Why do advertisers like mobile ads ?

Once merely a device for voice calls, mobile phones are now used for browsing, gaming and other non-voice purposes almost 90% of the time.

And as mobile phones evolve into hand-held multimedia computers, India focused companies are increasingly vying for that tiny private space that consumers have in their phones.

With over 330 million mobile subscribers in India already and the number growing each day, several FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies, financial institutions and TV stations are trying to tap the user interest through mobile platforms.

A mobile has unrivalled advertising impact and is 3 times more powerful than online ads for raising purchase, intent, brand favourability and ad awareness, according to Dynamic Logic AdIndex, an advertising data provider.

Why do advertisers like mobile ads ? Mobile advertisements have demonstrated brand recall on par with a 30-second television spot (which is much costlier) but 'click through rates' are exponentially higher than online ads, Nielsen IAG, an ad metrics provider, said.

"We launched 2 lakh mobile phones in India that have a Gillette-sponsored cricket game pre-installed on the device. It's the first instance of embedding a branded game on a mobile in the country. There would be more such instances in future," said Tom Henrikkson, head of interactive advertising, Nokia.

Nokia is geared up to try its hand at advertising through its mobile advertising network and the world's biggest mobile maker is trying to push advertising to publishers' mobile websites, with Nokia acting as an ad network. Nokia has planned aggressive mobile campaigns like banner ads, location finders and mobile coupons etc.

Many brands, which have sizeable presence in India, like Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Pepsi, Unilever and Universal Motion Pictures have tied up with Nokia on its media network. It already has signed up Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel which would see top brands on Nokia's media network advertise on Airtel Live portal.

Globally there are more mobiles (4 billion) than television sets (1.5 billion) and personal computers (1.1 billion) put together. Naturally, the reach is huge as far as mobile advertising goes which now has a market size of $2.6 billion. By 2012, there would be 5 billion internet-connected mobiles, Henrikkson estimates.

With a 40% share of the handset market, and more than 1 billion devices in use, Nokia is opening the mobile world to brands.