Airtel enters multi-billion dollar ad biz space with ‘Airtel Ads’

Bharti Airtel (Airtel), on Wednesday said that it has entered the multi-billion dollar advertising business with the launch of Airtel Ads – a brand engagement solution that will allow brands of all sizes to curate consent-based and privacy-safe campaigns to one of the biggest pools of quality customers in India.

The Indian advertising industry is expected to grow to $19 billion by 2025 from the current $10 billion. Airtel Ads is well positioned to capture a meaningful share of the growing pie with its sharp focus on quality, the company said.

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Airtel has over 320 million customers across its businesses – Mobile, DTH and Homes. Airtel’s mobile customers have the highest average monthly data consumption at 16.8 GB and the highest monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) of ₹166, it said.

Using Airtel’s deep data science capabilities, Airtel Ads will allow brands to create high-engagement and high-impact campaigns to the most relevant customer cohorts. This also means that Airtel customers receive only the most relevant brand offerings and not unwanted spam, it said.

“Airtel Ads breaks new ground in the $10-billion Indian advertising industry. By abstracting Airtel’s unique strengths of quality customers, best-in-class network and world-class digital platforms, Airtel Ads offers innovative channels for brands to reach the right audiences. What truly differentiates Airtel Ads is its razor-sharp focus on quality over quantity and real impact vs vanity metrics,” Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel, said.

Airtel Ads delivers superior returns on brand spends and focuses on relationships with customers rather than just delivering online impressions. Its rigorous compliance with ad-tracking standards and norms allow complete transparency with advertisers and ensures zero ad frauds in the form of false impressions and clicks, he said.

“Advertising is an adjacency to our core business of delighting our customers with great services. Therefore, we combine the privacy that is paramount to our customers with the trust and transparency that is vital to the brands we serve,” Nair added.

During the beta phase, Airtel Ads delivered successful campaigns for over 100 brands across multiple categories — FMCG, BFSI, Digital Startups, and early advertisers include PepsiCo, Zomato, CRED, Tata AIG, Lenskart, Apollo 247, Cars24, Gameskraft, Vahan, and Harley Davidson, the company said.

“Youth is at the core of our brand strategy, and we always look for innovative ways to interact with them. Through Airtel ads, we ran a focus digital campaign on the Wynk music app for the launch of new packs of 7UP and Mirinda. The outcomes of the campaign were really impressive given the customisable ad formats and quality audience base,” Om Jha, Associate Director of Media at PepsiCo India, said.