MAM
InMobi’s Mobile Marketing Handbook, 2024: Seamless mobile marketing on lock screens
Mumbai: InMobi, a leading provider of content monetisation and marketing technologies that help businesses fuel growth has unveiled its annual Mobile Marketing Handbook (MMH) 2024. The MMH 2024 offers a comprehensive exploration into smartphone consumption trends that are reshaping mobile marketing in India, driven by a growing demand for seamless, serendipitous, and smart experiences delivered with a single tap. MMH 2024 also presents marketers with state-of-the-art strategies to drive meaningful consumer engagement in this redefined world, with a focus on the transformative role of the smart lock screen.
InMobi Group chief business officer Vasuta Agarwal said, “The MMH 2024 provides a strategic roadmap for brands navigating India’s dynamic smartphone landscape. With consumers in the country becoming more reliant on their smartphones for everything from entertainment to utilities, brands find themselves at a crucial juncture, requiring an evolution in their approach. The handbook highlights innovative tools and strategies marketers can adopt to meet changing consumer demands. Amongst these, the smart lock screen has emerged as a key strategy, offering brands an opportunity to establish early consumer connections and inspire purposeful action.”
Report Highlights
Decoding internet consumers in the truly mobile-first India market
The MMH 2024 offers valuable insight into the average internet consumer in India. Consumers here are genuinely mobile-first, dedicating 4 hours and 5 minutes daily to their smartphone, outpacing the global average by nearly an hour (Source: Exploding Topics). The country ranks among the top 20 globally in terms of time spent on mobile devices. These consumers tend to instinctively pick up their phones for various reasons, from taking a break to seeking instant services. Usage spans utilities, gaming, entertainment, shopping, and more. According to InMobi Platform Data, the top five App categories include Social Networking, Photo and Video, Games, Entertainment, and Utilities, showcasing the multifaceted nature of mobile engagement.
Defining the new ‘Always-on’ User
While over 881 million consumers in India all love their time online, a new type of ‘Always-on’ User has risen amidst the growing demand for mobile experiences. The MMH 2024 highlights who these super users are and what they want. These users have an appetite for seamless, instant, and efficient on-the-go experiences, preferring single-tap engagement that eliminates the friction of unlocking their smartphones.
Engaging the always-on user through smart lock screen experiences
The smartphone lock screen has always been a dead space, meant only for notifications, time, weather and other mundane information. Now, however, the lock screen has been redefined as a smart surface, where consumers can enjoy what they love, even without unlocking their phones. Given its innate capacity to enable frictionless, instant access, the lock screen is now at the epicentre of consumer engagement.
The MMH 2024 highlights the role of Glance, the world’s leading smart lock screen, in catering to the needs of the always-on user. Over 200 million active Glance users are today discovering personalised content and a variety of experiences such as gaming and shopping on their lock screen, without unlocking their phones, downloading multiple apps and without searching. Spread across the country, Glance users are likely to spend 1.2 times more time on smartphone usage than non-Glance users. This diverse and engaged user base has positioned Glance as an influential platform for brands aiming to connect seamlessly with a broad spectrum of Always-on users.
Navigating trends: What brands can do
MMH 2024 highlights the various lock screen-centric strategies that brands can adopt to connect with consumers in today’s world. With these strategies brands can establish a relationship with their consumers early. Their aim is to leverage the mobile lock screen to delight, drive consideration, interaction, and resonance, ultimately inspiring purposeful actions from the consumers.
Several brands are already leveraging Glance Lock Screen to reimagine how they cater to evolving consumer needs. The report highlights case studies of brands including Pizza Hut, American Tourister, and Swiggy, and how they have achieved great success in driving engagement at various levels of their marketing funnel through strategic and creative utilisation of the lock screen.
Here is a snapshot:
- Pizza Hut ran an awareness campaign targeting India’s youth by driving serendipitous discovery of their deals and pizzas before people unlocked their phones by showing them on the lock screen. They leveraged special days meant for food sharing, such as Easter and Friendship Day, so the context was also right. This resulted in 1.18 million clicks – their highest-ever single-day activity on their website.
- American Tourister engaged potential customers by strategically displaying its products when consumers checked live cricket scores before unlocking their phones. Using a creative approach featuring Virat Kohli showcasing an American Tourister bag, the brand provided viewers the opportunity to explore its collection in various colours without requiring them to unlock their phones, reaching 2.72 million Indians.
- Swiggy utilized location-specific targeting to connect with food enthusiasts. With irresistible offers and mouth-watering visuals of hyperlocal delights, Swiggy delivered a personalized experience on the smart lock screen. With a 29 per cent month-on-month increase in first orders on food delivery, one-click install was a cherry on the cake as foodies instantly installed the app while consuming content.
- For more unique consumer insights in the current era of mobile marketing in India, download a copy of InMobi Mobile Marketing Handbook 2024.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
