Webchutney ventures into mobile marketing

The interactive agency, Webchutney has launched its mobile marketing arm, named Culture Mafia.

With the launch of Culture Mafia, the 10-year-old agency has stepped into the mobile advertising market, which is worth Rs 50 crore and is expected to reach Rs 100 crore by 2010-2011. There are more than 350 million mobile subscribers in India.

Speaking to afaqs! Sidharth Rao, chief executive officer, Webchutney, mentions, “We are expecting that 20 per cent of our total revenue will come from the mobile marketing arm in 2009-2010.”

The agency is equipped to develop branded games, applications, themes, wallpapers and ringtones. It will offer SMS, MMS and Bluetooth marketing, M-coupon, as well as opt-in database marketing options to clients.

Webchutney has already roped in Airtel, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Bacardi-Martini and Microsoft Windows Mobile. It is revamping Airtel’s mobile site and will carry out a mobile marketing campaign to build traffic on Airtel’s mobile portal. For HP, it is carrying out an SMS marketing campaign. It will build a mobile community or a mobile database for Bacardi-Martini, which will be aimed at informing community members about the events and parties hosted by Bacardi-Martini.

The agency is also scouting for partners, who can help to enhance its mobile marketing offerings to its clients. “We are looking to partner with firms which deal with Bluetooth marketing, mobile analytics and voice advertising,” says Rao. It will also tie up with leading mobile ad networks in India to serve mobile ads.

Capital 18, the private equity arm of Network 18, had invested in Webchutney in 2007.