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Mobile is the real new media
FMCG brand Kit Kat® adopted a mobile display campaign to increase brand awareness and recognition. The IAB helped create the campaign and has since evaluated how effective it and the medium as a whole can be
For me, mobile has very little to do with online. Constant comparisons in terms of growth, creativity and case studies don’t do much to aid the adoption and understanding of this new medium. Over 18 million people now have 3G handsets which means that accessing new, refreshed content carrying out activities such as searching and updating social networking profiles is becoming more common. But the internet is simply the means by which consumers access this content or perform these tasks, and IP technology is behind the ads served, but this is where the similarities, for now, should stop. Mobile is a totally new medium for advertisers and agencies to understand, it’s a new space we’re working with and presents us with a different consumer mindset which must be appreciated and learned before we enter with our marketing messages.
People are always asking me when the ‘year of mobile’ will be. Has it happened? Will it happen next year? Should we be welcoming the ‘year of mobile’ with street parties and fanciful processions, perhaps arranging outstanding fireworks displays in Trafalgar Square to announce its coming? So frequently is this question thrown at me, I now find it necessary to begin each meeting with the words ‘there is not, and never will be a year of mobile, it’s growing all the time, rapidly. Now let’s move on to the good stuff…’
Having been in the world of mobile for some time, the IAB has discovered it’s much better to live for today, to evangelise about the current state of the station in terms of consumer behaviour and the sophistication of the technology, rather than make predictions about what a ‘mobile future’ will look like. As such, in the ‘now’, there are three main themes that we recommend advertisers and agencies get to grips with, to ensure they are equipped to add mobile onto the agenda:
- How media consumption is changing
- The results you can achieve with mobile marketing
- Levels of understanding across the industry – are advertisers ‘sold’ on mobile yet?
Mobile is changing media consumption
Adverts for smartphones paint a glorious picture of how our lives have been revolutionised by mobile media. Of course there’s an app for everything, which is fantastic for the 2% of people who currently own an iPhone. In reality the mobile consumer has much more basic needs, and it’s not the smartphone that has changed the face of media consumption, but the daily tasks we perform on our mobile phones to either complete a specific function or just to keep ourselves entertained on the bus.
For the past ten years the media industry has been trying to get to grips with the ways in which consumer behaviour is changing, and predictions about how this would pan out have been incredibly hard to make. A few years ago who would have thought we’d be watching content on anything other than our television screen, let alone viewing quality programming on our mobile phones?
In the past two years in particular mobile usage has seen some dramatic changes, for example over 7 million people now use social networks on their phone every month, a figure which has risen an astounding 102% in the last 12 months.
However, mobile adspend, whilst accelerating rapidly remains relatively low. In 2008 marketers spent £28.6 million on mobile advertising, a figure which grew by 99% throughout the year, but the budget allocations far from match the amount of consumers using the medium. This is where the marketing community needs to realise that audiences need to be followed (although not literally!) and if a brand is to keep up in the digital age, you need to be establishing a solid presence where consumers are spending their time. But more on budget allocations later.
Mobile gets results, if you know how to use it
One of the IAB’s biggest challenges when we first entered this arena was to wholeheartedly prove that mobile gets real results – this being the first important step in convincing brand owners that the medium is worthy of their (currently quite stretched) marketing pounds.
As a relatively new medium there is a significant lack of powerful case studies with in-depth results, testament to the fact that many of us are still testing the waters and learning what works along the way. As the trade body for digital advertising we’re often asked why we don’t use either online or mobile to reach our target audience and persuade them that this is where they should be advertising. Our answer to this is always the same, if we want UK advertisers to target consumers using these media, then why not provide them with free inventory and great creative to find out for themselves that it’s an effective choice?
In 2009 we did just that, creating a mobile display campaign for Kit Kat® accompanied with our own research to prove just how effective the medium can be, particularly in terms of increasing brand awareness and recognition.
This was the UK’s first publicly available mobile brand study to cover effectiveness across a range of mobile properties, and used a sample of 600 mobile internet users. Respondents were exposed to banner ads for the FMCG brand across four major mobile sites – Orange World, O2 Active, Planet 3 and Heatworld - which promoted “free downloads” or the chance to “win an ipod”. Respondents who clicked on the ads were then sent to the relevant page within the Kit Kat® mobile internet site where they could enter the competition or download free mobile games or wallpapers.
The results of the study were overwhelmingly positive, and enabled us to establish a set of five guidelines for the effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns, outlined below:
1. Use mobile to raise awareness.
The mobile ad campaign had a positive impact on raising awareness of the brand, with a 36% increase in spontaneous awareness levels of Kit Kat® and 267% increase in first mention - people spontaneously mentioning Kit Kat® before any other brands. Furthermore, 76% of those who had clicked on any Kit Kat® banner ads said they would be likely to buy the product.
2. Mobile advertising can be effective across all demographics, especially 18-34s.
The campaign resulted in uplifts across all age groups, and for both men and women. The results were most impressive though amongst 18-34s, for example spontaneous awareness increased by 50% compared to a 21% increase for 35-44 year olds.
3. Brands and mobile internet sites should put the user experience first.
The research found that the context of mobile advertising is extremely important. People that enjoyed the site they were surfing were 76% more likely to remember the ad. Heavy mobile internet users were also more receptive to the advertising, and were 80% more like to recall the advert.
4. Mobile display advertising needs a clear focus.
The mobile campaign improved perceptions of Kit Kat® across all statements asked, particularly “is a product perfect for a break” but the uplift amongst some of the other statements was minor. This means with just one banner creative, you are unlikely to change a vast array of brand metrics, therefore the creative needs to be focused and streamlined according to what you want to achieve.
5. Mobile is more effective when something of value is offered.
1 in 4 people who saw the Kit Kat® banner ad clicked through to the mobile site. Of those who clicked through, 43% had done so because of the competition to win a free iPod. 51% of respondents said they were more likely to interact with mobile advertising if something was offered to them. The results also highlighted the need for mobile creative to be eye-catching and engaging: 41% of respondents who clicked through were simply interested in the advertising.
This was the first of what we intend to be many mobile-specific research studies that objectively illustrate the impact of mobile marketing. In addition, we are currently undergoing another landmark study into the effectiveness of mobile advertising in partnership with online, because whilst mobile ads can have a great effect in isolation, as part of an integrated campaign, featuring creative bespoke to the medium will be far more powerful.
Levels of understanding amongst advertisers and agencies is increasing
With the mobile industry putting education at the very top of its agenda and driving growth more than ever this year, brands are adapting to the reality that mobile advertising is less of a choice, more a necessity if they want to reach today’s consumer. Whilst mobile’s market share remains relatively small at the moment, it’s extremely encouraging to see that agencies in the UK are adapting to the changing landscape hiring more specialists to plan mobile campaigns. This is paving the way for more sophisticated mobile campaigns and will fuel the future growth the medium is guaranteed to experience.
What enabled us to sufficiently appreciate the current levels of understanding amongst the marketing community was to hear straight from the horse’s mouth. Research conducted by the IAB in October 2009 found that 73% of marketers believe mobile will be the medium to see most growth over the next 5 years.
The survey, conducted amongst a panel of over 100 senior-level UK agency representatives, investigated the true extent of their knowledge and understanding of mobile advertising, as well as general attitudes towards the medium. The results showed that familiarity of many areas of mobile activity has grown significantly over the past 12 months. When we asked respondents to ‘score’ their knowledge and understanding of the mobile medium, we found that it had increased significantly over a 12-month period, with 42% of those surveyed rating themselves 6 out of 10 or above, rising from just 24% in 2008.
Awareness and understanding of areas such as MMS, voice and video shortcodes had grown, with just 20% of marketers having no experience in this area in 2009 compared to 66% in 2008. Knowledge of mobile search was also found to be on the rise, with the amount of marketers with no experience of the discipline declining from 57% to 29% over the last 12 months. Similarly familiarity of ads in and around mobile gaming increased from 62% having no experience in 2008, with only 35% had no experience in 2009.
The research also found that compared to 2008, the majority of employees now responsible for planning a mobile campaign within the agencies surveyed are mobile specialists, with the number of dedicated mobile experts increasing year-on-year. In 2008, around 37% of those responsible for planning mobile campaigns within agencies were dedicated specialists with this figure rising to just over half (52%) in 2009.
Agencies that took part in the survey were also asked what percentage of their digital spend is for mobile, and the results reveal that some 95% of respondents included mobile in their overall digital budget. Within this, 30% spent between 0 and 1%, 46% spent between 1 and 5%, 13% spent between 6 and 10% with a further 6% spending more than 11%.
Looking to the future, some 40% of agency respondents predicted they would be spending between 1 and 5% of their digital budgets on mobile in 2011. A further 29% believed they would be spending between 6 – 10% and 13% stated they would be spending between 11 and 20% and just 1% of agencies stated that they will not be allocating any budget to mobile in the next 2 years.
What does the future hold for mobile?
Our research and insights into the market over the past 12 months have proved, without question, that mobile advertising has a future, and this is what advertisers need to know. Of course it’s very tempting to get carried away with the shiny, sometimes novelty appeal of iPhone applications, and whilst these can play a significant role in reaching very specific audiences, it’s essential to master the basics first.
Does your brand, or your client have a mobile website? Has it been usability tested? Does your regular URL automatically redirect to a mobile-friendly version that complements the mobile surfing experience? Have you considered mobile commerce, vouchers or QR Codes to complement the customer journey? Do you in fact know how your target audience consumes mobile media, and what time of day they’re most likely to use it? These should be at the very top of your mobile checklist before you begin to start experimenting with the medium.
The IAB has spent 2009 collecting the facts necessary to take the mobile industry into a very healthy 2010: the consumers are there, mobile advertising works, spend is increasing and now brands and their agencies fully appreciate the need for specialism in this area. Was it our year of mobile? Nope, not one bit. But it was the first, second or even third of many years within which mobile will gradually make its mark upon the media industry, and find itself of the agenda of every UK marketer.
Author: Jon Mew, Head of mobile, Internet Advertising Bureau
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