Mobile Video Commercials (MVCs)

On 8 December 2011, I caught the press release "Personalized Video Mobile Message Solutions", from a Delhi (India) based organization, Clk2c.

As the solution communicated by Clk2c vide their Press Release, seemed to be on similar lines as my earlier post, Wedding Cards and Mobile Applications (August 2011) it was but natural to have a look at the website of Clk2c.

If you still wonder what Clk2c is all about, well, it allows brands/marketers to send audio/video/textual (PowerPoint) commercials to the mobile devices of their Target Audience. Clk2c calls it Mobile Video Commercials (MVCs). How do brands send MVCs to mobile devices? It could be in response to a short code to which the user SMSes a keyword and receives the download URL, a forward/viral from a user who has received MVC, a SMS containing the MVC download URL sent by the brand, etc.

At a very fundamental level, the solution is about appization (mobile enablement) of digital assets created by brands for communication on media vehicles such as Internet, TV, Radio, Print etc. The mobile enablement of digital assets has been in vogue for quite some time now. In fact services such as Didmo allow users to create their own mobile apps for free (ad supported) or at a fee (free from ads) and publish them on app stores. It also provides certain credits to push the app URL as a SMS to the mobile numbers of the intended recipients.

Unlike Didmo's cloud based self service delivery model, Clk2c does mobile enablement vide its own studio, thus allowing creation of media assets for delivery as MVCs or mobile enabling / repurposing, existing media assets created by the brands for media vehicles other than mobile.

As a marketer / creative agency / media agency, it helps to commit spends if one knows:

 1. What are the services provided by Clk2c.com studios? – Apart from production of MVCs does it also re-produce or alter an existing media asset held by the brand, for publishing on Mobile Phones? E.g. in case of video assets, edit long shots and retain close shots, insertion of tele-text in font and colors to make the copy readable on a mobile screen, etc.

2. As a marketer what should be the ideal duration for the video advertisement on mobile, so that it does not take a long time to download.

3. Is the video file compatible on all mobile phones? What is the device coverage?

4. How do power point presentations play on mobile? Does Clk2c provide voice talent and voice recording facilities in its studio to accompany audio with power point presentations.

5. What are the metrics employed to gauge the efficiency of the campaign?

6. How different is the solution from MMS or publishing the brand video on app stores? Cannot the brand do a MMS campaign similar to a SMS campaign for distributing MVCs?

Introducing a new media solution is followed by lot of questions and comparison with old school learning before graduating to mass adoption.

With the number of mobile subscribers inching close to 900 million, hours spent by smartphone users @ 2.5 hours per day (a proportion that surpasses time spent on television), internet users on mobile surpassing users who access internet on desktop computers by 2013; are we going to see a trend where marketers / creative agencies create media assets specifically to communicate with the mobile audience?

As always, I'll request the readers of this post, if you have time, please drop a line.