mobile number portability - an advertiser's guide
DESCRIPTION
A whitepaper covering Mobile Number Portability and what this means to the operator market in terms of advertising opportunitiesTRANSCRIPT
MOBILE NUMBERPORTABILITY
www.inmobi.com
– An Advertiser’s Guide
WHITE PAPERFebruary, 2011
© 2010 InMobi. White Paper - Mobile Number Portability. An Advertiser’s Guide www.inmobi.com
MOBILE NUMBERPORTABILITYAn Advertiser’s Guide –
INTRODUCTIONThe latest buzzwords in the Indian telecom industry are clearly MNP and 3G. While both technolo-gies have been available in other markets around the globe for a while now, they are now just entering the Indian market and already promise to show spectacular results. This whitepaper covers MNP or Mobile Number Portability and what this means to the operator market in terms of advertis-ing opportunities. While there are other whitepapers covering the technical aspects of MNP, this whitepaper is focused on the advertising aspect that MNP brings into the picture.
What is MNP? Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.
Life Before MNPToday mobile consumers find it hard to move from one network operator to another with a better plan, unless they are ready to forego their old mobile number and update all their contacts with the new number. The result is consumers often stick to one operator even if they are dissatisfied with plans or customer service. Now, with the launch of MNP, consumers can easily switch between operators offering different plans while retaining their old number. A recent survey by Aegis Consult-ing and Research shows that Indians have been waiting for this feature and have much to gain with the launch of MNP.
Uninor
Airtel
MTNL
Reliance CDMA
Vodafone
BSNL
Idea
Aircel
Tata Docomo
Reliance GSM
Tata Indicom
Loop
19.4
47.0
48.0
50.4
51.3
53.0
54.8
54.8
55.9
62.1
62.8
74.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Figures show percentage of subscribersof the operator who said “yes”
Source: Aegis Consulting & Research
CHURNING DESIREIndian mobile-telephony customers are a restless lotWill you change your number once portability comes?
© 2010 InMobi. White Paper - Mobile Number Portability. An Advertiser’s Guide www.inmobi.com
MOBILE NUMBERPORTABILITYAn Advertiser’s Guide –
Competition Will IncreaseWith the launch of this service, the mobile operator market will get more competitive in terms of plans available for users, coverage and connectivity, and customer service. In a few markets, certain operators have established a “quasi-monopoly” and have dominated the market. These dominant positions are mainly a function of time in market. In an environment without MNP where consumers have less desire to switch plans, operators can build a subscriber base over time with little risk to attrition. With the arrival of MNP, competition will increase dramatically and markets historically dominated by a single player will see increased fragmentation and churn rates.
MNP in IndiaMNP was made available to the Indian market on Jan 20, 2011. A fee of Rs.19 is charged for switching operators, but operators often waive this fee as an introductory offer. Consumers need to stay with the new operator for a minimum of 90 days before being able to shift operators again.
MNP initially launched in the state of Haryana in November 2010. Reports show that in the Haryana circle a total of 150,000 customers have ported out i.e. shifted from one operator to another.
Vodafone
Airtel
Idea
Aircel
BSNL
Loop
Tata GSM
Reliance GSM
Videocon
Tata CDMA
Operator
42157
23066
21221
16139
7234
0
2374
1242
1188
1001
NumbersPorted IN
NumbersPorted Out
Reliance CDMA
MTS
295
97
11368
17229
23686
1590
33626
9
9095
12181
4004
10747
7934
888
NetGain/loss
30789
5837
-2465
14549
-26392
-9
-6721
-10939
-2816
-9746
-7639
-791
Gain/LossRatio
3.7
1.3
1.1
10.2
4.6
3.8
9.8
3.4
10.7
26.9
9.2
Multiple Plans, Not SIM CardsAnother dimension of the Indian market is multiple SIM cards. One is their primary card or number and the other is the expendable SIM card. So far, the expendable cards have been prepaid cards
Source: Teleguru.in
© 2010 InMobi. White Paper - Mobile Number Portability. An Advertiser’s Guide www.inmobi.com
MOBILE NUMBERPORTABILITYAn Advertiser’s Guide –
Service Area
AP
Assam
Bihar
Chennai
Delhi
Gujarat
Haryana
Prepaid
29
19
39
10
33
22
20
HP
J&K
33
9
Postpaid
80
67
46
16
81
49
58
49
55
Total
109
86
85
26
114
71
78
82
64
Prepaid
13
8
11
1
14
14
12
9
8
Postpaid
24
17
30
12
32
32
30
24
18
Total
37
25
41
13
46
46
42
33
26
Karnataka
Kerala
Kolkata
26
36
17
Maharashtra
MP& CG
24
28
62
60
64
61
63
88
96
81
85
91
15
11
13
13
18
30
26
24
30
29
45
37
37
43
47
Mumbai
North East
39
24
Orissa
Punjab
29
18
95
72
67
48
134
96
96
66
16
10
13
18
31
21
30
38
47
31
43
56
Rajasthan 29 52 81 11 26 37
Tamilnadu
UP (E)
34
32
UP (W)
West Bengal
37
32
62
67
64
56
96
99
101
88
10
12
9
16
30
33
23
35
40
45
32
51
Number Of Plans Across Telcos: 31st March 2010
GSM CDMA
that have been bought or trashed depending on offers available, cheaper voice calls, cheaper data plans etc. With the launch of MNP the need for multiple SIM cards is diminished. The primary SIM card can now address the issues of retaining the number while still getting the best-in-market offers. Since users can change the service provider of their primary number, the need for operators to get even more competitive increases.
A report from MediaNama shows that for a user, there will now be a fairly large number of plans to choose from. The number of telecom operators operational in multiple service areas has gone up since this report was issued, so the total number of plans is probably even higher than what you see listed here.
Source: Medianama
© 2010 InMobi. White Paper - Mobile Number Portability. An Advertiser’s Guide www.inmobi.com
MOBILE NUMBERPORTABILITYAn Advertiser’s Guide –
Operator Mobile Advertising Strategies with MNPWithout MNP, operators were mainly able to target a limited audience who were getting a new number. Migration opportunity was smaller and ROI harder to achieve using any advertising approach including mobile advertising. With the launch of MNP, the entire population of mobile users are now open to every operator; hence demand for better advertising and marketing is a reality under MNP.
It is evident that operators with better choices and offers will benefit from this new reality. However; MNP also presents another unique challenge to mobile service operators in India. It presents a first ever opportunity for consumers to churn en masse. It is interesting to see the variety of marketing approaches from operators in response. For example:
• Idea Cellular Ltd. ran an aggressive television campaign asking people to “Get Idea”. The concept behind this was to call out the differentiators that Idea was offering. Better network coverage, plans adaptable to consumer usage, echo deletion etc. were widely advertised.
• Vodafone India took a more inclusive approach by ‘welcoming everybody’. With the ‘Everybody’s welcome’ tagline, Vodafone has taken a more confident, leadership approach relying on a friendly, likeable tone to the advertising. Rather than call out the product benefits of using Vodafone, the Vodafone ads use elements that are eminently likable such as the children, the pug, and catchy music.
• Tata DoCoMo went with an aggressive mobile Twitter campaign and also initiated a hashtag campaign named #switch2TataDoCoMo, which it inserted into all its tweets on MNP. A typical tweet by the company read, “If ur lookin to switch then ensure its to a #3G ready network, who believes in cool offers..aka us ;-) #Switch2TataDoCoMo #MNP”. The firm also adopted an informal tone in its replies to individual tweeters, often referring to them as “buddy” or “pal”.
• The MNP wars were not restricted just to Twitter and TV ads. Tata DoCoMo, Idea and Airtel have all bought advertising space on Google that appears on the result pages on searches for either MNP or mobile number portability.
Campaigns that promote operators and adoption via MNP live in the mobile realm; hence it is a must for mobile to be an integral marketing channel. Advertising on the mobile provides the highest form of relevance to the user. Second, it also provides the user a real understanding of requirements and tangible, personal understanding of what makes one network more different than another. Overlook mobile advertising and you pass by the most obvious and important channel for MNP messaging.
If the concepts above are not compelling enough, another benefit remains. The greatest advantage that mobile offers operators in an MNP world is targeting capabilities on competing operator networks and specific manufacturers and handsets. With absolutely no spillage, advertisers can reach out to the exact audience they want to reach with offers to pull them into their network. This sort of targeting is not provided by any other sort of channel and is ideally suited to the needs of operators in the MNP reality that is India today.
© 2010 InMobi. White Paper - Mobile Number Portability. An Advertiser’s Guide www.inmobi.com
MOBILE NUMBERPORTABILITYAn Advertiser’s Guide –
Advice on Mobile AdvertisingSome of the ways operators can utilize the mobile medium to run their ad campaigns are1.Target Competitive Network a. Plain Targeting: Push your campaigns to attract customers from other networks to migrate to your network. Create awareness about your attractive tariff plans
b. Survey: Understand what it would take to attract a specific category of users. Get to know what they don’t like about their network and customize a plan, which migrates them to your network
c. Incentive Buying: Push discount coupons, instant gratification, additional memberships and tell them about your loyalty programs for quick registrations / enquiries to migrate to your network. If somebody registers then announce the same through their facebook page by linking online registration forms to social networks
d. Handset targeting: Intercept all the 3G enabled phones in other networks and inform them about your offers to increase migration to your own network 2. Leverage your own network a. Refer a friend: Request your own subscribers to refer their friends and give instant gratifi cation like CUG calls among all friends of the user who migrates from another network to your network
b. Feedback: Get to know the feedback on your network from your existing users. What they don’t like or like about your network. This will help the operator in improving services and get to the facts that can be used for brand communications.
3. Utilize Mobile Effectively a. Calls to Action: Mobile offers a wide range of calls to action such as Click to Call, Click to SMS, Click to Video etc. Spread the mobile campaign across all these actions to engage users in a wider way and hence further grow the interest
b. Creative Banners: The creative banners available on mobile are far superior to the ones available on traditional media. Your campaign banners can be of different sizes to best suit the phone it is displayed on, can have animations on it, can be a full screen ad before an application loads etc. Ensure that you work all these options into your ad campaigns
© 2010 InMobi. White Paper - Mobile Number Portability. An Advertiser’s Guide www.inmobi.com
MOBILE NUMBERPORTABILITYAn Advertiser’s Guide –
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Available Impression Volume & Composition
Type July October % ChgGlobal
Development Index
Total 11,460,224,000 12,457,582,814 8.7% naSmartphone 1,523,003,912 2,241,896,823 47.2% 66Advanced 9,937,220,088 10,215,685,991 2.8% 113
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