SingTel has mobile and internet advertising ambitions

Singapore - SingTel has engaged Mindshare, Maxus and Acision as it embarks on an integrated strategy for its mobile and internet advertising platforms with a trial currently in place - seeking to dominate the market in five years.

As the industry is estimated to be worth more than $200 million by 2012, the five-year domination plan will see the company leverage on its customer knowledge management system and its tripartite services, the fixed-line, mobile and Internet, to deliver advertising solutions from start to finish. It encompasses four key areas - inventory creation and control of customer information, media planning, advertisement delivery and advertising campaign performance tracking.

SingTel's EVP of consumer, Quek Peck Leng said, "We aim to be a key player in Singapore's mobile and Internet advertising space and be the leading media owner in this field while garnering a significant share of this revenue pie over the next five years. The innovative platform allows us to break away from the "one size fits all" mode of traditional advertising channels."

The multi-channel approach translates to the ability to analyse, target, and market to segmented groups based on profiles. Marketers are also able to hit the target groups at specific times allowing monitoring of campaign statistics and traffic reports.

A service trial has commenced involving 20,000 SingTel customers. It allows advertisements to be communicated via voicemail notifications, missed call notifications, location-based push messages, the Wireless@SG homepage and the IDEAS WAP homepage. It aims to commercially launch the service early next year.

Jeffrey Seah CEO, MindShare and Maxus said that these developments present new marketing communication opportunities with minimal wastage, selective messaging relevant to behavioural cues and also fills the needs of advertisers such as SME's to reach out to niche markets.

Acision will aid SingTel with the technology to deliver messages over multiple mobile channels and wireless broadband. Acision's MD of APAC Boudewijn Pesch added that this goes beyond push-based advertising allowing customers to receive promotions and offers in a non-intrusive manner with the flexibility to opt out of the service.