“Mobile will continue to be the communication platform of choice for masses across the globe. It will dominate the markets for engaging, retaining and selling services and products. New things will be added holding hand of innovation, just as how mobile apps brought to surface a new means of connect. New and interesting means of social connect will bring us surprises.
On the hardware front, the appearance will change a lot, what we’ve been carrying around in pockets will attain popularity in form of smart watch, smart glasses and such inventions will pave way for wearable technology.” Said Vikram Raichura, Managing Director, VivaConnect Pvt. Ltd.
In an interaction with MediAvataar India Vikram shared some insights from the surging mobile industry stating the story behind their company’s inception and what made him think about the medium so strongly. Here is the Q&A….
MediAvataar: How is Mobile Marketing surging ahead in our country?
Vikram: Mobile marketing is booming in India as one text message can efficiently reach to over 870+ million mobile users. India has a teledensity of 70.85% (wireless services) with 342+ million users in rural regions, allowing personal reach for brands even in media dark region. (Source: TRAI Annual report 2012-13).
Talking about the services, a cost conscious market that India is, Missed call services do extremely well for numerous consumer brands. They are rolled in with their Marketing and Advertising strategies for enhancing engagement of brands activity and offer quick call to action.
The Voice based Toll free services continue to be among the top pick by brands and enterprises alike. While informative services are sticking strongly within 160 characters on SMS.
Mobile apps have unlocked a whole new galaxy of possibilities and Indian market has reciprocated brilliantly. Smartphone subscriber base is growing at astounding rate. Both, Brands and Enterprises have found their niche in mobile apps, then be it building a connect with customers or automating inter-organizational operations.
MediAvataar: What made you think of mobile as a great medium, years ago when you started VivaConnect?
Vikram: Cellular phones came into common man’s hand in true sense only a decade back, then it was a clear harbinger that grand things were to follow. I had a strong instinct that face of communication was to change stupendously and that Mobile won’t die the death of its predecessor, the Pager (Paging never picked up well in India). The reason was simple, mobile allowed two-way communication and it brought real human interaction through voice calls. Also there was a certain multimedia element present since the day one, the interactive display, polyphonic sound, etc.
So I had an instinct that the device will only get better with time and nurtured a strong desire to connect businesses to its consumers over Mobile phones. So I began to work on my dream, taking viva that stands for oral communication and then establishing a connect, thus begun VivaConnect with miniscule capital and infinite passion.
MediAvataar: How has been your journey so far?
Vikram: Its been an awesome roller coaster ride drifting through highs and lows of the evolving technology, often changing telecom regulatory policies and stringent competition. And of course we had our share of losses on the way, though none took away the confidence or broke our spirit, instead it inspired us to invent totally awesome mobility services, like LiveTalk – for Audio Broadcasting, Voting over missed call, Gratification over Free mobile talk time.
We began with building digital directories for businesses and today we cover an entire range of mobility services over Voice calls, Missed calls, Mobile apps, SMS and Emails. We’ve grown to have the Largest infrastructure for Voice and Missed call services in India with 1200 PRI Lines.
It’s always been a team work at VivaConnect and involved risks at several junctures.Our efforts bagged a handful of laurels and accolades such as CNBC Emerging India Award (2009), Small Business Award (2011) and Red Herring – Top 100 Asia Winner (2012) and Mobbys Award for Best New Service – LiveTalk (2013).
Our services can uplift operations over Mobile and unlock myriad possibilities of communication for every business, sector or industry in the world.
MediAvataar: Please tell us more about your LiveTalk concept and what made you come up with it?
Vikram: Whenever we use the term ‘Live’, it invigorates an event. Be it live cricket updates, live interviews, live music concerts and so on. We enjoy experiencing any event as it takes place. Taking this natural human urge and quenching it over a phone call, we gave birth to ‘LiveTalk’
LiveTalk empowers live audio broadcasting of events over a phone call. Its as simple as dial, connect and enjoy. Any event organizer can make their event available to audiences beyond hall room and arena, over a phone call with LiveTalk. This allows higher engagement and people can connect even while travelling, working, holidaying, etc. without any concern of availability of tickets, traffic jams, bookings, entry fees, etc.
Moreover, this facility comes at cost of a standard phone call by being charged as per tariff plan of the caller and nor does it require any subscription.
LiveTalk can connect 1,00,000+ simultaneous callers and is recommended for broadcasting live events such as Music concerts, Business/Trade fairs, Spiritual meets, Conference & Seminars, Political rallies, Lectures & Tuitions (Education), etc.
MediAvataar: How many people actually tuned in to use LiveTalk during BJP’s rally?
Vikram: LiveTalk has covered all the rallies that Shri. Narendra Modi undertook since October 2013 to present day, covering different regions across India.
The very first rally that he undertook at Rewari haryana (Ex-Servicemen Rally) saw a massive response as we connected 1,00,000+ callers from India and a few international callers as well. The event lasted for 3+ hours and brought forth audiences from media dark regions, listening to the leader’s speech.
LiveTalk was even awarded with Mobbys Award for Innovation in the Mobile Industry: Best New Service in 2013.
MediAvataar: Share few campaigns with us that you think helped the brands embrace, Mobile as a protagonist.
Vikram: A) In 2013, Zee TV wanted Zee Cine Awards – World’s biggest viewers choice award, to have maximum audience engagement and ease the nominations voting procedure in an effort to reach wider audiences. Along with that they also wanted to propagate the rights of the viewers to choose their favourite actor/film by positioning the tag – “Haq hai Aapka”.
VivaConnect powered voting over Missed call for PAN india audience. Viewers gave a missed call to receive a call back in response, where they easily voted for their favorite artist in various categories though DTMF input. The response was overwhelming and it proved to be a simple, convenient and money saver mode of voting. None of the previous methods of voting viz. SMS & Voting Forms brought such a massive response. The winners were chosen by Indian population in a true sense.
This even led to VivaConnect being the official voting partner for Zee Cine Awards 2014.
B) Knowing account balance is vital for customers and the bank. The ways to acquire it have been Visiting bank, Calling branch, Sending ‘Balance query SMS and Net Mobile banking. But the modes demanded time, cost, smart phones, internet, etc.
A solution convenient to both bank and account holder was delivered through Missed call Balance check Service. All one had to do is give a missed call to the bank and promptly receive his up-to-date account balance information over a SMS.
The service receives over 1 million hits every month for our client and it has highly regulated banks operation at branches across India. It saves time and energy of customers and bank alike.
Back then our client was even bestowed with a prestigious award for The Innovative service in banking products.
MediAvataar: Please tell us about your client list and the sort of innovative work you do for them?
Vikram: Our clientele includes beauty care brands as Lux and Pond’s, Banks as Central Bank of India, Vijaya Bank, Saraswat Bank, then Television channels as Doordarshan, Sony Television, Zee Entertainment. We even provide services to Finance firms as ICICI Bank, Kotak, Reliance, Sharekhan and Enterprises like BPCL, HUL, etc.
With Banks, Finance & Broking firms its more of perpetual services that go on across the year over Voice calls, Missed calls, Mobile apps, SMS and emails. While FMCG brands, opt for campaign based service in conjunction to their marketing and advertising strategies to garner higher engagement.
Last November we executed a campaign for a Body lotion brand, where over its purchase 2 lucky winners stood a chance of winning a date with a leading movie actor. Consumers were asked to give a missed call to receive a call back and answer simple questions related to the brand and another about a movie of that actor. The entry was validated by entering the unique code printed on back of the product purchased. The campaign ran in chosen cities across India and saw a whooping response, with improved product sale.
MediAvataar: Innovation is necessary but in this fast paced era, are you not fearful of them getting obsolete soon?
Vikram: Mobile Technology is at its all time best and the race for better services is highly intense. Its true that shelf life of services has got highly unpredictable as masses stick to a particular thing only till the next best thing is available. The way Whatsapp killed SMS consumption around the globe, popularity of a service can go down pretty shockingly.
Yet, no matter whichever service over mobile gets obsolete, one thing will last for ever – A Voice call. Thats the most natural expression of every human being and shall persist forever.
A human voice establishes a special emotional connect, hence we reinvent voice call experience through innovative campaigns.
MediAvataar: Where do you think Mobile as a medium will reach in 5 years from now?
Vikram: Mobile will continue to be the communication platform of choice for masses across the globe. It will dominate the markets for engaging, retaining and selling services and products. New things will be added holding hand of innovation, just as how mobile apps brought to surface a new means of connect. New and interesting means of social connect will bring us surprises.
On the hardware front, the appearance will change a lot, what we’ve been carrying around in pockets will attain popularity in form of smart watch, smart glasses and such inventions will pave way for wearable technology.
MediAvataar: What are the plans for rest of 2014? Any new things coming up?
Vikram: This year we’ve set the stage to bring more number of consumer brands overboard with interesting concepts of engagement over Missed calls and Mobile apps. We aim to take innovative solutions offered to brands on to the next level.
We’re even engaged in developing operational and analytical mobile applications for Enterprises that allows right from a bird’s eye view to a grass root view of operations with 24×7 connectivity.
We constantly reinvent our services and love to surprise with new ones !