New Delhi: With a 300-million mobile subscriber base and 100 million additions a year, India is set to see a mobile marketing explosion, experts say.

"The mobile phone will revolutionise business in India," M.V. Kamath, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, India's largest private lender, told IANS.

ICICI Bank has already begun to drive growth in a big way through the mobile route.

Kamath, however, was referring not only to the direct reach that cell phones provide but also to how they can help businesses cut costs and hike efficiency.

Even then, marketers, brand managers and advertising professionals have begun to realize the unique marketing opportunity that the almost ubiquitous mobile phone offers.

"Mobile is the future," says ad guru Alique Padamsee.

Advertising agency Draft FCB-Ulka's executive director Arvind Wable agrees.

Both believe the mobile phone holds the key to tapping India's huge rural and semi-urban markets.

"Mobile advertising in India can be bigger than Internet advertising in the next three-four years," says Rajesh Jain, managing director of Mumbai-based Netcore Solutions, a mobile marketing pioneer in India.

"As such, everyone benefits. The key lies in publishers creating 'media on mobile' - based on SMS and permission from the subscribers," says Jain.

"But it is just starting. Mobile ad spend is currently estimated to be just about Rs.250-300 million," says Jain.

Mobile marketing is not telemarketing - the kind of calls that disturb people.
Rather, it is the process of sending spam-free, personalised, permission-based marketing messages to receptive consumers through their mobile phones.

The key words here are spam-free, personalized and permission-based. Permission- based advertising is called opt-in advertising in the marketers' lingo.

"It is the future," Jain asserts.

"We term it 'invertising' - invited advertising. We think the blue ocean lies in enabling brands and businesses to build relationships with consumers on the mobile."

Adds Wable: "To make it even more catchy, consumers can be given incentives such as free talk time if they opt for ads."

Typically mobile marketing can be either pull-type where a user requests information from a service provider or advertiser.

Or it can be push-based where marketing communication is sent through short messaging service (SMS) or alerts.

For this the advertiser has to have the consumer's permission.

Netcore does it through its brand MyToday, which offers a bouquet of mobile pone services such as news, stock markets, cricket and health, among several others.

The user has to opt for this free service and he or she gets headlines with a text ad at the bottom of the screen.