Across the board, analysts are projecting more than a 100% increase in mobile advertising revenue by 2015, with the total reaching $1 billion by that time. Such a big slice of pie is too much to ignore, and considered-purchase brands are perfectly poised to get a big bite of it.
As more and more people access the Internet via mobile devices, the opportunity for either great success or epic failure is on the horizon for considered-purchase brands. Inability to capitalize on the rapidly evolving realm of all that is mobile leaves your company behind, but it is also understandable to be leery of taking a risk on a new and relatively untested medium.
Considered-purchase brands have a unique situation in which they are able to gamble a little on something due to the longer decision-making time, higher cost (both opportunity and actual) and increased number of engagements. Essentially, the risk is lessened when the investment is longer-term and the items are (generally) bigger-ticket.
For example, Chevrolet advertising its new Camaro during a game of Words with Friends on someone’s iPhone is not going to compel that person to go out immediately and purchase a new Camaro. However, it does allow for relatively cheap impression (one that is often replicated multiple times during a single game, not to mention in the numerous other games the viewer is playing), with a return possible even years down the road.
You may ask yourself about the effectiveness of mobile advertising for non-retail situations or non-impulse buys; I did too originally. After thinking about it more though, it became strikingly evident that refusing to act in the mobile environment out of fear that it will not be as “measurable” or as “immediately pertinent” is something that you cannot afford to do. People are spending more and more of their time on their mobile devices, and by 2014 mobile Internet usage will surpass “traditional” desktop usage. There are 1.2 billion mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide (about 1/6 of the planet’s population) and this number is only figured to increase.
It is not only a good business decision to capitalize on this by advertising in the mobile realm, it is a virtual necessity. Soon enough, the cost of advertising on mobile devices will increase as the market corrects itself, and people’s attention is sure to fade. So this blogger’s advice is to buy early and often.
So what do you think? Are you using mobile already? I’d love to hear your stories and share them in this discussion!
Special thanks to the folks at MobiThinking, GigaOM and Mediapost for helping to inform this article.