MUMBAI: The Advertising Club Bombay's Value Creation seminar on marketing entertainment and their growing inter-dependence threw up a possibility that the telecom companies, entertainment companies and content-developers will forge alliances to provide product differentiation and increase penetration in an increasingly competitive scenario.

Bharti Enterprises director marketing and corporate communications Hemant Sachdev, while speaking on the topic "marketing can have more than fun with entertainment - it can help sell more", stated that the real challenge for the future was not about leveraging the abundant technology but about packaging content and entertainment to cater to the needs of the discerning consumers. He added that the content tie-ups need not be exclusive arrangements and would entail payment towards intellectual property rights. He urged the telecom operators, entertainment companies and content-developers to work out a revenue sharing arrangement for a win-win situation.

Sachdev claimed that the need of the hour in the telecom sector was a 360 degrees experience as against the classical product delivery; redefining the value proposition and going beyond the core product. He added that entertainment would play a vital role in offering a 360 degrees experience and creating value for the consumer. However, the creation of this value must be sustainable on a long-term basis and connect to life, he added. He mentioned that the insight from the consumer's point of view was "Value me; Value my life!". He also cited the examples of Walt Disney and McDonalds that used the complete family entertainment experience proposition to increase sales.

Airtel uses entertainment to build relationships; create differentiation and enhances revenues.The tag-line of Air-Tel is a telling comment - "AirTel welcomes you to a vibrant new world of unlimited opportunities. More exciting, innovative yet simple new ways to communicate, just when you want to, not just through words but ideas, emotions and feelings. To give you the unlimited freedom to reach out to your special people in your special way."

"Potentially, the Indian consumer has not been exposed to the entire gamut of entertainment opportunities. Effective usage could increase the ARPU (average revenue per user) substantially," said Sachdev. He stated that wireless data (SMS, SMS-based data, helplines, m-banking, value-added features such as fun messages, cricket updates, astrology, infoitainment, entertainment, stock updates, music downloads, ring-tones and logos) would eventually outstrip the traditional voice-based services. He pointed out that smaller countries like Philippines had shown a tremendous growth of pace in value-added mobile phone services such as anonymous SMS; encrypted SMS; Lotto and sweepstakes; crazy ring-tones (animal sounds); personalized logos and word logos; Wassup happenings around the locality; dream analysis, astrology, predictions, compatibility and others.

"The www.airtelworld.com website has already developed microsites for downloading special features such as musical ring-tones and logos. Through our exclusive arrangement with acclaimed music director AR Rahman, we have an offering of selected Rahman tines. Currently, these segments are growing so rapidly that the data pertaining to the growth figures has to be updated on a daily basis," added Sachdev.

In the case of Airtel, over 60 million SMS messages are sent every day and 50 per cent of the subscriber base uses SMS; the traffic grows by 15 per cent every month; an average of 25 SMS messages per month per subscribers and 5 per cent of the service revenues are contributed by SMS. The entertainment and financial services account for 75 per cent of all SMS based service traffic. The top ones amongst the others include Ringtones (16 per cent) and logos. Sachdev adds that every customer will not need all the services but discerning customers wouldn't mind paying. Currently, at 1 per cent penetration of 1 crore subscribers in the country, the revenue wouldn't be so substantial but with the predicted 6-7 per cent pennetration envisaged by 2005, the stream would generate substantial revenues.

Airtel had used entertainment-based promotions to make an impact on its targeted audiences. This strategy involved the use of contests involving movie tickets and film stars such as Shahrukh Khan. "Shahrukh Khan was a living example of our promise "Magic hain mumkin" as he had climbed the peaks of popularity from literally the ground level. It wasn't an endorsement in the real-sense of the word. The customer buys a mobile handset believing that great things could happen in his life. Our promise was in sync with the customer's expectations," added Sachdev.

Bharti Televentures' brand AirTel, India's mobile phone operator with over two million subscribers, had crossed the one hundred thousand-subscriber mark in its latest operation in the Mumbai metro area within 40 days.

Bharti group chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal also called the record breaking two million subscribers all over India as "a testimony to the trust and faith our customers have in AirTel." Bharti also completed the rollout in the new license areas in record time.

On the record subscriptions in Mumbai Metro area despite being the last of the four operators to enter the market, Mittal said: "What other operators have achieved in one to two years, Bharti has done in just over a month. In July 2002, one out of every two people buying a mobile across India chose AirTel. We are truly proud to be spearheading the mobile revolution in the country."

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