So finally IPL starts its third edition on a big note. IPL, in my opinion is not so much about cricket as much it is about the advertisement revolution that it has brought to this country. Zoo-Zoo’s were launched in the last season of IPL, and the advertising fraternity does realize that it has been THE most talked about advertisement in a long time. They made an entry again today and people were again fascinated by them.
But it was another advertisement that grabbed my attention. Abhishekh Bachchan, asking people to play a contest on their mobile phone by sending a sms to a regular 10 digit number. It can easily pass of as a regular advertisement asking people to vote over SMS. But NO it is not normal at all. Here’s why.
At the turn of this century, Realty shows made a huge impact on the Television industry and how viewers interact with it. Every realty show would ask their viewers to vote by sending a SMS to a short code. These short codes were extra VAS numbers (regular short code would cost Rs 3 and this one would cost Rs 6). Viewers did not realize but both the television shows and the mobile operators made loads of money when millions of viewers started sending their sms.
But now after almost 10 years, in my opinion number of people sending sms to a short code has started to decline. You will want to participate in a reality show and make your star a winner. But after some time the novelty of method dies down and your rising phone bill start to make you choosy about when to sms.
And so Abhishekh Bachchan asking you to vote by sending SMS to a long code, marks a huge shift in the way producers view this consumer market. They are ready to forgo the money they were making on the shortcode and really focus on consumers interacting with them over sms.
This option has been there for a long time. But people were just not aware that the kind of interaction that they do over a short code, by paying premium cost could be done on a regular 10 digit mobile number. This will now change. You will start to see more and more long codes coming in advertisement and TV contests now. And I am really excited to see this change coming in the market.
What do you think?
[Guest Article by Mayank Sharma. Reproduced from his blog.]
This is really going to be a good change. At least one can vote by paying less now.
Interesting thing missed here is Long code is cross operator whereas short code is restricted to an operator usually.
A Nice Start…I really hated the concept of Short Code for xtra money.
We are doing a pilot project for a SMS Based Service called SADAKMAP INTOUCH and for the same reason we chose Long Code over Short Code.
yes robin, the concept of long code is really good. User don’t think much while sending message as it costs him normal. Even sms changes to users are dirt cheap so sending message to long code is almost free..
The advantage of short code is that its easier to remember.
I think even better than long code is voting by “missed call”. That I believe will be a game changer. You could vote by paying nothing.
Yes, I agree — short codes are easier to remember BUT it does come at a premium. Just imagine thousands of people voting using short codes. The channel makes more than the prize money on offer just coz of the SMS’ that pour in.
I agree with abhilash. Missed call polling is going to be big.But the only issue there again is different number for different options. It again adds to the confusion.
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