Entertainment Sector Tops Mobile Ad Spending

A recent metrics report from Millennial Media has the details about the recent trends in mobile ad spending. According to the report, entertainment is the sector which tops the list as far as mobile ad spending is concerned.

The report also says that 2/3rd of the money spent on entertainment was spent by movie studios for promoting their movies. Major movie studios in Hollywood have been spending a considerable amount of money on mobile ads of late. If you have a high end cell phone like the iPhone or any other web enabled phone for that matter, you could have seen ads for movies like Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Fast & Furious 4. Since the response for such mobile campaigns is usually good, movie studios these days do not think twice to spend money on mobile advertising.

For the regular readers of this blog, this news might not be surprising, as we have already discussed this issue here, here, and here.

Apart from movies, a considerable amount has been spent on games (16% of the total spending), TV (9% of the total spending), music (4% of the total spending), and other things (7% of the total spending) that people are interested in.

One of the things to be noted here is that there has been a considerable change in the way mobile advertising is perceived by large companies in the entertainment industry lately. Earlier, the amount spent on mobile marketing campaigns was very little and it was usually for ringtones and stuff like that. Now, movie studios and television studios are coming up with mobile marketing campaigns to promote their movies, sitcoms, and reality TV shows. This just goes to show that a lot of people are slowly beginning to understand that mobile ad campaigns, when done the right way, can give very good results.

Apart from this, a lot of brands are turning their attention towards mobile ads to drive traffic to their mobile sites and enhance their presence in the mobile world. In my opinion, this is a good sign of things to come in the future. A lot of companies have developed mobile sites to help their readers access the websites they want right from their mobile phone. Since mobile web is becoming increasingly popular and the number of high end mobile users is growing fast, it is a good idea for big companies and popular brands to have their own mobile sites. This issue, as some of you might remember, has been already discussed in this blog.

The report also says that Apple iPhone and iPod Touch continue to dominate the mobile ad market by getting the lion’s share of ad impressions. However, it should be noted that other mobile phones like Samsung Instinct are giving a tough competition to Apple in terms of ad impressions.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

3 comments.

IAB Releases Mobile Buyer’s Guide at Mobile Conference

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) released a first-of-its-kind Mobile Buyer’s Guide for mobile marketing agencies at the IAB Marketplace: Mobile Conference on Monday.

The guide explains the medium of mobile advertising in detail and offers valuable information for mobile marketers to help them create and run mobile marketing campaigns successfully. The guide contains everything you need to know about mobile advertising – key terms and definitions, an overview of the U.S. market, a look at the key demographics, tips to create and run mobile marketing campaigns, and a number of examples to illustrate the intricacies involved in such campaigns.

You can take a look at the guide here.

Personally, I think this is a great initiative by the IAB. Though a lot of experts predict a big future for mobile advertising, it is still in its nascent stage and an unbelievably huge number of people are completely unaware of its potential. This kind of a detailed guide will definitely help people understand the value of advertising on mobile phones.

Mobile Marketer, AdMob, Mindshare, ESPN, HBO, NBC Universal, Nestle, AIG, Deutsch, IKEA, CNN Digital, Verizon Wireless, Microsoft, Pandora, Citi, and Nokia Interactive Advertising were some of the names involved in the conference. The future of mobile marketing was discussed in detail and the general feeling among both business owners and marketers was that mobile marketing as a medium is poised for huge growth.

Some of the important points raised at the conference include

• The click through rates of mobile display ads are five to ten times more than the click through rates of banner ads on websites.

• Online advertising has reached a point where almost every other website is filled with ads and people have started ignoring a majority of those ads. Advertising on mobile phones, on the other hand, is still in its nascent stage and a lot of consumers show interest in it.

• Microsoft, which has been trying really hard to dominate both the online and the mobile space, has had very good success with mobile ads so far. Compared to their online ads, mobile ads have performed exceptionally well so far. As a result, Microsoft is planning to invest a lot of money in mobile advertising.

• At the time of recession, mobile phone advertising can help businesses irrespective of their size. Mobile advertising campaigns are easy to create, easy to manage, and give excellent results. The response rates of these campaigns are usually way higher than the response rates of traditional advertising methods.

• A lot of companies have yet to try mobile coupons, location based advertising, and other types of mobile marketing which give very good results. However, experts believe that the situation will change slowly as more and more people are becoming aware of the potential of advertising on mobile phones.

Based on what I have seen and heard so far, I am of the opinion that mobile advertising, as a medium, will break through to the mainstream in a few years from now. What do you guys think?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

0 comments.

Hollywood goes mobile big time

Last year, I wrote a post about Hollywood’s reluctance to use the most powerful marketing medium available today – the mobile phone. I distinctly remember comparing Hollywood with the Indian film industry and discussing how the latter managed to use the mobile phone successfully to promote movies and all that. However, it’s been a year now and a lot of things have changed in Hollywood.

It all started with Iron Man. Paramount Pictures signed a deal with LG and promoted the movie big time through mobile marketing campaigns. Lots of content was offered via mobile phones and users were thrilled to have a glimpse of the movie right on their mobile phone way before its release. LG even went on to release a special Iron Man phone which is the costliest phone to date, valued at around $2000.

The success of Iron Man’s mobile marketing campaigns prompted other major studios to go down the same route as well. So, Warner Bros. went down the mobile lane for three of its films – Speed Racer, Get Smart, and The Dark Knight. Especially, the mobile marketing campaigns created for The Dark Knight were phenomenally successful, just like the movie.

The mobile marketing campaign for Dark Knight included an interactive treasure hunt which directed the users to 25 bakeries in different parts of the country. Once they reached the bakery mentioned in the treasure hunt, they were delivered a cake parcel which had a Nokia phone. The users were asked to use the phone for more clues and stuff like that. The campaign was a huge success and it ended up preparing the audience for a blockbuster of a movie.

Apart from this, movies like The Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones, Wall – E, and Kung Fu Panda were also aggressively promoted through mobile marketing campaigns this year. All of them were very successful. So, finally, one would assume that Hollywood has come of age and has realized the potential of the mobile phone as a marketing medium after all.

With a lot of high end phones hitting the market and new technologies being introduced, mobile marketing campaigns will become even more innovative and offer a rich experience to users in the future. Ultimately, the purpose of such mobile marketing campaigns is to generate a lot of hype and interest for the movie and bring people to theaters. So far, it’s been bang on target. Don’t you think?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

1 comment.

Some good news for mobile marketers

Finally, here’s some good news for mobile marketers. Access 360 Media’s latest report says brings up a few points which I think will be very reassuring for mobile marketers.

1. Once people subscribe to text message alerts from marketers, they stick to it. The number of people who unsubscribe after getting alerts for some time is very less. In fact, it is only around 4%.

2. The response for mobile marketing campaigns has been very high. On an average, 2 to 4 percent of mobile users click on the ads they get to know get more information. This is way better than the response rate from online ads, which is somewhere around 0.01%.

In my opinion, these two facts prove a point. The one which I’ve been telling again and again and again in this blog. Get your customer’s permission, send useful, relevant ads, and give them the choice to opt out of it any time they want. Rest assured, your mobile marketing campaign will be a success.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

0 comments.

Mobicom’s first quarter results and a special request for experts

Mobicom Corp. recently released its first quarter operating results as of March 31, 2008. The figures were astonishing to say the least. The total revenue was $1,382,858. The total revenue for the same period in 2007, just a year back, was only $54,959. No, that’s not a typo. From $54,959 to $1,382,858 in just one freaking year. That’s a whopping, unbelievable, incredible increase of 2416%.

The important thing, though, is that a major part of the revenue was from Mobicom Korea’s consulting division, which helps its clients develop mobile marketing campaigns. So, there you go. A company, whose revenue is driven primarily from its mobile marketing consulting division, has had an astounding increase in revenue – 2416%.

This brings me to a special request which I have for all the so-called experts who talk trash about mobile advertising all the time.

Dear old mobile advertising experts, the next time you decide to write something along the lines of ‘mobile advertising’s future looks bleak’, etc, etc, I humbly request you to read this news item. Once, twice, and then if you don’t understand, one more time. That, in my opinion, will do a lot of good for you.

Thanks.

Categories: Rant.

0 comments.

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