Some mobile sites or applications now have larger audiences than popular TV shows. Paul Childs, Chief Marketing Officer at Adfonic, considers the current state of mobile
Mobile advertising delivers response rates that can now start to challenge other media channels for budgets. But what if mobile advertising could deliver on the softer metrics like emotion, perception, awareness and recall in addition to the usual hard metrics – leading to greater interaction, improved click-through rates and a more immersive consumer experience?
These are the questions we believe will be addressed by mass market rich media campaigns running on mobile. The term ‘rich media’ is quickly entering the mobile advertising lexicon and is certainly attracting a lot of hype. Although potentially quite broad in definition, it generally refers to ads that are based on the benefits of HTML5 technology and offer consumers the opportunity to interact with the branded ad content itself. Essentially, a rich media ad can replicate the power of a TV ad on the device screen, delivering the TV experience combined with the touchscreen interactivity that is unique to mobile.
It’s all about numbers
There are a number of factors that have come together to drive the potential of rich media as an advertising format. The first is mass penetration of smartphone devices. There were approximately 252 million iOS devices and 243 million Android devices globally as of the end of 2011. That’s a reach of almost half a billion people. In the UK, for example, there are approximately 15 million Android and iOS smartphone devices: a quarter of the UK population is already rich media enabled. The second is standards. ORMMA (Open Rich Media Mobile Advertising) an industry wide open initiative for advertisers, has been standardised by the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence to create MRAID (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definition) which defines a common API for mobile rich media ads that will run in mobile apps and web sites. This effectively provides the industry standard required for rich media to move mainstream.
From a creative perspective, rich media gives advertisers complete design flexibility to deliver brand messages and experiences. Expandable banners are the most common rich media ad unit, whereby consumers tap on a banner and get presented with countless options and experiences such as interactive mobile pages, videos or a combination of the two.
Concept, design and creativity
Advertisers looking for compelling reasons to start developing rich media campaigns need only think about some of the innovative campaigns brands are deploying across multiple countries. Take for example an automotive brand that’s delivering engaging experiences and awareness around a new product launch, giving consumers the option to view cars in different colours or from various angles. Or the clothing retailer giving potential customers the ability to choose items from its product range in different colours, and the ability to zoom in to check the detail and mix and match with accessories. These experiences go beyond what print and TV can offer brands today and extend the softer, more emotive aspects of advertising.
Generally speaking, agencies and brands do not yet have the in-house concept and design skills required to create rich media experiences. Ad networks like Adfonic have developed global creative services teams to rapidly drive rich media campaigns from brief, concept and storyboard to deployment.
From a technology and media distribution perspective the mobile advertising industry has moved on to the next level, driven by demand from advertisers for scale.Up until recently, rich media campaigns were limited to a small number of premium mobile advertising networks consisting of tens of mobile sites and applications. Now, rich media can be scaled to billions of impressions on thousands of publisher destinations.
That’s not to say that rich media on mobile is easy. Unlike the PC-based web, where baseline browser support for most interactive features can be assumed, it’s important to ensure that mobile rich media campaign ad tags are served only on sites and applications that support all the features required to view and interact with the creative. Mobile ad networks are responsible for certifying publishers (often across several different platforms and placements in each case) as being compatible with the various types of ad tags; there is no one-size-fits-all approach to trafficking a rich media campaign and mobile ad networks play a necessary role as an intermediary. For example, at Adfonic, we’ve developed technology that helps bridge the gap by automatically adapting tags from rich media vendors like Celtra, Phluant and Crisp to publishers that use MRAID, ORMMA and proprietary standards, thereby removing complexity.
Mass market mobile rich media is sold on an audience basis, with CPM pricing. Pricing will vary with targeting, especially on the basis of the specific devices targeted (the iPad, for example commands a premium), territory or region selected, and desired demographics. Cost-wise, while rich media demands a premium over legacy mobile formats, it still compares incredibly favourably for traditional reach and frequency metrics versus buying, for instance, a full page magazine ad or prime time television slot.
The full impact rich media will have on the mobile advertising industry will be determined during 2012 as it gains traction worldwide. The few rich media studies that have been carried out suggest that it could be a game-changer in termsof consumer response to advertising. Early pieces of research into rich media effectiveness have shown that rich media ad units can drive increases of over 450 per cent in click-through rates compared to static banners.
Paul Childs, Adfonic