The 411 of Global Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising is definitely here to stay. In fact, across all advertising media, it’s quickly emerging as the global dominator, second only to online video. How does mobile advertising work and which foreign markets offer the most promise for your mobile campaign? Here’s the 411:

Quick Facts

The figures will make your head spin:

• Mobile advertising is projected to grow steadily at a rate of 19.4% between now and 2016. Advertising growth in general will average a mere 6.3% each year in comparison.*
• U.S. mobile advertising is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2015 from $800 million in 2010.**
• Global mobile advertising is projected to rise from $2.7 billion in 2011 to $6.6 billion in 2016.*
• There are nearly five billion mobile phone users currently in the world.***
• The average mobile user has a device with them 16 hours per day and 95% of text messages are read within three minutes of being sent.**

Marketing Advantages

Why are advertisers across the globe adding money to their mobile advertising budgets? For starters, there’s the persuasiveness of the sheer number of global users and the quantity of hours that they spend daily on their devices. In addition to these factors, mobile advertising offers a few advantages over traditional media and even the high-voltage entertainment of television ads: technology-enabled segmentation and opt-in messaging.

• Technology now allows for the fragmentation of general audiences into small, niche groups. User profiles are matched up with appropriate mobile content so that messages can be sent to very specific target audiences. Geo-localization enables advertisers to capitalize on "buy local" trends and reach individuals who would find their content relevant. Strategic segmentation requires smaller increments of advertising units and promises a better Return on Investment (ROI).
• Opt-in messaging is on the rise as financial incentives are given to subscribers who are willing to receive advertising content in exchange for an attractive phone plan.

Types of Ads

As new features are developed for smartphones, this list will grow longer but here are a few formats currently available to advertisers:

• Mobile web banner (top of your screen)
• Mobile web poster (bottom of your screen)
• Text message advertising and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) advertising (often opt-in)
• Ads within mobile games and videos
• Mobile TV streaming ads
• Full-screen ads while content is loading (common in mobile newspaper apps)
• Audio advertisements  

Target Markets Outside of and Within the U.S.

The world’s dominant advertising economies include the fastest rising large markets:  BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and the current champions of the U.S., Japan, Germany, the UK and France.  Aside from these top performers, the fastest growing markets for global advertising are Argentina, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.*

Obviously, mobile advertising abroad means translating your ad campaigns into new languages, but don't forget about the growing number of mobile phone users who speak a foreign language within the U.S.: most notably the Spanish-speaking market, as well as the Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Russian, and Vietnamese markets.

*via MobileSquared
** via MagnaGlobal (free account required to access reports)
***via CBS News

Photo attribution: QUOI Media

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