posted by jaime on Tue. 11/9/2010 10:07am
Mobile is one of the more interesting segments of the media landscape, because cell phones are such a personal accessory. Most people never leave their homes or offices without their mobile phones, and often use them for convenient multi-tasking while watching television or, in many cases, during business meetings.
87% of U.S. adults own a mobile phone. 32% of those adults have internet access on their phones, and use it for on-the-go access to the web. Many websites have even optimized their front end to make them easier to view on a smartphone. The term for these sites is WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) sites. They usually contain fewer (if any) images and less text, to minimize load time and make the site easier to interact with on a phone.
There are several different kinds of ads available on phones:
- In-app ads - where the advertiser negotiates directly with the creator of the app to place ads in their applications. While the mechanisms are more complex, ads in location-based services usually fall under this category. More than 80% of smartphone users have downloaded at least one app.
- Banner ads on WAP sites - where the advertiser negotiates to appear on the WAP version of a particular website.
- SMS ads - where the advertiser sends branded text messages directly to consumers who have opted-in to receive them.
Given the intimate relationship between consumers and their phones, one would think that more advertisers would plan activity on mobile phones. But the main issue with mobile advertising is that it isn’t scalable. A national advertiser will have a difficult time reaching a large number of consumers for two reasons:
1. Consumers own different makes and models of phones with varying capabilities. Smartphones can do a lot of things that regular cell phones can’t, as they have large color screens and more functionality.
2. Mobile service providers also have different offerings and capabilities. Verizon may be able to do something Sprint can’t. AT&T might not want to share a promotion with T-Mobile. Reaching all Blackberry users would require negotiations with multiple carriers.
This doesn’t mean that mobile isn’t viable. Mobile works best as part of a larger or more local program, and plan expectations should be adjusted to reflect those conditions.