Singapore-based marketing expert sees rapid growth in RP mobile ads

MANILA, Philippines - A Singapore-based marketing expert said he expects rapid growth in mobile advertising in the Philippines in the next five years as more companies place their advertisements through the emerging medium.

Rohit Dadwal, managing director of the Mobile Marketing Association in Asia Pacific, also said the Philippines is among the trend setting countries in terms of implementing an effective approach to improve consumer privacy in the mobile advertising domain.

“(Mobile advertising) is 60 percent effective than the traditional media,” Dadwal told The STAR.

Asked if the booming industry will affect the advertising revenues of the traditional media such as newspapers, Dadwal said: “Theoretically they will not suffer…even The Philippine STAR, which has its print edition, will get into the mobile industry.”

He also noted that mobile advertising rates are relatively lower than the traditional media.

“For a 30-second television ad, a company usually pays P200,000 but in mobile advertising the company will just pay P2,000,” he said.

Despite Dadwal’s avid promotion of mobile advertising, he said the regulation and enforcement of laws and guidelines to protect consumers and their privacy is not yet perfect.

He said among the biggest threats to mobile users in the mobile advertising world is spam adverts, retention and sale of users’ personal information to unauthorized third parties and the policing of how mobile advertising is conducted.

“There will be challenges, there are certain fly-by-night operators who will sell your numbers,” Dadwal stressed.

Dadwal said the challenge which faces the Philippines in particular is how SMS (short messaging service) mobile advertising is conducted.

He said SMS advertising is a very popular option in the country.

“The Philippines, being the ‘SMS capital of the world,’ serves a good case study of how the medium will fare worldwide,” Dadwal said.

He said consumers are the most vulnerable from this type of advertising as it is the most aggressive of all mobile advertising forms. “It’s the only medium where it’s more push than pull,” according to Dadwal.  

To avoid bombarding mobile users, there must always be an “opt-out” option when a text message is sent, he said.

“Without that it is truly, truly spam and that automatically puts that into [an] illegal format,” he added.

In all cases where a wrong is committed by one of the parties involved in mobile marketing, the system is reliant on strong policing and legislation before any punishment is meted out. This is necessary to act as a deterrent to others in the industry.

“There are certain markets where [legislation is] very stringent and this doesn’t happen.”

The Philippines, he said, is one such market where authorities take a strict approach.

Last year, the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) issued Memorandum Circular 04-07-2009, disallowing push messages, otherwise known as text spam after customers complained they were losing credit after being sent unsolicited texts.

Under the order, commercial and promotional advertisements, surveys and other broadcast messages shall be allowed only upon prior written consent by the subscribers.