“As far as Out There Media is concerned, the year of mobile has already happened, for us it was 2010,” says Caruso, explaining that the company started in Asia just over a year ago. He says that since then, they have seen a lot of traction in the market, having launched its permission-based service in several markets in Southeast Asia including with Maxus and another operator in Malaysia, with Globe Telecom in the Philippines and with a couple of operators in Indonesia.
Caruso said response to the Philippines offering, for example, saw 2.5 million Globe mobile subscribers opt into the service within just weeks of its launch, and over US$4 million worth of advertising committed from tier one advertisers including Unilever, HSBC, Coca Cola and McDonalds.
While 2010 was mostly focused on Southeast Asia, Out There Media is looking to North and South Asia in 2011, to Japan, Korea and India. Describing these as “tough markets, very different from SEA,” Caruso says the company sees many opportunities.
“Japan is the world’s most advanced mobile advertising market… while with 1.2 billion people in India there’s a lot of interest from advertisers. As you may know, most people there access the internet not through their laptop or desktop but via mobile device.”
Asked about the perceived intrusiveness of mobile advertising, Caruso agrees that spam via mobile can be very problematic.
The key differences with Out There Media’s proposition, he says, are that the services are opt-in, permission-based, rather than unsolicited.
“Also what we send to you is relevant to you…. because we know some information about you. And there is an element of trust, because these are operator-branded services
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