ICFAI University faculty member and consulting editor for ICFAI Books highlights recent innovations and campaigns in this region of the world.

The mobile subscriber base in India grew 56.5 percent in 2005 and touched 58.5 million people, as compared to 37.4 million in 2004. During the current Indian financial year (2006-07), ecommerce transactions' value is expected to rise 95 percent (i.e. reach 2.3 billion Indian Rupees) when compared to the corresponding figure in 2005-06.

The above figures are definitely encouraging for players in the Indian interactive marketing arena. These include the advertising agencies, marketers and intermediaries such as website publishers and telecom operators. Such is the importance attached to interactive marketing that a couple of years ago, Ad Club Bombay-- one of India's leading advertising communities-- instituted a new category called New Interactive Media in its awards called Abbies. Ads created for Pepsi and Coca-Cola, posted on Yahoo! India and Hungama respectively, were two of the winners in this category in 2004. In the 2006 Abbies, the Golds in the Interactive Digital Marketing category were bagged by O&M and Web Chutney for ads for their clients HT Matrimonial Services and Makemytrip (a travel portal) respectively.

Forms and convergence
Internet, mobile telephony and events constitute the bulk of interactive marketing action. With more than 0.2 million cyber cafes spread across the country, it is no wonder that nearly two-thirds of India's internet users access the web through cyber cafés. But the spread of broadband into households through cable is also well under way, and at affordable monthly charges of about 10 US dollars.

There is no dearth of portals dedicated to online games and contests. Interactive advertisements in rich media, with hyperlinked clicks leading to audio-visual commercial messages, are quite common on popular websites. Most of the leading Indian media portals have their hands full in keeping up with the demand for ad space on their web pages.

Said Yahoo India's Country General Manager Neville Taraporevalla in a presentation, "Ad inventory is in short supply." As highlighted in the beginning of this article, ecommerce is also growing at a rapid pace in India.

More than two-thirds of the mobile subscriber base is youth, with a strong penchant for SMS. Marketers of financial services were among the first in using cell phones to serve their customers. Many banks facilitate balance checks of customers' accounts through SMS messages. ABN Amro and Kelloggs are two of the MNCs to promote their products/services through mobile phones. To further exploit the full potential of SMS in a country with 18 officially recognized languages, Nokia launched many handsets at affordable prices that enable SMS in the most spoken language, Hindi. Both automated and real-time voice calls are also extensively used, in varied contexts of CRM.

Media convergence is in full swing, with mobile, TV and internet being complementarily used by marketers. Reality shows on leading TV channels in India thrive on interactive responses from viewers through SMS messages. These either enable participation on the shows or decide the winners on the reality programs telecast. KBC2, the second edition of the Indian equivalent of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", elicited 1.6 million phone calls/SMSes for the first three episodes telecast on Rupert Murdoch owned Star TV in August 2005. In early 2006, viewers cast as many as 55 million votes through SMS/telephone/internet to decide the winner of a singing contest "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005" on a TV channel. For brand promotion and creating buzz, marketers and advertising agencies regularly use contest websites such as contests2win and Hungama. Sometimes even print and radio media are used in tandem with other media, for cross-promotion.

Direct marketing, sales promotion and events are also a regular part of leading Indian marketers' strategies, across different product categories. Almost all of the major advertising agencies have exclusive units to cater to the interactive communication needs of their clients. Ogilvy & Mather and Euro RSCG, for example, have their wings O&M Interactive and Euro RSCG Interactive. 

Recent initiatives
The following table lists some of the recent Indian interactive campaigns:

As is evident from the table, across different product categories marketers are treading the interactive path to consumers' hearts and minds. To elicit proper responses to the contests, marketers dole out attractive prizes, such as mobile phones, T-shirts, CDs, vouchers redeemable at department stores, audio systems, TVs, et cetera.

Conclusion
The growth in internet penetration and broadband and scope for greater involvement of customers in such programs can only expand the scope for interactive marketing in India. The impressive growth rates clocked over the past year are likely to slow down, as the base increases. However, a promising future on the anvil for interactive marketers in India is not in doubt whatsoever, as estimates predict that by 2010, India is slated to have the third largest mobile and internet user base worldwide.

K Suresh is a prolific writer on advertising and marketing. He has edited nearly 20 books on these topics, written several case studies and has to his credit many articles in leading Indian publications.

An MBA from Osmania University in India, he is currently working as Faculty Member and Consulting Editor with ICFAI Books, a division of ICFAI University, India's leading private university. He also edits the magazine Best Books, a monthly digest carrying reviews of books on business management.