ADVERTISING on CELLPHONES SHOULD FOSTER THE NEXT AD BOOM in DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Because of the high and growing penetration rate of cell phones in urban and rural areas, Developing Countries are recording historical growth in the telecom sector. The numbers don’t lie, if Nokia, Samsung, LG and other handset manufacturers are selling more cell phones while there is a saturation in the number of subscribers in the US and Continental Europe, it means that the demand is coming from elsewhere.

So despite the current downturn in the economy, those companies are still able to increase their sales of low-end cell phones to developing markets. In Africa and South East Asia, residents of rural areas with no electricity and limited access to water are connected to the world today because of their mobile phones. This constitutes a market that was unaccounted for a very long time by advertisers. Major brands will soon have to scramble to reach these untapped consumers.

Although those brands will limit their far reaching campaigns to everyday goods such as Soap, Sugar, etc.. There is no doubt that the time will come when advertising will climax on cellphone text messages and contents. Most of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa, rural India are considered hard to reach consumers. But that’s because the traditional advertising medium are more appealing to affluent, sophisticated and mostly educated consumers.

With ads appearing on cellphones, almost everyone can be targeted because there are no limits on the visibility of the ad: -They are not confined to one particular area on billboards -You don’t need to be in front of the TV set to see it -You don’t have to be in your car to listen to it on the radio. But you are most likely to have your cell phone on you at all times no matter where you are.

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