US Mobile Display Ad Spending Likely to Exceed $1 Billion in 2015

ABI Research’s recent report says that mobile advertising spending on display ads in the United States is likely to quadruple in the next few years. The amount spent on mobile display ads, which stands at just over $300 million now, is expected to exceed $1.2 billion in 2015.

Neil Strother of ABI Research says that a survey conducted by the firm in February revealed that 28% of mobile users use the mobile internet facility regularly. He says that the percentage of mobile internet users has increased phenomenally in the last 14 months, which is a great sign for the mobile advertising market.

The report, based on the inputs from a number of mobile marketers, technology vendors, mobile network operators, and advertising agency executives, says that there has been a steady increase in the amount allocated for mobile ad campaigns by companies. Industry insiders say that they have been seeing year-over-year increases of 25%-30%, which is unprecedented when you consider the fact that the industry is still in its infant stage.

Marketers use different types of ads like mobile display ads, text message ads, in-app ads, search ads, and video ads to reach their target audience. They rely on simple text message ads to reach people with low end phones that lack advanced features like mobile TV, internet, audio, and video. On the other hand, they use a variety of rich, multimedia ads to reach people with smartphones that come loaded with advanced features. Statistics show that smartphone penetration in the US is just about 20% now. As this number increases, we can expect a huge surge in the number of mobile ads served across the country.

One of the important signs that indicate a bright future for the industry is the entry of big players like Apple and Google. So far, the industry has been dominated by independent ad networks like Millennial Media, Jumptap, and Greystripe. Google’s acquisition of AdMob and Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless, however, has changed the scenario completely. It shows that the idea of using the mobile phone as an advertising medium is slowly getting mainstream acceptance, which is great news for anyone is related to the mobile advertising industry.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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India - The Second Largest Consumer of Mobile Internet

A recent report by Google says that India is the second largest consumer of mobile internet in the world today. The report says that more than 14 billion mobile web page views were generated in the month of February 2010. India accounted for 5.9% of these page views. The U.S., being the largest consumer of mobile internet, accounted for more than 50% of page views in February.

India has managed to edge past its closest competitor China in terms of mobile data usage. Its burgeoning mobile user population (currently more than 500 million mobile phone users) is one of the main reasons why it has managed to topple China and rise to the second position. Another reason could be the recent fallout between Google and the Chinese government, which has weakened Google’s presence in China considerably. Given the fact that this report only considers countries where Google has a strong presence, it is not very surprising that India is ahead of China in terms of mobile internet usage.

An important fact to be mentioned here is that though India has more than 500 million mobile users, only about 25 million users use the paid data services offered by network operators. Google India, however, predicts that this number could rise to 100 million by the end of 2010.

An interesting fact that the report has mentioned is that most Indian mobile users use reasonably priced low end handsets like Nokia 5130 Express Music and Nokia 3110c. In stark contrast, mobile users in the U.S. use high end handsets like the iPhone for mobile internet purposes. This situation, however, is expected to change soon thanks to the proliferation of high end devices in the Indian market lately. As more and more people turn their attention toward high end phones, the number of mobile internet users in India is expected to rise steadily in the coming years.

Categories: Mobile Web.

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Virgin Mobile Promotes its Mobile Web Services Aggressively

I just saw the latest Virgin Mobile ad on YouTube. They have come up with this ad to promote their mobile web services. I have to tell you; the ad looks quite good. Rumor has it that the company has spent millions on its ‘powerful stuff’ promotional campaign which includes this internet ad as well. The promotional campaign includes ads for every popular medium including TV, online, and the print medium.

The ad is named Fantastic Journey. It is aesthetically shot and is very colorful. The important thing to be noted in this ad is that it does not boast of any celebrity. It is simple, yet appealing. When I watched it for the first time, I couldn’t help but think of Virgin Mobile’s last advertising campaign which involved celebrities like Pamela Anderson, Kate Moss, and Buster Rhymes. This time around, the company has decided to stay away from the glitz and glamour of celebrities and focus on delivering the right message to the viewers.

The underlying message of this ad is that mobile internet can brighten up your life and help you forget the monotonies of your everyday life. Virgin Media authorities have stated that they wanted to reach their core audience on an emotional level and give them a glimpse of the colorful world of mobile web. A world which can bring free video clips, music, movie trailers, games, and social media right to their mobile phone screen. This is the reason why they stayed away from celebrities as they wanted people to get the message without getting distracted by the presence of celebrities.

It is really interesting to see that a major telecom company like Virgin Mobile is spending millions of pounds to promote their mobile web services. It just goes to show that mobile internet might as well be the next big thing. Considering the rate at which it is growing, it could happen sooner than later.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

3 comments.

Indian Mobile Advertising Market on a Roll

We have seen a lot of reports about India being a very dominant player in the mobile advertising market, right? Here is one more report to add to that long list. Limbo, a California based mobile social networking company, and GfK Technology, a Germany based market research company, have come up with a joint report which brings up some important points about mobile advertising in India.

The report says that eight in ten mobile phone users in India get ads on their mobile phone which is unprecedented to say the least. The numbers we are talking are huge – there are 300 million mobile users in India now and, on an average, there are 100 million new mobile connections added every year. In this scenario, mobile ads could have a tremendous reach in both urban and rural areas.

The report also says that text messaging or SMS (short messaging service) is the most sought after format of mobile advertising. Around 75% of the ads delivered in India are text based.

Mobile internet or mobile web is not as popular as one would imagine in India as data plans are quite costly. But the report predicts that the rates will come down significantly due to three reasons.

1. A lot of youngsters are interested in mobile web. Considering the fact that more than 500 million people in India are yet to celebrate their 20th birthday, this is a huge market.

2. The quality of mobile web browsing has increased tremendously thanks to high end phones like Apple iPhone. So, the number of people who use the feature will go up steadily.

3. Most importantly, mobile web, as predicted by experts around the world, is the future of mobile advertising. So, mobile advertisers will find a way to reach their target customers through mobile web. What this means to the end user is that he could get a lot of free, ad sponsored multimedia content.

At the end of the day, all this data leaves us with a question – is the future of mobile phone advertising heading east?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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On why Android makes way more sense than Google Phone

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not Google has done the right thing by developing Android. Some say developing its own phone, the so-called Google phone, would have been a better idea. Some say Android is the better idea. Now, where do I stand in this issue?

It’s very simple. Android is Google’s best chance to dominate the mobile world. The reason is very, very obvious. Just think - How did Google become the top dog in the internet? By serving ads to websites all over the world. In other words, Google made everyone use their service.

Now, think of the same scenario here in the mobile world. Instead of creating a phone which can only be used by so many users, Google has come up with a mobile platform which has the potential to reach hundreds of millions of users all over the world. Android is capable of reaching a wide range of operators and users all over the world and this is exactly the route to Google’s success in the mobile world.

With Android, operators will find it easier to make their subscribers use mobile internet as that is where the revenue is. The more the number of users that use mobile internet, the more money it will be for Google, as it will be serving ads through Android. In other words, Android will help Google replicate its online success in the mobile world.

Remember – it’s a market of over a billion users out there. There’s plenty of fish in the sea. Google, in my opinion, has both the experience and the expertise to pull it off in the mobile world, just like they did in the online world. So, wait and watch.

Categories: Google.

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