Missed Call-vertising: Now an established mode of advertising

Missed Call-vertising:

For brands, set up a 10 digit toll free number. Promote this number with an offer. And IVR-ise the response.

For consumer, give a missed call. Get a call back with loads of entertainment, infotainment, brand messages. This form of advertising is now an established and growing mode of promotion in India

Stand-out Campaign- KKT

One standout example in last one year on this mode of advertising is Unilever's KKT Campaign, which targeted media dark areas in the country with brand content. 

I connected with the agencies who led this campaign, and realized the huge amount of work which has gone in establishing and promoting this platform. Needless to say, the massive costs incurred in setting up the technology, licensing entertainment and creating branded content.

When i spoke to them a year ago, they were still not open to other brands.And now the platform is open for other non-competing brands and has become a medium in itself, for other brands to curate their specific content. This campaign has marketed the concept of missed call advertising in the country

Some more campaigns which followed the trail:

Colgate's annual Oral health campaign, has integrated missed call advertising to lead consumers to the nearest dentist. Marico built a campaign for Saffola Life, where users express interest to find their loved ones' health through missed call. Most native aps today have a missed call promotion, to drive more app downloads

Last year, i explored an extension of this concept - Facebook missed call campaign, which was launched by Facebook building on the "missed call" trend in the country. The activity din't take off eventually as i did not find it effective on marketing ROI. And that was predominantly because of lack of integration of brand purchase on any e-tailing portal. 

One of the fellow brands in truck portfolio- has used a simple missed-call campaign to connect with truck consumers, build brand engagement, and had product purchase at point of sale integrated in the campaign. Mobile is single most important medium for truck owners/drivers for their day-work, and therefore the campaign had strong results on engagement with TG

Targeting the biggest consumer base in the country - at bottom of the pyramid

This mode is extremely relevant to the largest consumer base in the country - who reside in the bottom of consumer pyramid - the rural consumers. Growing consumer base in rural, and greater emphasis among brands to win in rural markets makes this mode an effective way to reach the consumer in media dark areas. With large share of consumers in rural owning feature phones, brands would continue to invest in this medium to build connect with the rural segment

Impact on Consumer journey

Missed call campaigns generate massive awareness, and build engagement with consumers (depending on the content). If brands want consumers to stay with them, and lead to purchase, this might not necessarily be an effective tool. Brands would need to activate evolved mobile campaigns with specific targeting, re-targeting, personalized content and location specific campaigns. Relevant and personal content with definite reason to purchase, would be most potent way to convert leads to purchase on mobile