‘We have seen fantastic growth in Nigeria and Africa’

Truecaller rolls out its Ad platform for brands in Africa, eyeing Africa for its next phase of growth, targeting local startups and global brands to scale its business, Ted Nelson, Chief Commercial Officer said more in this interview with Hope Moses-Ashike. Excerpts.

What is your interest in rolling your Truecaller ad platform for brands in Africa?

Truecaller is one of the most popular and fast growing communication apps in Africa today. A month and a half ago we made a big announcement transitioning from a dialer and caller ID app to a full communication platform.

So far we’ve been only focusing on India where we’ve built a sales force and working closely with Google Sales Team to scale the business. We’ve been testing our ad platform in Africa for the past few months with some early access partners (example Huawei, Oppo, Sony and FMCG brands like Lipton,) and the campaigns that we’ve been running has been really successful. That’s why we feel it’s the right time to roll it out to the masses. Africa as a whole is a very exciting market, especially Nigeria.

Why are you coming at a time the country is in recession and how are you going to surmount associated challenges?

Truecaller is one of the largest communication apps in the world and focus on global scale. We have seen fantastic growth in Nigeria and Africa as a whole over the last two years and the growth projections for the coming three years looks really, really strong.

Who are the beneficiaries of your solution?

We aim to work with all major brands that want to reach the young and tech savvy mobile-first smartphone audience. Truecaller offer an excellent complement to advertising on Facebook and Google and is a big believer in programmatic buying of digital advertising, putting more controls in the hands of the digital marketer.

When exactly are you rolling the Truecaller ad platform?

Truecaller Ads has been rolled out. Truecaller Ads is available to buy programmatically via Doubleclick Bid Manager. For more information visit truecaller.com/ads or email [email protected]

How will this impact on Nigerian youths?

The smartphone is becoming the most important accessory for any person in the world, if not already. Our mission is to make communication safe and efficient, whether if it’s helping them identify a potential employer, long lost friend or simply avoid a scam call, we want to help our users stay ahead.

Can you explain in details what the Truecaller ad platform is all about?

Successful mobile advertising campaigns rely on innovative platforms and intelligent distribution. With Truecaller’s mobile advertising platform, brands are provided with a unique opportunity to engage with more than 40 million users in Africa. Truecaller is today the largest independent mobile in-app publisher in several countries in the region.

Mobile advertising on Truecaller relies on Call Intent Targeting (CIT) to serve custom messaging when users are present and engaged: searching for phone numbers (either a person or business) or in notifications after users have received a phone call. Also, advertisers are invited to create mobile phone takeovers by adding brand elements, such as color and messaging, to the native Truecaller interface — further immersing users in a complete brand experience.

What are the likely challenges to this development?

We only see possibilities and are dedicated to bringing safe & efficient communication tools in the hands of our users, partners and advertisers.