Airtel has done it again with their new commercial. With the right elements, this ad touches each and every Indian. It brings out the core values and somehow manages to put across its message to the consumers. The core elements: The family, the village setting and the attachment between the father and son beats any other ad in its clan.

Though the idea may not be to sell, it surely adds to the brand value. We think that the Indian touch along with its great selection of actors is what makes the ad stand out. Bharti’s move to have ads based on the same platform seem to have worked, but they tend to evaporate too soon, unlike other ads in the category.

However, in terms of adding equity, and getting the rural consumer interested, this ad definitely does the job for Airtel. And with millions of them enrolling themselves to the telecom revolution, this might just touch the right chord at the right time.

With companies shifting focus from mainstream media to cut costs, the next best alternative available to them is the mobile. Mobile marketing, through SMS and other mediums, is witnessing a healthy growth. This has led to mobile users being bombarded with a plethora of ads and other content.

In the process, the Indian user has become one of the most exposed user to mobile ads. Though it can be considered as an achievement on one hand by mobile marketing companies, who are making the best of it, it’s not the best time for the Indian mobile user. After all who wants to be bombarded with ads when you are least interested in them.

Going deeper, we see the rise of the free SMS and other similar platforms offered to brands, as one of the reasons for this outcome. Another contributor is the economic slowdown, which has caused brands to divert a part of their ad budget to cheaper alternatives. Looking forward, we see the exposure increasing with improvement in the content and the way it is delivered to the user. A good example of which is the Airtel SMS2.0 platform.

“I Miss you so much, It hurts….” Yes, we are talking about the new Airtel Voice SMS commercial that you must have come across on TV. What the ad tries to do, is rope in people to use the Voice SMS service on offer, as a substitute to the normal SMS. The USP would definitely be the ‘jazbaat’ or the ‘feeling’ that is added to an SMS, which you could not do with a normal SMS.

Though the idea has been put across fairly well, the service could find very less takers. SMS is generally used for short and precise communication and if I wanted the recipient to hear my voice, I would rather call. Anyways, if you’re still interested in using the service, add a star (*) before dialing a number and record your SMS. Each Voice SMS is charged at 75 paise.

Telcos in India have finally realised the true potential of the rural markets. As most of the subscribers come from these areas, Airtel decided to roll out a dedicated prepaid plan to please them.

Quite evident by its name, Airtel’s Rural Pack is one of them. This pack is available to users residing in villages with a population of less than 20,000. Here are the details:

• Price: Rs.50
• Talktime: Nil
• Validity: Nil

We Say: Rural Pack is one of a kind. This is because it provides free talktime to users over a period of 9 months in 3 installments. The user would get free talktime of Rs. 25 every 3 months. The call charges, though affordable, could have been lower. Local calls and SMS cost Re.1 and Rs. 1.5 for STD calls and SMSes.

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If Vodafone has Shaadi.com under its sleeve, Airtel has tied up with BharatMatrimony.com to offer their version of matrimonial services. Users will be able to view this service on Airtel’s Live WAP portal.

Access to the service is absolutely free. There are no charges for activating the service or browsing the portal. However, a subscription of Rs. 20 per week will be charged giving the subscriber freedom to view unlimited profiles and can access 2 contacts free of cost.

It is not difficult to find similar plans offered by both Airtel and Vodafone under different names. We recently came across ‘Vodafone Talk 249 Bumper Plan’ and ‘Airtel Jackpot 249 Plan’ which are exactly the same plans offered offered to subscribers in Delhi and NCR circle. The details are:

Monthly Rental: Rs 249
CLIP: Free
Free: 500 minutes Mobile-to-Mobile local calls
Calling charge to all other local mobile: 30p/min
Calling charge to all other local numbers: 50p/min
Local SMS: 50p/SMS
STD calling charge to Vodafone numbers: Re 1/min
STD calling charge to all other numbers: Rs 1.50/min

Bharti Airtel has tied up with smartphone maker i-mate to offer its subscribers their Windows mobile phone JAMA 101. The i-mate JAMA 101 is powered by a Samsung CPU at 300MHz with 64MB of RAM. The other details are:

• 128MB ROM – extendable by microSD
• Supports EDGE, Bluetooth
• Display – TFT touchscreen, 65k colors at 320 x 240 pixels
• 2 MP camera with Autofocus and Flash

The i-mate JAMA 101 costs Rs 12,900 and will be available all across India through i-mate and Airtel stores. Another feature is that, users will get 50MB/month of data download at Rs 99/month on Airtel.

Airtel’s strategic partnership with Singapore-based SingTel can prove a boon to Airtel users if they happen to visit Singapore this weekend. To commemorate the Inaugural of 2008 Formula 1 SingTel Grand Prix, Airtel users visiting Singapore from September 25 to September 29, 2008 will be able to enjoy free incoming calls in Singapore. Users need to manually set their roaming network to SingTel to avail this offer.

Currently the existing international roaming tariff for all incoming calls on the SingTel network is Rs. 52/- per minute for Postpaid customers and Rs. 50/- per minute for Prepaid customers.

Indian telcos always boast about their plans to penetrate into the villages and provide full network out there. They also consider these regions as the future of the Indian telecom market as the major chunk of users hail from these areas. But the real scenario seems a contrast to their claims. Read on to know what Mr. Mohan has gone through.

Hello sir, I am Mohan in Tamil Nadu, Erode district, Gobi Taluk, Getticheviyur. Pin no:638110. My mobile no:9#########. We have problems in NETWORK COVERAGE in my village other than airtel towers are there. I give complaints many more times by customer care. But still no steps are to be taken. The call is disconnected because network problems. One point only in my mobile. Here 75 customers. please put TOWER in our village. We agree that you take steps immediately. Kindly response our complaint.
Thank you.

We are not here to judge the grammatical errors this person may have done but the crux of the matter is that companies are not fulfilling their boasted claims. Operators need to step up and be proactive rather than playing the waiting game. After all, rural area customers are what every operator is eyeing on.

Airtel’s SMS 2.0 application has been accepted widely which enables the users to send colourful messages, view ads, read news on the new interface. Now Airtel in collaboration with Affle have expanded the use of SMS 2.0 app. It offers integrated search which will allow Airtel users to Search in Airtel Live, Internet, Local search, Jobs and Property listings from their SMS screen.

The service is free as Airtel will compensate it from its advertisers. This is a smart move from Airtel as they can know what their users are searching and effectively target specific users for specific ads.

To download the application, Airtel users need to send SMS2 to 543210. There is no charge for downloading and for subsequent content delivery on this platform.