Early in the life of the mobile phone, you saw people holding huge, box-like, clunky cell phones with antennas that made them visible to everyone in the nearby proximity. These clunkers were really just used to make phone calls and eventually were upgraded to texting and taking photos (albeit very low quality and without sharing capabilities). They were anything but smart. Well, we’ve surely traded up in the last five years.
What we now call smartphones and tablets act as natural extensions of our everyday lives. And making phone calls has now taken a backseat to other more immediate and relevant functions, such as browsing the Internet, listening to music, playing games, posting updates to social media networks, watching TV/film and reading books.
Tablets in particular, or the recently released hybrids known as “phablets,” are largely responsible for impacting not only how consumers engage with content, but also how brands tailor their marketing strategies to reach and engage with consumers on mobile devices first.
So what’s prompting consumers to ditch their PCs in favour of tablet devices? Whether it’s the Apple iPad, the iPad Mini, the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Amazon Kindle Fire, tablets offer up a number of benefits when compared to desktop computers/laptops. They’re lightweight (weighing less than 2 kilograms), sleek, highly interactive, can increase productivity during “down” times (i.e. in transit on trains/airplanes) and serve as an excellent source for entertainment/news. Is it any wonder tablet sales are reaching record levels in 2013?
According to International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, worldwide tablet shipments reached a record total of 52.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012. The analyst predictions all fall in line with what we’re already seeing on our tablet-dedicated ad network, Mojiva Tab. In fact, the total number of ad requests coming from tablets and e-readers reached 31 billion for the entire year in 2012, signalling a 600 percent increase from the previous year. And out of a total of 3.3 billion tablet ad requests in the EU5 region (UK, Italy, Spain, France, Germany), over 1 billion requests came from the UK alone. Tablets make consumers’ lives better and consumers are spending more and more time on these devices. That’s the mobile reality we’re living in today.
What about the benefits to brands? In June, the Online Publishers Association released data indicating that tablet users are, in fact, more willing to interact with ads on the devices. For instance, 61 percent said that they have purchased content such as e-books, magazines or video, while 72 percent have paid for apps. What that means is that brands need to address certain needs when strategizing, designing and executing their tablet ad campaigns.
Look at what’s important to consumers. Interactivity, for one, matters when it comes to tablet advertisements. According to a study released by the IAB UK, interactive ads were seen to be 238% more innovative, 140% more engaging and 90% more memorable, as compared with static ads. 54% of those exposed to an interactive ad had a positive overall opinion of them, versus 27% for a static ad.
From an advertiser’s perspective, it’s not enough to simply acknowledge that consumers are using tablet devices. What types of media content are they consuming on them? What times of day are users most actively to use their tablets? Since we already know tablets act as a major source of entertainment and news for consumers, it goes without saying that rich media is a smart way for brands to deliver interactivity within content. But as much evidence is out there to show rich media ads rule on tablets, there’s just as much frustration among brand advertisers and agencies about the roadblocks associated with these ad units.
For many advertisers and agencies, production times and cost weigh heavily on their decision to create and execute rich media ad campaigns. Oftentimes, creating and executing rich media campaigns across multiple screens and devices can be seen as a lengthy process and can take upwards of three weeks. However, when working with the right rich media partner, creative can be turned around in days.
To fully capitalize on tablet advertising, brands must adapt and tailor their advertising strategies and creative executions to support this unique environment. Because each brand has its own set of KPIs, a brand’s success will rest heavily on its ability to be flexible with its mobile strategy so that adjustments and tweaks can be made with ease and speed, when necessary.
