Mobile Advertising is Not a Nascent Market Anymore

Mobile advertising gained much deserved attention in the year 2008. The advertising community looked beyond the traditional media and many ventured into the space, although hesitatingly. Big brands such as Nike, BMW, Audi, McDonald’s already have enough experience of advertising mobile phones, while many renowned brands joined in 2008. SMEs and local businesses are also adopting it, since it offers a means to reach the targeted audience at a comparative price. Through mobile advertising, they were able to target the audience, create and deliver ads, monitor the campaign real-time and end it within a specified time period, without spending big bucks. We also witnessed successful mobile advertising campaigns during sporting events such as the Beijing Olympics.

The industry also witnessed many startups venturing into the space with big funding and many other innovative companies performing consistently. Companies such as Jump Tap, QuickPlay Media, Amobee, GoTV, ChaCha were almost always in the news for achieving some or the other milestone. Big Internet players such as Google and Yahoo! are trying to gain foothold in the mobile domain with AdSense for mobile and Yahoo! mobile search advertising, respectively. Mobile social networking coupled with location-based services also generated much interest with the launch of new services such as Xtify, Nimbuzz, RockeTalk and Meetmoi. Mobile Instant Messaging witnessed growth with eBuddy and itsmy.com.

Nokia N97

We have also witnessed the launch of some amazing mobile phones in 2008. If the launch of iPhone 3G created frenzy among Apple lovers (and others also), Android’s entry was much subdued. Undoubtedly, iPhone revolutionized the mobile Web experience and became a prime focus for advertising. Many brands have already developed and launched applications optimized for the iPhone (Apps) and one can expect more to come. Other handset manufacturers also took the competition head-on with Samsung launching Omnia, Instinct and Toco, Sony Ericsson launching Xperia X1, LG performing with Dare and the recent launch of 5800 XpressMusic by Nokia. Nokia has also announced the future launch of N97 in 2009 - a touchscreen phone claimed to be the most advanced Smartphone from the phone giant.

As the year approached its end, we came across many predictions for mobile advertising for 2009. Bango Analytics predicted that mobile advertising will become more appealing, major online retailer will enter mobile, and mobile Internet will witness growth. Mobile Worx said that mobile advertising will grow, however, it will not stabilize. iPhone could be the #2 or #3 device on most networks, mobile search will gain traction, and developing markets such as India and Indonesia will grow. 5th Finger released the “Mobile Marketing Musts“, sharing a set of best practices that focused on rich content, relevancy, engaging consumers, maximizing opportunities, monitoring and optimizing, and lastly, thinking out of the box. Direct response advertisers also wished that mobile advertising grows in the coming year. However, on the other hand, a recent ABI Research report said that mobile advertising will probably now grow even in 2009.

Towards the end of 2008, the global economic recession had already affected many businesses and financial powerhouses. The impact was also felt on mobile advertising, as now we see reports of decline in the mobile advertising rates. Although, it might prove beneficial for the industry as a lower price will attract more advertisers towards it.

Paran Johar, CMO of Jump Tap, in his article at Adotas wrote:

“… The industry needs to stop focusing on predicting a specific moment in time that will be a “tipping point” for the medium; but more on defining the key milestones we need to achieve significant growth and show mobile advertising is a force to be reckoned with.

In 09, we’ll need to put our money where our mouth is and give brands and agencies the knowledge and ability to move mobile out of experimental spend and to justify it being a must have centerpiece of any media plan.

Smart marketers won’t stop marketing in a down economy; they will just hold their agencies more accountable and try and capture market share. In 2009, they will seek higher responses rates from campaigns, better returns on their marketing spend and higher levels of engagement with their audiences. And this is where mobile shines…”

We expect mobile advertising to address problems such as audience profiling and measurement in the coming year. Mobile ad networks will offer more end-to-end solutions and services. Mobile search will gain major attention as more and more users go online on mobile and look for information. Mobile operators are expected to become more aggressive. They will create their own advertising solutions or will partner with a solution provider in a conscious effort to avoid becoming the bit-pipe of the mobile advertising industry. Mobile social networking and location-based services will drive on advanced handsets and flat-rate tariff plans. Users will have access to more advanced and affordable handsets, with retailers such as Wall-Mart and BestBuy already offering high-end at discounted prices. Users are also expected to spend more time browsing Internet on their mobile, which will offer more opportunities for mobile Web advertising. However, marketers will have to understand that although the evolution of mobile Internet looks similar to that of PC Internet, the user experience and interaction is at a different level. Replicating PC Web advertising to mobile will not help them achieve success; for that they will be required to study and understand the consumer in a better way.

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