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Advertisers Will Love Mobiles |
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The mobile trinityñlocation, personalization, and timelinessñmake mobile devices a marketerís dream. Yes, there are limitations and mobile advertising will adapt to these. However, those who believe mobile advertising is just hype misjudge the market by making three false assumptions:
Advertising on Mobile Terminals Advertising has to change. Consumers are moving to digital media and personalization, whether it be a digital VCR or customized portal, and this is changing the relationship between advertisers and consumers. In that context, the fact that Nokia believes there will be more mobile terminals assessing the Internet than PCs by 2002 becomes significant. Researcher Cahners In-Stat estimates that there will be more than 1.87 billion mobile subscribers globally by 2004. Market forecasters make the mistake of trying to assess the mobile advertising market as a proportion of either total advertising spending or Internet advertising spending. For example, Merrill Lynch in a report on the wireless Internet on 22 June, commented, ìAt best we would not anticipate cellular taking more than 15-20% of total Internet advertising revenues.î This is wrongñmobile advertising will be a different market. Internet advertising does, however, show some interesting trends for the mobile market. Despite the poor publicity surrounding Internet advertising such as widening losses for DoubleClick, according to figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau it continues to grow. In the first half of 2000 it was $4.1 billion in the US, compared with $4.6 billion for the whole of 1999. It is also maturingñfor the 2Q, banner adverts only accounted for 50% of the ad spend. Market forecasters also think of todayís advertisements as applied to mobile terminals. The ads will be personalized and will often be location or time-sensitive. They will often have information or content attached. The aim is not just to sell, but to create branding, customer retention and loyalty, product awareness and develop consumer aspirations. Daryl Arnold, chief executive of the interactive advertising company Profero, believes that mobile advertising will evolve to mobile marketing and ìinclude such elements as brand awareness, promotion, direct response, merchant-partner relationships and e-commerce.î Adam Gray, Internet Director of marketing communications specialist Asylum Net, comments, ìBecause of the problems with WAP, many people have discounted mobile advertising. They also associate interactive advertising with banner ads, and do not perceive the opportunities in creating new types of advertisements created for the mobile environment.î |
