Keeping in tune with trends of emerging markets, Facebook has launched ‘Missed Call’ ad unit business in feature phone heavy Indian market. To scale-up its reach over mobile devices Facebook has partnered with VivaConnect for its missed call platform. VivaConnect holds India’s largest infrastructure for voice & missed call services.
The ‘missed call’ advertisement is Facebook’s first foray into mobile service to empower advertisers effectively reach their consumers in developing markets. India, the 2nd most populated country in the world is quickly catching up to the U.S. as Facebook’s biggest market. In last April, Facebook had announced of crossing 100 million users in India and thus expects higher revenue from this emerging market.
The new missed call ad format comes in action as around 66% Indians access Facebook on mobile devices of feature phone segment and a whopping 95% of India’s mobile subscriber base has a pre-paid connection. A place where it’s a common norm among family and friends, to dial a call and hang up after a ring expecting a response in return. The missed call ad format will definitely bolster brands advertising over Facebook, happening on mobile.
‘Consumer behavior in high-growth markets is changing very rapidly and we are poised to respond to that as quickly as possible. We see brands delivering useful and entertaining content like sports scores, news, or celebrity messages that people find valuable enough to take the time to listen to and interact with. There is also a good tie-in for direct response advertisers who can use the Missed call unit as lead generation, where a person is essentially raising their hand and expressing interest in a good or service.’, Maxine Schlein, Product Marketing Manager for Emerging Markets at Facebook.
When a person sees an ad on Facebook they can place a ‘missed call’ by clicking the ad from their mobile device In the return call, the person will receive valuable content, such as music, cricket scores or celebrity messages, alongside a brand message from the advertiser, all without using airtime or data.
The combination of user’s social data assembled over Facebook and the reach offered by VivaConnect’s missed call platform, together will allow brands to effectively target their consumers with right kind of advertising. Content will be personalized effectively, matching up the highly diverse Indian user base. Also, mobile access will grant an individual reach for retargeting consumers in brands subsequent activities.
‘Facebook has been a hot trend over mobile in India and so have been missed call services. Together they would be a perfect solution for delivering an enhanced brand experience over Mobile. Missed calls offer an instant way to spark the conversations.’ says Vikram Raichura Managing Director, VivaConnect
VivaConnect has a rich experience in connecting brands and their consumers through innovative mobile marketing services that’ve showcased 99% uptime since inception. The company holds over 30 million interactions in a single day with services of voice call, missed call, sms, email & mobile apps. Leading Banks, FMCG brands, Entertainment channels, advertising agencies & Media channels rely over their mobile services to interact with their consumers.
Facebook’s ‘Missed call’ advertisement is a harbinger of great things to follow leveraging brand-consumer connect over mobile.
