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Juniper predicts $780m of annual ringback tone advertising by 2015

by Stuart Dredge
Tuesday, January 18th 2011 at 11:51am


Finds campaigns already proving successful in markets like Turkey, with China and India set to fuel spending further

Advertising within ringback tone services will top $780 million annually by 2015, claims the latest report from Juniper Research.

Pie in the sky? Juniper reckons good money is being made already from RBT ads in some countries. For example, it cites the example of a branded Pepsi ringback tone on Turkcell's TonlaKazan service, which was apparently heard by five million people across 25 million calls.

The report points to countries like China and India as being set for growth in ad-supported RBT services, with users increasingly shifting from paid services in order to get the free airtime offered by operators if they agree to use branded tones for their voicemail.

Author Dr Windsor Holden says it will be important for operators to avoid intrusive RBT ads, however.

"While ringback tone advertising has a number of potential benefits for network operators – notably providing a new revenue stream and reducing customer churn – both they and the brands must ensure that the advertising is contextual and does not jar with those listening," he says.

"Otherwise all parties – operators, brands, even the service subscribers – could face a backlash from disgruntled callers, conceivably resulting in a decline in network voice traffic."

Juniper's report suggests that the $780 million of ringback tone advertising in 2015 will account for 6.8% of the overall $11.5 billion of spending on all forms of mobile advertising that year.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/juniper-predicts-780m-of-annual-ringback-tone-advertising-by-201