That mobile phone in your pocket might seem as if it's your own personal communications device, but it is fast emerging as a platform for advertisers to reach you on, wherever you may be … Unlike the TV or the PC, your mobile is always switched on and you always have it on you; it is possibly the most interactive of all your gadgets; and 95% of the population has one.
"Mobile has the potential to be the most exciting advertising medium ever," says Geraldine Wilson, vice-president of Connected Life at Yahoo! Europe, which handles the display ads on mobile portals for Vodafone, T-Mobile and 3.
She points out that it's often much easierto access the internet from your mobile phone than from a PC, especially when you're on the move. Some 25% of UK consumers are now using mobile data, according to mobile measurement firm M:Metrics. "As an interactive medium, mobile is out on its own," says Wilson, "and there is such a rich variety of ad formats to leverage that power: video messages, banners, paid search, mobile games …" .
Other new mobile marketing techniques include viral strategies like Carling's recent iPint, which converts your iPhone into an interactive pint of virtual lager, as well as digital discount coupons that you receive in-store over Bluetooth.
Experimental stage
Consumer response to mobile ads seems to be higher than those on many other platforms. "We ran a campaign for Renault Twingo that included a mobile competition," says Richard Saggers, head of mobile advertising at Vodafone. "It had a 40% response rate. The automotive companies are early adopters but other sectors like entertainment, travel and fast-moving consumer goods [such as electronic devices] are also exploring this space."
But if mobile is such a good advertising platform, how come it accounts for less than 1%of all ad spend? Wilson cedes that spending on mobile ads is atan "experimental stage", adding that one of her biggest challenges is building awareness of the medium among brands and agencies.
In a recent survey conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau, advertisers in particular expressed concerns about mobile ads invading consumer privacy, but Saggers sidesteps these issues.
"Our surveys have found that consumers don't mind mobile ads as long as they don't slow down service, offer some benefit such as free content, are relevant or offer some level of interactivity," he says.
Bespoke advertising might be key in this respect: mobile allows brands to target consumers by what Saggers describes as "aggregated, anonymised age and gender demographics" as well as postcode. In short, if you want to reach men under 34 living near Old Trafford, you can.
Next will come cell ID technology, which will pinpoint where your handset is in the mobile network and allow ads to be served specific to where you are, not just where you live. "We're not doing that yet, but it's next on the road map," says Wilson. search results. "Web search is already morphing into advertising, with the growth of sponsored search results," says Alexander Ross, partner at media law firm Wiggin.
Sponsored mobile search results are a part of the inventory that Yahoo! sells, but getting people to search via their mobiles more is key for Wilson. "People don't realise how useful mobile search is," she says, adding that new web-friendly handsets like the Apple iPhone has "fantastically demonstrated how good the web can look on your mobile".
It's done even more than that, according to Mark Rock, chief executive of interactive entertainment firm Best Before Media: "Before the iPhone, mobile operators were very restrictive about what advertisers could do on their network." But by allowing open access to the web, "the iPhone has led to a fundamental shift in the mobile market".
By opening up the web to mobiles, won't the iPhone reduce the importance of the operators' portals and thus the ads therein? Yahoo! UK's head of mobile sales Matt White says not: "The iPhone is a neat bit of kit but accounts for a tiny slice of the handset market; it hasn't impacted on my business of selling space on mobile portals."
Creating dialogue
If Apple's handset caused a "fundamental shift", what about the UK's latest mobile operator, Blyk, which offers 16- to 24-yearolds free airtime and texts if they agree to accept targeted mobile advertising? Debuting a year ago, Blyk reached 100,000 subscribers in April and now plans to launch in Holland. "By targeting our messages to our members' profiles, we create a dialogue and engage consumers with what we know they're already interested in," says chief executive Shaun Gregory.
With brands from Boots to NatWest and Brylcreem now dipping their toes into the mobile advertising water, maybe the mobile will eventually evolve into Wilson's "most exciting advertising medium ever". After all, "old media" once laughed at online advertising and now, according to ZenithOptimedia, it's worth 17% of the total UK advertising spend and is due to overtake next year.
Weblink
Yahoo mobile: mobile.yahoo.com
Vodafone online: online.vodafone.co.uk
Best Before Media: bestbefore.tv
