Advertising: Nokia, Airtel sign deal to push commercials to mobile websites.

Accessing the Internet on mobile phones is no longer a novelty. For most professionals, it is a necessity. So, mobile websites, also known as .mobi sites, have emerged as the latest advertising opportunity.

Airtel, the country's largest cellular operator, and Nokia, the leading handset maker, are planning to push advertising to .mobi sites with Nokia acting as an advertising agency.

Nokia.mobi, Nokia's mobile website, is bookmarked in more than 300 million phone browsers around the globe. The .mobi records close to 100 million monthly visits in over 120 countries.

"Services like maps, weather and news alerts, music or even location-based services, available under Nokia Life Tools at Rs 30 per month in rural India, could be subsidised in the future with mobile advertising.

Applications such as Nokia maps were also expected to open up new opportunities for brands to give customers what they want, when they want, Shivakumar added.

"If we can get relevant advertisers to target their products to customers, then the advertisers can bring down the cost of services," said Sanjay Gupta, chief marketing officer, Airtel.

A Nokia-TNS India study said that 18 per cent of mobile web surfers noticed a mobile banner ad and 56 per cent of those who noticed a banner ad went on to visit the mobile site of the advertiser.

"We have launched an advertisement platform for our subscribers where they can opt-in for advertisements from retailers, and promotional coupons and discounts from specific brands," Gupta added.

Advertising on mobile phones has Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Yahoo! battling it out to become the preferred search and ad platform. Of the 350 million-odd mobile subscribers, almost 14 per cent are already using mobiles to access the internet.

The Nokia-TNS study added that, on an average, mobile users accessed the web for 2.4 days a week versus 2.7 days a week through the computer.

The Nokia media network, the division that works with partners like Airtel, provides advertising opportunities on the Airtel Live portal.

According to industry estimates, mobile marketing, a Rs 300-crore (Rs 3-billion) market in 2008-09, is expected to reach Rs 500 crore by 2012. By 2012, Nokia could generate almost 5 per cent of its global revenues from its yet-to-be-launched Ovi portal, an online destination for consumers to store content, download music, games and maps, Strategy Analytics, a research firm has estimated.

The Nokia media network is also keen on developing a device-targeting model (ads go to mobiles with features that support the ad's technology) for mobile advertising.

"The model not only helps reach the desired audience segments, but also enables optimisation of the campaign creative. For example, it can enable an advertising campaign featuring video content to be served only to handsets with video capability," elaborated Shivakumar.

Nokia acquired mobile advertising leader, Enpocket, in 2007 and leverages its ground breaking analytics technology to optimise campaigns, improve conversions and measure campaign performance across the network.

With the global advertising market expected to reach $531 billion by 2011, and the interactive market expected to reach $100 billion by 2010, advertisers are expected to flock the mobile platform.

"Mobile marketing can deliver targeted reach and high click-through rates and advertisers in India are taking to the medium," Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director, Madison, said.

He added advertisers would invest in short-messaging service as the preferred medium for mobile marketing, since direct marketing in India consists of only 10 per cent of the total marketing spend.

"Permission or context-based direct marketing will effectively monetise this opportunity. We are actively looking at direct marketing businesses using the mobile channels," he added.