SingTel plans to lead in mobile and Internet advertising space

Integrated platform offers advertisers and consumers a targeted and rewarding advertising experience.

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) today announced its plans to lead in the mobile and Internet advertising space in Singapore within the next five years.

The company will leverage its superior customer knowledge management system and integrated service platforms – fixed-line, mobile and Internet – to spearhead its new integrated strategy.

The new strategy will involve delivering an end-to-end advertising solution across four key areas – inventory creation and control of customer information, media planning, advertisement delivery and advertising campaign performance tracking.

The mobile and Internet advertising industry in Singapore is estimated to be worth more than $200 million by 2012.

Mr Quek Peck Leng, SingTel’s Executive Vice President of Consumer, said: “SingTel, as Singapore’s leading mobile and broadband service provider, aims to become a key player in Singapore’s mobile and Internet advertising space by leveraging our existing service and customer platforms.”

“We hope to be a leading media owner in this field and garner a significant share of this revenue pie over the next five years,” he said.

A service trial is currently being conducted involving 20,000 SingTel mobile and Internet customers to assess market response. SingTel aims to commercially launch the service early next year.

The integrated service will initially allow advertisements to be communicated to customers through five channels – voicemail notifications, missed call notifications, location-based push messages, the Wireless@SG homepage and the IDEAS WAP homepage.

Mr Quek said: “Mobile and Internet advertising offers an innovative platform that will allow SingTel to break away from the “one size fits all” mode of traditional advertising channels. There are tremendous growth opportunities in this space.”

The end-to-end multi-channel approach means that advertisers and media buyers can analyse a customer profile and select a target group of customers that will match the profile of the advertised content. Media buyers can select ads inventory from a daily schedule so that the ad can be uploaded on a channel and sent at a specific time. Advertisers can also track the campaign statistics and monitor the traffic reports for each campaign.

As media buyers and marketing and advertising industry players are a key part of the advertising value chain, SingTel is partnering Singapore’s leading media planning agency MindShare and MAXUS, part of the WPP advertising conglomerate, for this trial.

“We are excited with the increasingly market-leading innovations arising from our partnership with SingTel. These Asia-first developments present marketing communication opportunities previously unavailable to the wider business world. They allow rapier-like targeting with minimal wastage, selective messaging relevant to behavioural cues and brings the businesses one step closer to reaching their preferred customers,” says Mr Jeffrey Seah, Chief Executive Officer of MindShare and MAXUS Singapore. “Additionally these new targeting channels will fill the needs of niche advertisers such as SME’s to reach out to customers in ways they have not been able to do historically.”

To ensure a seamless end-to-end experience, SingTel is partnering Acision, the messaging and charging company of choice for over 300 network operators and service providers worldwide. Acision has deployed a solution to provide an integrated advertising capability that enables SingTel to deliver marketing messages over multiple mobile channels and wireless broadband.

Mr Boudewijn Pesch, Managing Director, Acision, Asia Pacific said: “We are delighted to partner with SingTel in bringing innovation to the mobile user experience. Our advertising capability highlights a fresh approach in the way advertisers can reach their customers. Through a multi-channel strategy, be it mobile or wireless broadband, SingTel is going beyond just push based advertising.”

Mr Quek added: “Customers can look forward to this new advertising avenue for an enhanced experience of receiving promotions and offers that they are interested in. The targeted ads are non-intrusive and customers have the flexibility to opt out of the service any time.”

“This strategic approach will enable SingTel to work towards delivering an effective advertising communication platform for advertisers to cross-sell across multiple channels. This is a key milestone for the company and its ability to help advertisers remain at the forefront of today’s competitive advertising environment” he said.

About SingTel

SingTel is Asia's leading communications group with operations and investments around the world. Serving both the corporate and consumer markets, it is committed to bringing the best of global communications to customers in the Asia Pacific and beyond.

With significant operations in Singapore and Australia (through wholly-owned subsidiary SingTel Optus), the Group provides a comprehensive portfolio of services that include voice and data services over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms.

To serve the needs of multi-national corporations, SingTel has a network of 37 offices in 19 countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States. These offices enable SingTel to deliver reliable and quality network solutions to its customers, either on its own or jointly with local partners.

The Group also has major investments in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Together with its regional partners, SingTel is Asia’s largest multi-market mobile operator, serving more than 136 million customers in seven markets.

SingTel employs more than 19,000 people worldwide and had a turnover of S$13.15 billion (US$8.40 billion) and net profit after tax of S$3.78 billion (US$2.42 billion) for the year ended 31 March 2007. More information can be found at www.singtel.com and www.optus.com.au.

About MindShare

MindShare is a global media investment management company with billings in excess of $18.7 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of 97 offices in 66 countries throughout the USA, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific. MindShare is a member of WPP, one of the world’s leading communications services groups. MindShare has been the largest media agency brand over the last 3 years in Singapore (source : RECMA) For more information, please visit: www.mindshareworld.com.

GroupM, the world’s leading full service media investment management operation, was created by WPP Group to oversee its assets in this sector. These assets include MindShare Worldwide, Mediaedge:cia Worldwide and MAXUS. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of volume and scale in trading, innovation and quality of services, in order to bring benefit to clients and the companies it operates. GroupM Singapore, is Singapore's leading media network group (source : RECMA) For more information, please visit: www.groupm.com.

About Acision

Established in June 2007, Acision launched with more than 300 clients, serving over one billion customers worldwide. Renowned for its progressive, exciting and agile philosophy of innovation along with assured service delivery, Acision enables network operators, service providers, broadband operators and content owners to increase revenues, enhance customer loyalty and capitalise on the opportunities offered by convergence. With over 43 years of experience, Acision leads the market in Intuitive Messaging, Intelligent Charging and Customer Intelligence Management. Acision is the partner of choice in high volume mobile data services with over 50 per cent of global messaging traffic generated through its platforms.

Acision was formed following the purchase of LogicaCMG’s Telecoms Products business for £265m (US $525m), by a consortium led by Atlantic Bridge Ventures and Access Industries. The company employs approximately 1,700 people in 22 countries across six continents, and launched as a half billion US dollar company.

Source: www.acision.com