Cell users jingle all the way to bank

Thanks to a Chennai-based mobile advertisement company, you can now listen to ad jingles on your cellphone. And get paid for it.

Airvoice Infocomm India has tied up with Bharti Airtel for this service, which will be rolled out in the Tamil Nadu circle by June-end. It is initially looking at 50,000 users.

For listening to jingles, whose duration will vary between 10 to 20 seconds, the company is offering a payment to the listener. The amount, though, has not been decided yet.

This is the first time the 'getting paid for receiving advertisement' scheme is being launched in India. UK-based Virgin Mobile has already introduced the 'getting paid for incoming calls' scheme in the country'.

"Airvoice's platform has been designed to benefit all stakeholders. For service providers, it will help increase minutes of usage. It will also focus on building relations to ensure maximum share of subscriber spending," R Ayyappan, CEO, Airvoice Infocomm India said.

"For advertisers, it is a platform to reach out to prospective and existing customers. For subscribers, it is the next wave of technology. Also, with a patent, we have eliminated competition," he added.

When a user dials a number, an advertisement will be played before connecting to the desired number. The caller can select the duration of the jingle "" 10, 15, 20 seconds "" and he will be paid accordingly. .

To ensure discretion, the service will be strictly subscriber based. It will also offer options to the subscriber in terms of the type of ads, the duration, and the most important option of skipping the ad altogether.

After Tamil Nadu, the service will be extended to Bharti Airtel's other circles. Airvoice is also considering to tie up with other service providers.

According to Frost & Sullivan analyst (Information and Communications Technology practice), South Asia and Middle East, Deepak Thakur, the present mobile advertising market in India is dominated by text-based messaging services.

"In 2007, the total value of mobile advertisement stood at Rs 25 crore, growing at a staggering 250 per cent. The new service will also result in mobile phones emerging as a potent advertising medium," he added.