Flipkart's 'Brand Story Ads' goes live

Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce firm, has on March 3, announced going live with Brand Story Ads which is a native, interactive story format with content images and product guides that lets brands tell their stories to their target audience in a crisp and effective manner.

Brand Story Ads, available as a mobile platform, claims to have over 50 brands including Yes Bank, L'Oréal, Micromax, Intel, Gillette, Datsun and Sony already on board who have signed up on the platform to launch their ad campaigns.

In the initial phase, the campaigns will lay emphasis on creating awareness with brand story and category pages about the brands (including brand offerings) which have signed up on the platform. This will be later followed by product listings, checkouts and other areas.

In addition to the first party brands, that is, the brands which retail on Flipkart, this service will also be available to third party brands which are the other non-retailing brands across sectors like real-estate, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), auto, and telecom.

With the launch of Brand Story Ads, Flipkart has introduced a new form of advertising called 'commerce advertising', which the company claims, delivers a holistic view of the consumer's purchase journey post ad interactions and highlights the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. The company, in a press note, claims that commerce advertising is based on superior data and buying intent of over 50 million consumers.

Commenting on this announcement, Ravi Garikipati, senior vice-president, Flipkart, says, "With Brand Story Ads, we offer a platform where brands can target and engage with the largest qualified commerce audience in the country at the right time, for the right intent. Thus, the propensity to click on the advertisement is only higher and stronger.

The magnitude of consumer traffic and intelligent data insights on online shopping behaviour gives Flipkart the edge to provide a larger reach, impact and measurability."

Some of the brands to advertise on the platform include Bajaj, Bathla Aluminium, Eveready, Godrej and Boyce Mfg Co, Hindustan Unilever, Lakme, Hindware, IFB, Intel_Alpha, Intex Technologies, Yes Bank, L'Oreal, Micromax Informatics, Moserbaer Entertainment, Motorola, P&G - Gillette, Performics-Airtel, Royaloak Furniture India LLP, Sony India, Tata Zica_Alpha, and Volkswagen_Alpha.

The company, in a press note, says that mobile advertising in India is fast gaining momentum through increasing popularity of various apps and mobile sites. Flipkart is the undisputed leader in m-commerce in India with over 60 per cent market share, and the first Indian app to cross the 50 million installs on Play Store.

With the launch of Brand Ads on the app, Flipkart will contribute significantly to the mobile advertising growth in India. According to a report by Deloitte, the mobile advertising spends are expected to account for 15-20 per cent of the overall media expenditure by 2020. India is one of the leading markets worldwide in which ad spends will grow at a double-digit rate annually.

Launched in October 2007, Flipkart claims to be India's largest e-commerce marketplace with over 45 per cent market share according to the Morgan Stanley report on e-commerce in India for 2016. With a registered customer base of 50 million, Flipkart claims to offer more than 30 million products across more than 70 categories including books, media, consumer electronics, furniture and lifestyle.