Mobile ads catching up in India

Mobile ads get more sophisticated as they try to deliver the best from TV and computer, minus the nuisances Technology has a way of blurring definitions and challenging consumer habits. This time round it is going to further delight—or confuse you if you are technophobic—by bringing the experience of the TV and the computer screen to your mobile screen.

Things are set to change as Internet style advertising, in the shape of display advertising (banner ads) and search, and even TV-style advertising, come to the mobile phone.

Interactive TV and radio, product promotions using coupons and competitions, have exploited this medium.

Now it is understood that Google has also started testing mobile ads for advertisers in India. Google Mobile ads are text-based ad formats, which the company began testing with AdWords advertisers in US, UK, Germany and Japan in August 2006. These textbased ads appear along with search results delivered to mobile devices, and they contain either a link to a mobile website or a phone number which users can click on to generate a call. That sounds much like your computer screen during a Google search, doesn’t it?

Currently, mobile advertising is a very nascent market worth about Rs 6-8 crore. But by the end of 2007 it could border at Rs 35 crore. Globally, according to the Shosteck Group Study, in the most optimistic scenario, the global market could grow to $9.6 billion by 2010.