Mobile advertising using rich media formats

Media
Analyst Screen Digest has just published its latest report (www.screendigest.com) entitled 'Mobile media advertising opportunities: The market for advertising on TV, video and
games'. The research examines
the emerging market for rich media advertising delivered to consumers
via their mobile phone in the form of TV, video, games, user-generated
content (UGC) and music. The report includes the findings of an
exclusive survey of GroupMÂ’s advertising agencies in 25 countries to assess the current and future potential for this form of advertising across the globe.

Screen
Digest believes the market for rich media advertising on mobile will
reach $2.79bn (€1.77bn) by 2012, with global mobile TV advertising
accounting for the lions share at $2.44bn (€1.55b). In terms of the
formats that will deliver this revenue, there are those that will
deliver, and those that will disappoint.

Rich media mobile advertising market forecast by region (in $m)
See pdf for chart

Delivering revenues: Mobile TV and Video on Demand
By
2012 advertising will account for over 20% of mobile TV revenues, but
without its own metrics it will struggle to be considered a stand alone
advertising channel. Free-to-air broadcast markets such as Japan and
South Korea will offer bigger
advertising opportunities than markets where mobile TV will be offered
as paid subscriptions to the consumer, such as North America and most
of Europe. Mobile Video-on-Demand advertising will be small in
comparison, reaching €213m
($336m) in 2012 by supporting extracts from popular programmes and sponsoring
recurring content such as news and weather forecasts.

Marketing tools: Games, user-generated content (UGC) and music
In
terms of delivering advertising revenues, Screen Digest believes that
games, UGC and music will disappoint. However, these formats will
provide a valuable source of innovative marketing opportunities for
brands aspiring to connect and
interact with their customers. For example, Screen Digest predicts that
by 2012 over 60 million ad-funded mobile games will be downloaded per
year worldwide.

Getting advertising direct to the consumer – anytime, anywhere, any format
More
ubiquitous than the PC, mobile offers the opportunity to send
personalised messages to people in all markets. Advertising sent via
the mobile phone reaches the recipient directly, wherever they are, at
any time and
location, offering effective targeting as well as interactivity and
consumer engagement.

Yet
despite these benefits, mobile advertising is very much in its infancy.
Julien Theys, one of the authors of the report notes the factors that
are holding back the mass market take up of mobile advertising: “Data
pricing structures, handset and mobile web usability, content quality
and the lack of audience metrics to measure effectiveness are
preventing mobile advertising from reaching its
market potential. Although we expect these hurdles to be overcome in
the coming years, mobile media advertising will have to compete with
search, display, messaging advertising as well as many innovative uses
of mobile in marketing campaigns.”

View from GroupM: An emerging format with potential

The
advertising executives surveyed in GroupMÂ’s agencies in 25 countries
were positive about the capabilities offered by mobile advertising, in
particular targeting by location, interactivity and high response
rates. To date only 15% had used mobile advertising, either as a stand
alone or integrated campaign, underlining Screen DigestÂ’s view that
this is an emerging technology. Of those agencies
that had trialled mobile advertising, 75% had used mobile content at
least once as a promotional item, while 67% had at least once placed an
ad in rich media. The reasons given for not incorporating it into ad
campaigns included poor user experience and usability, handset
limitations and the lack of clear measurement
metrics.

David
MacQueen, Head of Mobile and co-author of the report concludes “Mobile
advertising, and mobile rich media advertising in particular, is a
growing industry with a rapidly evolving landscape. Nokia, Microsoft
and Google have been very active in developing mobile advertising
operations, either internally or through external acquisitions. The
potential is huge, and some of the worldÂ’s largest
companies are vying for control of what they see as the next major
advertising medium.”