Turkcells Tone&Win project has proved the viability of the ringback tone as an advertising medium. Melis Türkmen, Turkcells head of mobile marketing and advertising, told ME all about it
When it comes to ad inventory, there is no end to mankind’s powers of invention. Over the years we’ve seen ads placed on petrol caps, eggs, eyelids and even cows. Anything that holds an audience captive is deemed worthy of consideration.
Which makes it all the more baffling that the ringback tone – which plays when you’re waiting for your call to be connected – has not been exploited earlier. Ringbacks are hugely popular in some parts of the world, but operators and agencies have been slow to use the channel for advertising.
Maybe the example of Turkcell’s Tone & Win (or TonlaKazan) service will change their minds. Turkcell and its partner 4play launched it in May, and ran 72 campaigns for over 50 brands before the end of the year. We asked Turkcell’s Melis Türkmen about the project…
What are latest subscriber numbers for Tone&Win?
We now have over 200,000 subscribers, and we estimate that this base generates 50 million calls a month and enables the ads to reach over 7.5 million consumers. We’ve attracted more than 50 brands including Proctor & Gamble, Coca Cola and Nestle.
Has it been hard to win them over?
It was a hard sell at first. It’s a new channel, and quite expensive compared to traditional media. But we’re fortunate in having over 20 pure mobile marketing agencies in Turkey, so there was a lot of support.
What’s the basic sales pitch?
We have a cost per listening, or CPL, model that charges according to the amount of advertising that has been listened to. The reporting is a very important part of the appeal. We can show the number of listeners, the total number of minutes, the time of day – you just don’t get this with radio and TV.
We can also target by region, demographics and so on. To give an example, Warner ran a Qantum Of Solace-branded ringback tone that could only be selected by members who were male, aged 13-54 and living in the 26 Turkish cities where the movie launched. In less than 14 days, it was heard by 30,000 people, 110,000 times for a total of 1.2 million seconds.
And what about subscribers? What’s in it for them?
The key is to incentivise people: they can earn up to 40 minutes of calling time by joining Tone&Win. When a subscriber logs in by web or mobile, they create a profile and they can choose which ads they want as their ringback. Some ads get them more rewards than others. For advertisers it’s like a Google Adwords system – they can get more availability by offering higher rewards than the rest.
I can see how rewards get the ads selected, but how do you get them listened to?
Make them entertaining. So, for example, Whirlpool ran a campaign challenging people to say the word Whirlpool over and over. It’s very hard to say for Turkish people! Isbank also did well because they created special Tone&Win jingles that complemented an existing campaign. In general, over 70 per cent of people listen for more than five seconds.
How have you advertised the service to consumers?
Mostly word of mouth or by direct mobile marketing such as SMS, MMS and WAP push. Over half of subscriptions are by word of mouth.
Is there a concern that rewards can take revenue away from the operator?
There’s this perception that the service cannibalises voice and text revenue, but it’s just not true. In addition to the advertising revenue, we’re also finding that churn among subscribers to Tone&Win is less than the average for a Turkcell customer. Also, the service can help attract subscribers because customers from rival networks are making calls and hearing directly what is on offer at Turkcell.
Advertisement
