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Behind the UK mobile ad numbers

The IAB and PwC just released the UK mobile advertising numbers for 2008. For a huge market like the UK, GBP 28.6m seems pathetically low. Yes, there is a 100% growth, which can certainly be celebrated in an otherwise dismal economy. However, the amount itself is really small.

The problem however, lies in what is measured. The report only deals with display and search. Although CTRs are higher on mobile than on the web, this is probably just a function of less ad fatigue on mobile. Pure logic says that the mobile screen size is hardly as suited for display ads as web. Furthermore, given the relatively small amount of mobile formated (and targeted) sites compared to total web sites, it is not surprising that search is not huge either.

What the numbers miss – and really where mobile comes into its own – is as an interactive, engaging device that should be a natural part of any digital campaign. I am sure if you include things such as text-to-win, mobile photo competitions, development of marketing wap sites, etc etc – it would reveal a much more significant number. A number that would actually get the attention of marketers and brands. 28.6m in a market the size of the UK will sadly not.

Posted in Mobile Marketing.

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Digital Hollywood: Video, Video, more Video — and Twitter Bashing

A well attended Digital Hollywood took place last week. I had the pleasure on speaking on a well moderated panel on cross platform advertising strategies.  The discussion was quite good, although the focus really tended to migrate towards online video and monetization of such.  This was pretty much the trend overall on a majority of the panels I attended. Hollywood is no doubt fixated on the explosive growth of online video and is seeking to capitalize.

However, very few talked specifically about monetization beyond display ads.  Companies like NeuroFocus gave a spectacular demonstration on how to create the optimal video ad – and other companies provided innovative solutions for displaying ads alongside the video content.  It struck me however how display focused everything still is. Granted, personalization and targeting will improve display effectiveness – no doubt – but the focus on marketing seems to be on the old mantra of buying reach to create engagement.  Very few talked about how to create engagement to generate reach. What was also quite apparent was the lack of attendance from agencies.

Between sessions, the favorite past time seemed to be Twitter bashing. Most had picked up the story about the flight of users from Twitter, and being Hollywood, hopping on the bandwagon of the moment, most seemed to dismiss Twitter as “noise”, a “waste of time” and (perhaps oddly enough considering what Hollywood often is about) an overly focused self promotion tool…

Posted in Other, Social Media Marketing.

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MySpace numbers proving the trend

MySpace recently reported a staggering growth of 450% in mobile page views.  More importantly, mobile traffic now accounts for 35% of all traffic on MySpace!  That is significant. While the article (above) attributes a lot of growth to smartphones, I would be surprised if WAP is not the dominant access form.  iPhones and Smartphones may lead the way in acknowledging the mobile device as an access point to the online world, but the majority of people (and presumably MySpace user base) have lower end phones which are still perfectly capable data devices.

The statistics also show that a lot of usage is really all about staying in touch, i.e. checking your account and messages. There is no surprise that adding new contacts is not a mobile activity – as it is really not much of a web activity either.  Research by Danah Boyd on Friendster has proven this, and I will shortly comment on a similar study proving this point.  What is a bit surprising – especially given the growth of picture messaging, is the lack of actually creating content on MySpace, given that at least 70% of the activity is devoted to just checking up on things.  The problem lies when you dig into the service (and this is not MySpace specific), where you will see it is quite hard to actually upload pictures in a simple way.  In fact, this is one of the unique propositions we have here at Storyz, to allow for what Tomy Ahonen’s vision is about mobile being the point of inspiration.

Posted in Mobile Entertainment, Other, The Business of Mobile.

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