TIM Brazil Develops New Mobile Marketing Solution With Gemalto

– Innovative tool promotes TIM apps and special offers and suggests value added services from other brands and partners
– Embedded solution in devices eliminates data traffic for app downloads delivering new offers directly to the home screen

Database monetization, improved convenience for customers and expanded opportunities to offer innovative apps from third parties developers. These are the main benefits of a new agreement between TIM and Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), to develop a new mobile marketing tool focused on app installation. The mobile app push solution, part of Gemalto’s LinqUs Mobile Engagement and Monetization product suite, is an innovative channel that suggests operator and partner apps and other content downloads via interactive smart messages, greatly simplifying device lifecycle management regardless of where or when a handset is purchased.

In addition to receiving offers and app suggestions selected to match specific interests and profiles, TIM customers will be able to securely download recommended apps without using their purchased data package. The client simply selects the corresponding button in a smart message and the download and installation will automatically begin. With fewer clicks and easy usability, customers further save on their internet data plan avoiding time and data intensive app store searches.

The tool provides a great opportunity to explore new revenue sources for TIM, leveraging the marketplace trend of major investments in digital media from application developers, e-Commerce and other segments that plan to offer applications to customers. Unlimited monthly data-usage as well as simplified installation with just a few clicks is appealing to advertisers and customers alike, who now have an effective solution for promotion and downloading. TIM is developing app partnerships directly with a wide variety of brands and service providers.

“Mobile marketing has a huge potential in Brazil, a market with a rich ecosystem of application developers and advertisers investing in digital media and under-exploited by carriers. The Gemalto solution allows us to offer an innovative channel that intelligently uses telecommunication assets to create an easy and efficient experience for the promotion and installation of apps. In addition to creating a new business opportunity, it also allows us to improve convenience for consumers, who will now be able to understand and download applications in a simple, fast and innovative way,” says Flavio Lang, Director, VAS and Handsets, TIM Brasil.

How it works                                                                                             TIM started embedding the tool in Android devices sold by the Company at the end of 2015, and the current deployed carrier base is approximately 100,000 mobile devices with the tool. This number is expected to grow significantly in 2016, as the solution will be embedded in all new smartphones shipped by the operator, as well as in all operating system updates. Customer response was extremely favorable in two successful pilot programs where acceptance rates proved higher than 20 percent.

It uses no internal memory or space on the smartphone screen. “It is important to remember that only those customers who opt-in to receive advertising messages on their phones will receive campaigns messages in this new format,” explains Lang.

Through a Smart Message campaign, the user receives a pop-up promotional message highlighting a new application to download. By clicking on the proper button, the download starts automatically, without the need to redirect the user to an app store and without using the data package. This greatly improves the experience and usability of value added apps and promotional campaigns.

“Gemalto’s mobile app push solution quickly transforms any device into a branded mobile marketing channel providing proof of downloads and easy historical reports that quickly reveal up to the moment customer demands,” says Rodrigo Serna, President for the Americas at Gemalto, “This type of statistical reporting improves business intelligence and lifecycle management helping mobile operators to securely deliver offers relevant to customer needs ultimately improving service and satisfaction.”

The partnership with Gemalto, which involves app development and downloading on operator devices is unprecedented in Brazil and will be exclusive for six months.

The mobile marketing opportunity                                     Mobile marketing initiatives have been growing in the country. According to eMarketer, a company specialized in digital market research and surveys, investments in mobile advertising are booming and Brazil’s market share is expected to rise from 40% to 46% by 2018.

In addition, eMarketer estimates that by 2016, investments in mobile marketing will exceed $100 bn worldwide and $1 bn in Brazil, which is equivalent to 51% market share of the global digital advertising market. For the first time, mobile marketing expenditures will exceed those with online media on desktops.

Growth of post-paid customers and the increased use of mobile data packages offer opportunities in an increasingly auspicious market. At TIM, smartphone penetration reached 68% of the base at the end of 2015, i.e., an increase of nearly 20 percentage points compared to 2014. At the same time, data connectivity grew 39% last year, which currently accounts for 38% of the operator’s total revenues.