Strong debate about whether this is finally the year of mobile has been raging for many years now. Sales of iPhones and Android smartphones are at a record high, with over 50 per cent smartphone penetration in the UK, according to recent research but the fact remains that we’re still a long way off from it being any more than a rounding error for most campaign budgets.
While the most recent IAB report highlighted that the UK’s mobile ad spend had increased to £203m for 2011, let’s not forget that this only accounts for around five per cent of either TV or online’s spend.
Nevertheless, there is absolutely no doubt that mobile advertising is growing in importance. What is both promising and disappointing is that mobile’s share of media consumption is about 30 per cent of that for TV or fixed internet. This is a big number and growing fast – perhaps even bigger when we account for mobile’s increasing dual and even triple screen usage. Mobile is rapidly replacing many other media in our consumption of social media, news and entertainment, and it delivers this in a format that is uniquely personal. All in all, mobile offers an incredible opportunity for marketers, and yet spend on advertising lags far behind consumption.
There are many causes for this imbalance between usage and spend. First and foremost, mobile presents a challenging environment of multiple platforms, where each platform has different formats. There are also tightly controlled routes to access these platforms because they each have app stores and operating systems with different regulations.
On top of this there are similar restrictions that make mobile ads difficult to target, and restrictive in terms of measurement. While it can potentially provide effective geo-targeting, IOS lacks the usual mechanism to track users for data-driven or behavioural targeting because third party cookies and unique ID’s are restricted. This is the reason why up to now the majority of ads have been sold with a cost per click model, allowing for the management of a simple ROI.
Brand advertising is pretty much a non-starter in this environment. Experiments have taken place, of course, but other than through a handful of digital magazines and a few branded apps – almost certainly both representing test campaigns rather than general marketing – very few brands have ventured onto mobile platforms. With geo being the only type of reliable targeting available, and clicks the only reliable measure, the mobile opportunity has been presented as an opportunity exclusively suited to direct response performance-based advertising. Brand advertising has never been much of a consideration.
The effectiveness of brand advertising is down to several vital requirements that the medium must deliver, regardless of the medium. The ad must reach a target audience, convey the brand message, and finally the impact of that message must be measured.
But of course mobile faces very specific challenges in all three of these basic requirements:
- Audience information becomes very hard to collect and even more difficult to maintain as mobile operates in an environment where cookies are rigorously controlled.
- Messages that a brand is trying to convey are limited to either basic formats or require multiple creative executions.
- The combination of the same cookie issues and the same limitations as every other medium influence our ability to measure the success of a campaign in terms that matter to a brand. Traditionally brand impact can only be evaluated using expensive post-campaign research.
I for one am excited about where mobile advertising is going. Technology is evolving: mobile-specific ad platforms have been enhanced considerably, and can deliver rich formats across operating systems and mobile web environments. Technology vendors, like nugg.ad, who have specialised in brand engagement tools in digital advertising, have created audience and brand measurement tools for mobile.
The amalgamation of these types of advances is only now beginning to enable brand advertisers to choose an audience based on social demographics and product preferences; deliver a rich, engaging message to them on any phone and understand what portion of the total audience they’ve reached. What’s more, the impact it has had on brand recognition, brand affinity and intent to purchase can be captured in real time, which further optimises the campaign.
The rise of smartphones, and therefore audiences, the technology available, and the fact it’s maturing as a medium have created the optimal conditions to deliver strong impact through mobile. I believe education is now the only hurdle that is holding brands back from using mobile extensively. Over time, more and more media owners will begin to implement the latest technology on their mobile properties and we’ll soon be able to herald the arrival of the much-lauded ‘Year of Mobile’ without an ounce of hyperbole.
