Meeting industry thought leaders has always been a passion. There is something to learn from conversations and after the discussions, you inadvertently emerge wiser.

I met Anuj Khanna – CEO of Affle- at the MMF conference (I had brainstormed with Colin Miles- co-founder of iPop in a very interesting brainstorm in another post) and though we weren’t able to confer in detail, I brainstormed with him in the quest to understand more about the mobile marketing scenario in Asia.

Apart from the answers, I am sharing a resource in the form of presentation on case studies from marketing campaigns from Affle. There are case studies from the use of mobile marketing in Indian Elections, Pepsi, Lays, Adidas and iPhone launch. View the presentation at the end of the post.

Anuj Khanna from Affle

Shalabh Pandey: So considering this is about Mobile marketing, I guess it would be appropriate to have a SMS length introduction of your company.
Anuj Khanna: Affle is a mobile media company which has successfully enabled the mobile media eco-system in several markets in Asia pacific and is the largest mobile media publisher in India with SMS2.0 – the innovation which captures the most valuable real-estate on mobiles – the SMS screen.

Shalabh Pandey: The next year has always been the year of mobile marketing. How different is this year and the next going to be for mobile marketing? What according to you are the exciting things to look forward to in 2009 as far as mobile marketing is concerned?

Anuj Khanna: Mobile marketing is still at a nascent stage and therefore will continue to be an exciting opportunity for the next few years as there is huge scope for growth in this industry. In 2009 I believe mobile marketing would grow substantially and we will find a lot more of the advertising dollars spent towards the mobile media.

Shalabh Pandey: Could you shed some more light on why do you think the coming years are going to have a substantial impact?

Anuj Khanna: In the next few years there would be more industry awareness, standards, proven case studies which would become the foundation of the growth that we all are expecting in the mobile marketing industry.

Shalabh Pandey: What are the core propositions for mobile advertising Vs other marketing channels? Why should advertisers take out budget from other channels into mobile? What GAP is it filling?

Anuj Khanna: Mobile advertising is RITE – as it has Reach, Interactivity, Targeting and the Environment to engage the users in a ‘very personal’ way like no other media channel can. Advertisers who want the RITE media mix would never be able to ignore the mobile channel as a way to enhance the ROI of their campaigns. Specifically for developing countries the mobile media may be the only way for the advertisers to reach out to the masses.

Shalabh Pandey:But don’t you think RITE is what has been the promise of online marketing?

Anuj Khanna: Yes and online marketing many of the markets online marketing is already larger than the traditional media. Mobile offers even greater reach as its always carried, almost always on and always connected; mobile offers the most personal targeting and an environment which has potentially the highest response engagement with the users

Shalabh Pandey: There are divided views on this- and scarcely available statistics. What according to you is the market size for mobile marketing/advertising in Asia? What are the top markets spending the most? And what are the formats that are getting the maximum spending?

Anuj Khanna: I believe that data and statistics are limited and it would definitely be useful for the industry to have more data and statistics.

I believe mobile advertising is <0.10% of the total advertising spends in Asia.

In markets like India the formats which are getting the maximum spends are SMS2.0 and WAP.

Shalabh Pandey: The inevitable downturn question- is downturn a good thing or a bad thing (as for almost everyone else) for mobile marketing?

Anuj Khanna: I believe the downturn is good for the mobile marketing business as during the down turns everyone becomes more ROI driven, everyone is more open to change and explore ways to maximize opportunities and therefore mobile marketing will get more attention of the advertisers and agencies. The recession time is also good for the long term players in the mobile marketing business to lay a strong foundation with well defined business models, standards and relevant case-studies that would enable the sustainable growth of this industry post the recession.

Shalabh Pandey: What is the one disruptive feature that your service is bringing to the market? To the advertisers and to the customers?

Anuj Khanna: Affle’s SMS2.0 provides a better SMS application to the users and creates the unique opportunities for the advertisers to engage the users in a very personal and non-intrusive way on the SMS screen.

Here is a presentation with some case studies on Mobile marketing- Anuj made this presentation at the MMF event, and – though the case studies focus around Affle’s products, other marketers could use these to build upon their marketing campaigns. Let me know if you have any questions pertaining to the case studies, and I could try to get answers for you.