlled SingTel end-users are eager to participate because they can
environment (e.g., up to four ads a day) benefit from discounts, news and exclusive event invitations
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4. in return for responding to ads. In addition, end users
maintain control by using SingTel portal, where it is easy
to customize and manage advertising preferences: how,
when and what kind of advertising to receive. This feature
is extremely important to users to feel that they can protect
their privacy at any level at any time.
Operators Are Getting on Board
The time for operators to carve their place in the value chain
is now. Today’s mobile advertising campaigns generally
use one communication channel at a time in a standalone
fashion; this is not as efficient and effective as a holistic
and comprehensive approach that advertisers would want.
Why not have campaigns that start with a ringback tone ad,
followed by an SMS directing the user to a mobile site? The
user experience is superior, encouraging users to engage and
interact with the brand, and these result in better returns for
the advertiser.
About Comverse
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enabling value-added services for voice, messaging, mobile Internet
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enables communication service providers to unleash the value of presented in this communication are summary in nature, subject to change,
the network for their customers by making their networks smarter. and intended for general information only.
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