With Ring-Back Tones (RBT) becoming more popular everyday, especially in areas outside the U.S., the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has published a new whitepaper detailing the appropriate opportunities and considerations when working with the concept.
Created with the help of MMA members 4play Digital Workshop, Comverse, Livewire Mobile, Ringco and Xipto, the whitepaper is designed to provide marketers with insight into the little-known and regulated concept of marketing via Ring-Back Tones, to ensure a positive, rewarding experience for consumers.
The concept of RBTs have been around for a while now, but only used by carriers in a very under-utilized environment. Recently though, the possibilities have been introduced to third-party advertisers who recognize the unique opportunity and reach the concept has.
“Although ring-back tones have been repurposed by operators for almost a decade, it’s only recently that marketers are able to take advantage of this opportunity,” explained Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC, Mobile Marketing Association. “With more than 3 billion mobile phones in use worldwide, and approximately 12 billion inbound calls each day, RBTs offer a compelling new media platform for marketers today. In line with MMA’s efforts to educate marketers and protect consumer experience, MMA members have put together this whitepaper to provide insights into harvesting the potential of this new emerging area of focus as a marketing channel.”
For example, a Tier 1 operator in India with a subscriber-based of roughly 70 million, has each subscriber receiving an average of 10 incoming calls per day representing a penetration rate of 4 to 5 percent. This has the potential to make advertising via Ring-Back Tones the single most powerful marketing medium on the mobile handset, continued Dadwal.
Though the opportunity is present, there’s numerous chances for marketers to upset subscribers forced to listen to ads when placing calls if not done correctly, which is why the MMA stepped in to lay some ground rules to ensure marketers and consumers alike can find a middle ground with the concept.