One97 appoints NetworkPlay to monetise mobile advertising solutions

NetworkPlay will represent and sell the mobile advertising solutions and inventory offered by One97

Mobile value-added service (VAS) provider, One97 Communications has appointed NetworkPlay to exclusively represent, monetise and rope in marketers for its mobile advertising solutions. NetworkPlay is a Capital18 funded digital ad network.

The advertising services available with One97 include footer ads in a missed call alert/SMS, Ad-based Ring back tones (AdRBT), pre and post call announcements or notifications, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), branded voice portals, banner and rich media advertising on mobile internet sites.

Speaking to afaqs!, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chairman and managing director, One97 Communications, explains, "We have partnerships with many mobile operators, which have given us the access to monetise various voice (like pre and post call announcements) and data (banner ads on an operator's mobile portal) related services offered by them. For instance, One97 has bagged the rights from some operators to monetise their missed call alerts service. Thus, whenever a subscriber receives a missed call alert SMS, we can serve a footer ad at the bottom of it. We have rights to serve banner ads on the mobile portal of Reliance Communications."

Thus, One97 has further outsourced the advertising inventory available to it through mobile service providers to NetworkPlay.

"Advertisers will be allowed to use the advertising inventory for brand building purposes. Performance based campaigns will not be offered," says Rammohan Sundaram, founder, chief executive officer and managing director, NetworkPlay.

On the financial arrangement, Sharma says, "One97 will share the revenue earned from the advertising solutions with NetworkPlay and mobile operators."