Skype offers advertising in India

Zirca Digital Solutions will be selling advertising inventory for Skype in India, exclusively.

Zirca Digital Solutions has announced that it will be offering advertising inventory on Skype, exclusively, helping brands take advantage of the growing popularity of Skype in India.

Skype is a communications platform through which people can communicate using text, voice and video with others, wherever they are on whatever device they choose.

Skype has more than 330 million active monthly users in more than 70 markets around the world. In Asia, advertising on Skype is available across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.

Advertising on Skype allows brands to sponsor human emotions - the big and small moments that make life wonderful.

Neena Dasgupta, director, Zirca Digital Solutions, says, "People love Skype, which makes it a great platform for any brand looking to reach a large and engaged audience. Skype is also part of Microsoft's unique and connected ecosystem that enables brands to tailor advertising experiences across devices and services. Through Skype, advertisers in India will be able to reach audiences at the right time, with the right information, when they are making decisions with the people they trust the most."

Vikas Khanchandani, director, Zirca Digital Solutions, says, "A Skype session lasts more than 30 minutes, on an average. This means greater time spent for the associating brands. Moreover, adding Skype to our existing portfolio of Microsoft products will help us offer a holistic solution to advertisers who stand to make better ROI on their ad spends."

Zirca Digital Solutions has begun offering premium branded experiences like Conversation Ads, the Connection Hub Ad and Conversation Corridors, to give brands access to the Skype community present across PC & mobile.

Many of the new formats are standard and consistent with the creative formats used by advertisers on other platforms. Conversation Ad Standard 300x250 and 300x600 offers premium advertising that appears within Skype to Skype audio calls, allowing brands to be visible on the conversation panel.

Connection Hub Ad 728x90 and 234x60 offers premium advertising placed in the Connection Hub, the central starting point for all Skype user engagement, including voice calls, video calls, chat activity and instant messaging.

Conversation Corridors is an exclusive new targeting capability that allows advertisers to deliver unique offers to users in Skype's largest markets, who have historically communicated with specific geographic regions.

The Skype audience is socially active and influential.

Kenneth Chang, head of advertising and online, SEA/Korea, Microsoft, says, "At Skype, we believe in the importance of making deep and real connections - with each other, with our families and friends, and with the people who love our products and believe in our brand. Skype exists to bring people closer together today and every day. It's the powerful connections that we help make and our focus on the user experience that make Skype such a great place for consumers and brands alike. With now more than 70 markets worldwide, we look forward to working with new brands to sponsor more of these important and wonderful moments in life."

Zirca Digital Solutions was launched in 2012. It is a digital brand solutions and media representation company with content creation and storytelling at its heart. It currently represents publishers such as Outbrain, Microsoft and The Economist.