Ringback Tones Are Taking Off, and Providing a New Advertising Channel

• Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2008
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Mobile Advertising

Ringback tones, a tone that you set up so that when someone calls your mobile, they hear a specific musical tone, rather than a standard ringtone, have been a bit “below the radar”, they have been growing but without much fanfare. The uptake is actually quite good in certain markets, such as Spain (10%), Korea (60%), India (40%), but very low elsewhere such as UK (1%).

Ringback tones replace the standard ringing sound heard when a call is connected and you're waiting for the other person to answer. Rings are replaced with content such as music, jokes, or funny quips that entertain waiting callers.

However, ringback tones provide a new twist: they allow users to express themselves to the people who matter most - the people who are calling. From an operations perspective, carriers can utilize many of the same ringtone management tools and content relationships. The difference is that ringback tones offer a much more lucrative business model.

Some companies, such as LiveWire are now realizing that ringback tones can also provide new advertising real estate: when someone calls you, rather than the standard ring tone, why not play an advertisement? And if you don’t want to annoy your friends with ads, you can put together a “white list” of your friends, so that only unknown callers hear the ads.

Why do ringback tones have a brighter future than ringtones? One reason is that they work with any phone, old or new, wired or wireless, because the service resides on the network rather than on the phone.

By comparison, only wireless subscribers can use ringtones, and even they're limited by factors such as the phone's audio quality and memory - assuming that their phone can handle ringtones at all. Everyone who calls a ringback tone subscriber will be exposed to this service, unlike the case with ringtones, which are heard only by the called party.

Ringback tones are controlled and managed from the network, not from the user's device. The intelligence and control provided by the network creates a richer service that allows for unique content to be directed to individuals and groups, made specific for time of day, or customized for unique events. The ability to influence and motivate the purchase of content moves the carrier from back-seat passenger status to a driver of new revenue-generating services.

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