In this report author attempt to discuss in detail the direction in which Mobile Advertising is heading in India and try to establish consumer attitude towards acceptance of Mobile advertising. Further we try to establish how effective this medium really is vis a vis consumer mind space.

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Consumer Attitude towards Mobile Advertising in India & It’s
Effectiveness
Under the Guidance
of
Dr. Mahim Sagar
Submitted by
Vijayendra Dwari, Nitin Nanda, Rajeev Kumar
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DELHI

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Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Literature Review 4
Research Gap & Problem Definition 6
Research Objective 6
Research Design And Methodology 6
Organizational Sample, Data Collection And Respondents 6
Findings And Interpretation 7
Implications Of The Study/Research 10
Conclusion & Limitations 10
References 11

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Introduction
Mobile advertising is the newest kid on the block as a medium to reach consumers. It is a
subset of digital advertising and is still at an early stage in India. Advertisers have a
number of options available, and the usage of a particular medium is largely dependent
upon factors like the product itself, the target consumer and many other factors like the
stage of product lifecycle the product is in at currently.
Every advertising campaign revolves around communicating a central idea. From the
strategic point of view it’s important to select the right medium to reach the consumer
among the various array of mediums available i.e – Radio, Print, Internet, Outdoor,
Mobile etc. The traditional mediums are passive in nature and don’t offer advertiser an
opportunity to interact with consumer.
In India today, the mobile explosion is drastically changing the face of digital marketing.
Three major factors are shaping up the future of digital marketing in India – The drastic
rise in the use of mobile Internet, Increasing penetration of smart phones & the
impending broadband revolution. [4]
Figures in Million
Total no. of subscribers 930
Internet User base 213
Mobile Internet User base 130
Mobile Internet User urban 103
Mobile Internet User Rural 27
Source IAMAI industry report Dec 2013* [1]
 Compared to the 0.4% mobile internet users in 2012, the penetration has grown
to 2.4%, indicating a substantial growth in the mobile internet user penetration
levels.
 In Rural India, 70% of the active internet users also access internet using mobile
phones, while 32% use internet only through mobile. The Community Service
Centers and Cyber Cafes are the main point of access for 40% of them.
 63 percent of consumers are accessing internet on their mobile at least once a
day.

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Further on the table below gives a comparison of advertising spends across various
digital advertising avenues projected as on April 2013.
Ad spends across subcategories of Digital Advertising [5]
The actual figures however exceeded expectations and touched 300 cr in 2013. Moreover
it is expected to grow by 43 % and touch 430 cr in 2014. [4] [7]
In this report, we attempt to discuss in detail the direction in which Mobile Advertising is
heading in India and try to establish consumer attitude towards acceptance of Mobile
advertising. Further we try to establish how effective this medium really is vis a vis
consumer midspace.
Literature Review
All about mobile advertising
Advertisements that are transmitted and consumed on mobile phones and/or tablets are
commonly considered under this category. IAMAI in its March 2013 report identifies
mobile advertising distributed among the following types of ads
 Mobile Web ads
 SMS
 MMS
 Mobile Video & TV ads
 In-App ads.
[IAMAI, March 2013]
For a particular category of consumers mobile as a medium holds the distinction of being
the media with maximum time exposure. It’s inherently difficult to separate a man and
his mobile phone. Even in the most developed countries mobile until very recently was
predominantly being used as a medium of engagement and not reach. With more than

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950 million consumers in India, who can be reached with Video, Gaming, Audio on their
phones in an extremely personalized manner, this medium is being recognized and used
as a reach medium as well [4].Mobile is the only medium today which can deliver high
reach, efficiency and engagement in a very personalized manner.
Shenoy & Salvendy have categorized types of mobile advertising based upon
communication method adopted; they fall in two broad categories called Push and Pull
advertising [2] [3].
 Push advertising: Advertisers proactively sends information to the user, One such
example is as the British mobile advertising platform Celltick, which presents
advertisements when a user's cell phone is in standby mode. If the user is interested in the
advertisement, it can be directly clicked on.
 Pull advertising: Advertisers links users to a Web site and learns more about the users'
habits and preferences through an interactive process. This allows effective
communication of relevant advertising messages, often marketing to customers via
promotions and coupons. For example, Turkish mobile operator Turkcell-Tonla Kazan
allows users to register as members on the site and agree to receive advertisements for
certain goods or services. It then sends advertisements and information about relevant
product promotions and coupons in accordance with the member's personal information
[3].
Mobile advertising ecosystem
In this ever changing technology ecosystem the rise of ad networks and ad exchanges
facilitate the power to target users based upon location, operating system, device type,
frequency etc. while advertisers can control their bids and target their audiences basis
their interest and behavior, Technological innovations like Real Time Bidding make it
possible for advertiser to win ad bids basis their bid price for every exposure to a targeted
consumer.
Figure 1.1 depicts the mobile advertising ecosystem with availability of features
*DSP Platform – Demand Side Plaform, **SSP Platform – Supply Side Platform

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Research Gap & Problem Definition
Various industry reports and the statistics show clearly that mobile advertising is growing
and is here to stay, while much is being said about future of mobile advertising in India,
and various reports and articles are available about adoption of mobile advertising from a
technology point of view, we feel that the need to establish the consumer attitude towards
mobile advertising and its overall effectiveness is very important.
From advertiser’s point of view it’s very important to understand the consumer attitude
and how exactly he likes to interact with brands within the mobile environment.
Research Objective
The following are the two main objectives of this research,
1) Establish consumer attitude towards mobile advertising
2) Establish the effectiveness of mobile advertising
Research Design and Methodology
This study focuses upon the opinions of respondents from New Delhi Mumbai and
Bangalore .Many factors were evaluated and studied to analyze the consumer attitude and
arrive at a reasonable conclusion vis a vis consumer attitude towards mobile advertising.
Data Sources
Secondary data was obtained from various periodicals, Industry reports, articles and
Journals while primary data was collected using a questionnaire designed specifically to
understand the consumer attitude & effectiveness of mobile advertising.
Sampling procedure and sample size
A total of 100 people were contacted and obtained responses from to conclude this
research. Individuals between the age group of 18 – 40 were targeted for this research
since the mobile Internet usage in this particular age group is maximum. The Ratio of
male to female respondents is about 70:30.

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Findings and Interpretation (All data in %)
1. I feel mobile ads are informative
2. I like to receive offers from brands of my choice on my mobile
3. Mobile ads make it easier for me to find product/service of my choice
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
0 10 20 30 40 50
Agree
Neutral
Disagree

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4. I click on mobile ads when I find it relevant for me
5. Mobile makes search of right product easy
6. I feel seeing mobile ads influence my buying decision
7. I feel mobile ads are distracting
0 10 20 30 40 50
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Agree
Neutral
Disagree

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8. I usually avoid clicking mobile ads
9. I have purchased a product because I saw an ad on my mobile phone
10. Mobile ads are a nuisance
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Agree
Neutral
Disagree

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Implications of the Study/Research
This research shows some very interesting insights into the consumer attitude and psyche
towards how he likes to interact with brands in the mobile environment. We can safely
deduct that while most of the Smartphone users accept mobile advertising with a pinch of
salt they want to define the rules of the game. They want to receive brand communication
which is rewarding for him. He is ready to reward the business owner with a sale as long
as brand respects his concerns and sends only very relevant communication.
Conclusion and Limitations
Looking at the data one can easily deduct that while mobile advertising is being adopted
by brands as part of their media plan, consumers’ attitude is disposed towards positive
and neutral. Some of important pointers are mentioned below.
 Consumers don’t like to be spammed; they want to receive only relevant
information from brands they are aware of.
 People like to receive discounts and offers which can be consumed conveniently
via the mobile device
 A large chunk of people consume a lot of video content via their mobile devices
 30 % people have bought a product or service because of seeing an ad on mobile
 Out of the people who agreed upon buying a product due to mobile ads, 76 %
were female. This finding is pretty much in line with a recent report published
which says Indian Digital commerce market is being fuelled by Women and
mobile phones [8]
 52 % of people prefer to receive offers led advertising communication from
brands of their choice
 78 % people avoid clicking on mobile ads. The primary reasons seem to be not
knowing where they will land, security concerns.
 Marketers need to respect consumer’s privacy and send them only relevant
information

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This research was done on a sample size of 100 across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
These geographies being tier I represents the urban and more evolved Smartphone users
of India, the results and interpretation of this research may be applied only for the above
mentioned audience.
References
[1] http://www.iamai.in/PRelease_detail.aspx?nid=3240&NMonth=1&NYear=2014
[2] T. Park, R. Shenoy, G. Salvendy, Effective advertising on mobile phones: a
literature reviewand presentation of results from53 case studies, Behav. Inf.
Technol 27(5) (2008) 355–373.
[3] Peng-Tin Chen , Hsin-Pei Hsieh Technological Forecasting & Social Change 79
(2012) 543–557
[4] http://www.mmaglobal.com/whitepaper/india-adspend-report
[5] http://www.digitalquotient.com/#about
[6] http://www.iamwire.com/2013/04/indian-digital-advertising-spend-
snapshot-projections-by-imrb-a-report/#_amoob8dv
[7] http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/online-ad-market-at-
rs-2-940-cr-by-2014-report-113040400454_1.html
[8] http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/26/inside-indias-e-commerce-boom-
growing-base-of-mobile-internet-users-women-shoppers-and-several-
infrastructure-bottlenecks/?ncid=rss