M O B I L E
A D V E R T I S I N G
EXPERT OPINION:
Personalisation essential to unlocking mobile advertising profits According to a recent Amdocs Interactive Study and Report The heightened interest in more relevant advertising and the raft of recent consumer surveys — revealing people would appreciate (and hence be willing to accept) mobile advertising aligned with their preferences – combine to underline the pivotal importance of personalisation. The excitement in mobile may be relatively new, but players in the online space are well aware of the business benefits personalisation delivers. In the online space personalised recommendations (similar to the Amazon model) – once a source of competitive advantage – are in fact becoming table stakes. The real edge is in strategies that personalise the whole experience, from advertising to purchase.
The contributing authors are Matt Anderson, Head of Product Marketing, Amdocs Interactive (top) and Peggy Anne Salz, Chief Analyst, MSearchGroove
The opportunity Advertisers increasingly view mobile as a viable channel. It gives them access to more eyeballs – there are over 5 billion mobile subscriptions globally as of Q3 2010. It offers an opportunity for advertisers to engage with consumers more frequently and intimately, as handsets are a highly personal medium that consumers carry with them wherever they go. The ability to harness subscriber intelligence and locate consumers’ whereabouts also offers a potential goldmine for targeted advertising. On the flip side, mobile advertising platforms are still relatively immature and lack the metrics that advertisers have come to expect from the online world. Furthermore, it’s uncertain how consumers will accept advertising within this highly personalised medium, and consumer privacy laws will require subscriber opt-in for accessing subscriber intelligence and location for targeting. So, what is mobile advertising and what does it mean to operators from our perspective?
18 26
VANILLAPLUS DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011
Mobile offers a number of channels for advertisers – messaging, on/off-portal banners, sponsored search, video, in-game and apps and idle screen. Messaging is by far the largest channel today, capturing over 80% of revenues. The primary business models are similar to the web. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) are in the low single digits for advertising networks to as much as US$20 to $40 for operators and branded publishers – on average CPM is sub $20. Cost per click (CPC) ranges from $0.10 to $0.50 in the US. So how big is the market potential? According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, global wired and mobile advertising spend is forecast to grow from approximately $59 billion in 2009 to $87 billion in 2013. Gartner forecasts global mobile advertising revenues to grow from $532 million in 2009 to $13.5 billion in 2013 – that could mean that mobile would account for approximately 16% of total internet ad spend in 2013. Growth will be driven initially by ads on mobile websites, but search and map services and downloadable applications will also become strong contributors. And the proliferation of smartphones and affordable data plans are key
▲
Mobile advertising is a channel through which marketers can advertise via mobile operators’ portals and messaging networks, and off-portal
sites. It offers mobile operators an opportunity to generate new revenue streams from two primary ways. First, it allows them to capitalise on the growing mobile advertising market by selling ad inventory on their portals and delivering ads via their messaging networks. Second, it enables them to sell more premium content and apps on their storefronts and capitalise on off-portal commerce by enabling personalised ads, recommendations and searches.