Mobile Marked by Promise, Problems

OCTOBER 25, 2007

Majority of users still deleting ads.

Average mobile marketing campaign prices have increased tenfold since 2005, according to mobile ad software vendor Third Screen Media, as cited in an Advertising Age article. Third Screen also said that the average age of mobile Web users was over 30.

The audience for mobile Web-based campaigns is growing, and more marketers are experimenting with the medium. But many brand managers are hesitant to commit big budgets. "Brand marketers will start spending heavily on [mobile] when the users are there either in sheer mass or enough of the target audience has moved into the channel," said John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer.

Mobile marketing spending has been on the cusp of a major breakthrough for years. In April 2007, US marketing executives listed mobile as one of the top five media on which they planned to increase spending in 2007.

But roadblocks persist.

A Nielsen study cited in Advertising Age found that only 10% of mobile data users responded to ads on their mobile phones. Another 11% viewed the ads but did not respond, and nearly eight in 10 did not view the ads at all.

More than one-half (53%) of those who ignored the ads said they were not interested in what was being advertised.

More than two-thirds of mobile data users thought that mobile ads were unacceptable. However, nearly 45% of mobile video viewers were willing to watch ads in exchange for an unspecified benefit.

Targeting the right mobile users with the right messages remains a challenge.