Mr. Fabrizio Caruso, Vice President, Business Development & General Manager, Asia Pacific at Out There Media

Headquartered in Vienna with subsidiaries in Dusseldorf, Singapore, New York, Moscow, Kiev, Athens and Sofia, Out There Media is one of the International leaders in Mobile Advertising. The company has partnership agreements with 40 mobile carriers across Europe and Asia, reaching approximately 500 million subscribers – 70% of which are exclusive – via its multi-channel mobile advertising marketplace, Mobucks, which is a cross-carrier, cross-advertiser marketplace that matches demand and supply for advertising over mobile telephones. Out There Media enables carriers to monetize their inventory, advertisers to engage with their audiences in a targeted and effective manner, and consumers to enhance and improve their everyday lives. Convergence Plus spoke with Mr. Fabrizio Caruso, Vice President of Business Development & GM, Asia Pacific, Out There Media on various interesting facets of the company and the mobile advertising industry. Few Excerpts…

1. How is the industry of mobile advertising and marketing faring in Asia Pacific, especially in India?

In a study conducted by ABI Research, it is estimated that the mobile advertising expenditure in Asia Pacific will reach US$ 7.7 billion in 2011, or approximately 48% of the global expenditure. This is further reinforced by the fact that in 2010 alone, we have seen requests for mobile advertising in the region increase exponentially. India is Asia Pacific’s largest mobile advertising market, and we see the country’s growth in receptiveness towards mobile advertising increasing every day.

For Out There Media Asia Pacific is a cluster of markets of strategic importance. We are constantly investing significant resources in them, and at the same time we produce award-winning innovations and campaigns with impressive results. India is definitely on our radar, and you will be hearing more about our plans for this exciting and growing market in the near future.

2. What is opt-in marketing? What is the response rate for opt-in marketing in Asia Pacific?

According to Seth Godin, a renowned author, opt-in marketing can be defined as “the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them”. In practice, opt-in marketing programs first ask consumers what they are interested in and if they would like to receive information about their indicated interests.

The chief differentiating factor with other forms of marketing is that opt-in marketing recognizes that consumers have the ability (and the right) to ignore marketing, and instead, garners attention by treating consumers with respect. This respect and empowerment has translated to better response rates.

In a recent whitepaper that we had published with the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), our weighted conversion rates for opt-in mobile advertising campaigns in Asia was at 25.15%. To put this into perspective, this figure is twenty times the response rate for direct marketing (1.38%), averagely higher than the rate for mobile display ads (in the low single digits), and many times higher than web advertising, where 0.2% response rate is considered a successful campaign.

As global pioneers when it comes to opt-in Mobile Advertising (we introduced it in our sector back in 2008, in the first-ever offering to be launched in collaboration with a tier-1 European operator), we are delighted to experience its success and the unprecedented rate of its adoption across all markets where we operate in Asia, Europe and the United States.

3. Give your views on the gaining impetus of permission-based marketing on the mobile platform is in Asia, as compared to direct marketing.

The screen on a mobile phone is a lot more personal and intimate to a user as compared to a TV screen or even a computer screen as users tend to have their phones with them most of the time, wherever they go.

Based on our marketing campaigns in this part of the world, we have seen that the audience here is more receptive towards marketing materials that are relevant to them. When the audience is able to choose and control the nature of the marketing materials that are directed towards them, the more likely a marketing campaign would succeed.

As such, we believe strongly in the six C’s of mobile marketing: Choice, Control, Customisation, Consideration, Constraint and Confidentiality. Data thus far has also shown that permission based marketing is more effective than direct marketing or “scattershot” approach of trying to reach out to a large audience in hopes of reaching interested consumers.

4. What is the future of mobile marketing? How do you think the mobile ecosystem is or will evolve in order to suit consumers’ needs and wants?

Particularly in Asia, we can see many trends that will affect the future of mobile marketing. Firstly, sheer number of users in the region is staggering, with recent reports of Asia set to reach 3 billion mobile subscribers in the region by the end of 2011.

Secondly, people are changing the way that they use their phones. A study by strategy analytics estimate that the number of users accessing the mobile web on their handsets will exceed 1 billion by 2015. Many of these mobile web users will only access the internet through their mobile devices particularly in India, where the rate is 59%.

However, despite mobile web usage being on the increase, SMS remains the undisputed leader of mobile messaging, because it is widely-familiar, easy-to-use and is largely device agnostic.

How these trends will affect the future of mobile marketing is that we will see a move towards more customized information being sent to subscribers as players in the mobile ecosystem learn to better use the wealth of subscriber information that is available.

5. Tell us about the plans in the near future that Out There Media has for the mobile marketing industry.

We recently announced the successful launch of our office in the United States, as well as our partnership with T-Mobile USA. Together with this leading carrier, we launched an opt-in Mobile Advertising offering called “T-Mobile More for Me”, showcased through campaigns with major US brands including GAP, Old Navy, e-bay and Totsy’s.

2011 has been an exciting year so far, and in the near future we will be making several exciting announcements with regard to our technology and innovation, as well as our plans to expand to new markets in Asia Pacific. India is definitely one of the Asian countries that are under our radar for new opportunities in the mobile marketing industry. We are excited about our plans for expansion and can’t wait to share the good news once we are ready!