Brands
targeting
the youth cannot
afford to ignore this medium,
as the youth comprise
a large portion of the
growing mobile subscriber
base in India.
Kunal Ramteke, Chief
Marketing Officer, BPL
Mobile, says, “The share
of value added services
would constitute about 15
to 20 per cent of our total
revenue, on a nationwide
basis. In metros, this may
be slightly higher, close to
22 per cent.”Adds Venkat
Mallik, CEO, Level Up, "
The very nature of the
mobile phone ensures it is
present with the consumer,
at all times making
it an attractive proposition
for brand marketers."
First engage, then
brand
The growth in gaming has
been spurred on by the
fact that not only are
colour handsets and JAVA
enabled handsets considerably cheaper than when they
were introduced, the costs for
GPRS usage have also come
down tremendously. To ensure
higher levels of sampling, most
games currently on offer are simple
and do not include too many
instructions.
"As is the trend globally, the
most popular games are those
which are simple to play," says
Anurag Khurana, CEO, Paradox
Studios, a part of the Reliance
group, which is involved in
developing games for them and
adds, "Brands are only a secondary
element in the gaming
aspect. If the game itself does not
have repeat value, the whole
exercise is a waste. We have to
keep this in mind while developing
branded games to sustain
interest among users."
Although they are not in the
business of creating content yet,
as Rajesh Sawhney, COO, Times
Internet Ltd., puts it, that may
change in the coming months for
Indiatimes' gaming portal. "At
Indiatimes, our job involves
aggregating some of the finest
international games and customising
it to the Indian market.
But on a realistic level, all this
talk about the huge mobile gaming
market in India is more of
hype. Music downloads are the
real revenue generators; the market
for game downloads would
approximately be about one hundredth
of the mobile ringtones
market. At Indiatimes, Round
one is already in place. Round
two will see us working closely
with marketers to embed brand
messages and logos in our forthcoming
games. We are already in
the process of developing competencies
in the area of branding
solutions in mobile gaming. The process should work out in the
next two months so you will hear from us soon."More...
