If Mobile is the Future, Why Aren’t Advertisers Investing More In It?

Boston Innovation caught up with me earlier this week to find out about our FutureM panel with If Mobile is the Future, Why Aren’t Advertisers Investing More In It?
It was a busy week for at FutureM, and one of the highlights was our panel, “The Future of Mobile Rich Media and Location Targeting.” Celtra’s VP of Business Development Grant Stratemeyer presented at the panel, which also included executives from Mobext and The PayPal Media Network. Each speaker brought a unique perspective to the discussion, and I’ve outlined some of the bigger themes from the presentation below.

Boston Innovation caught up with me earlier this week to find out about our FutureM panel with  If Mobile is the Future, Why Aren’t Advertisers Investing More In It?

It was a busy week for Celtra at FutureM, and one of the highlights was our panel, “The Future of Mobile Rich Media and Location Targeting.” Celtra’s VP of Business Development Grant Stratemeyer presented at the panel, which also included executives from Mobext and The PayPal Media Network. Each speaker brought a unique perspective to the discussion, and I’ve outlined some of the bigger themes from the presentation below.

According to analytics firm Flurry, people spend 23 percent of their time on their mobile devices, second only to TV at 40 percent. Though the medium accounts for only six percent of people’s leisure time, print gets 29 percent of ad spend.

Interestingly, mobile receives about one percent of ad budget spend, compared to TV at 43 percent. Why the big gap? Mobile has grown so rapidly, advertising hasn’t caught up with it yet. Although agencies and brands are increasing their mobile ad spend, they remain in learning mode, looking for the best ways to leverage mobile and create more valuable ads.

How do we remove the complexity for advertisers looking to target mobile consumers?

Advertisers look to achieve scale with ads that work seamlessly across various mobile devices and platforms without spending weeks custom-building elaborate rich media ad units. Advertisers prefer a platform-based approach: one that transforms assets into high-impact mobile and tablet creatives in a matter of hours, and which can run across their entire media buy. As industry standards evolve, this approach will help increase mobile ad buys by streamlining ad formats, delivery and measurement.

Location-Based Targeting

Location-based targeting will accelerate market growth as more advertisers take advantage of the locative technologies in many smartphones. A consumer journey might consist of watching a video, browsing an image gallery or playing a game and then using a store locator to find a nearby location and make a purchase. If people are using mobile devices to shop and engage with content in unprecedented ways, how can advertisers incorporate location data into their campaigns?  “Geo-fenced” mobile ad campaigns are a good place to start, serving offers only within specified areas around certain stores or points of interest. Brands that want to take it a step further can use dynamically updated product inventory data, providing customers real-time information regarding in-store availability.

Mobile is the future

Mobile has come a long way. Just a year ago, mobile ad campaigns averaged 3-5 million impressions. This figure has more than tripled and ad campaigns now average 20-25 million impressions. Additionally, the amount of people involved with mobile media buying has expanded both on the ad network and publisher side of the business, providing more real estate in which advertisers can invest.

As consumers have increasingly turned to their favorite mobile devices for deeply engaging, rich experiences, advertisers have responded by creating rich media ads that are more meaningful and engaging. When designed well and targeted correctly, these rich ads drive significantly higher ad performance and create superior value ads for advertisers.