Marketing Manner

Many people think of mobile advertising as a subset of Internet advertising. But it’s actually more far-reaching than Internet advertising.

Mobile advertising is a form of advertising, but is somewhat separated from Internet advertising. Mobile advertising has its own set of rules that differ from Internet advertising. With Internet advertising, you have the whole computer screen to work with, which means you’ve got cool graphics that can tell your story. Many people have cell phones and BlackBerrys that can get the Internet, but mobile advertising doesn’t only target these people. Mobile advertising also reaches those cell phone users who don’t have the Internet on their phones. SMS (short message service) is a communication protocol that cell phones users use – it’s most often referred to as text messaging. Not all text messaging services use SMS, but SMS has become synonymous with text messaging so that’s generally what people are talking about when they say SMS.

Mobile advertising is growing at rapid rates in Asia, Europe and the United States, but is also slowly growing in other countries as the technology gets cheaper. Mobile advertising is growing because of the ability to catch people when they’re not at home in front of their TVs or computers.

According to Informa Telecoms & Media, a research firm, just under $900 million was spent worldwide on mobile advertising. Doesn’t sound too shabby until you compare it with spending on Internet advertising: $24 billion. Total worldwide ad dollars spent in 2007 topped out at $450 billion. That makes Internet advertising look small as well. They’re small now, but both mobile and Internet advertising are growing.

Currently, mobile ads mainly comprise text messages, but in the near future could most likely include video clips, mobile-only Web pages, music downloads and game downloads (Economist.com).

However, with the current economy in the slumps, The Financial Times has reported that mobile advertising will be affected for two years, after which marketing agencies will expect companies to increase their ad budgets. All forms of advertising will be affected be the economy, but Jean-Paul Edwards, executive director of futures at Manning Gottlieb OMD, which is part of Omnicom, a marketing agency, said “advertisers become more conservative in downturns, and retreat into what is most proven….The current economic climate will push things back a bit. If money is tight, mobile is not proven yet.”

Revenues from mobile advertising will still grow, just not at the rate that some would like. Google, Yahoo!, Nokia and Microsoft won’t be thrilled with the downturn, but they won’t be totally disappointed: Research firm Informa forecasts that revenues from mobile ads will rise to $12 billion by 2013. So far in 2008, only $1.2 billion has been spent on mobile ads.

As with any wave, mobile will have its rises and falls, so it’s best to get in when the wave is low so you can ride high with it when the tides turn in a few years.

The next big thing in mass media and what will most likely become the most dominant form of media is mobile media, or in other words: cell phones. This is not a “want” to include in your advertising plan; it’s a “need,” a “must-have.”

I get this view from Tomi Ahonen, author of Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media: Cell phone, Cameraphone, iPhone, smartphone. You can download a 30-page excerpt of the book from this site: http://mobilemarketingprofits.com/232/mobile-as-7th-of-the-mass-media-excerpt/. The book has a ton of stats, and here’s a brief and summarized rundown: “Twice as many cell phones as TV sets, three times as many cell phone subscribers as Internet users, four times as many cell phones as PC sets, five times as many cell phones as automobiles. 31 percent of all music dollars spent worldwide already goes to a wide array of cell phone based music services.” Also, 20 percent of video gaming software revenues go toward cell phone services. That’s a mouthful about cell phones if I’ve ever seen one.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know what the other 6 forms of mass media were, although I could gather TV and radio. The others are print, recordings, cinema and the Internet. Ahonen thinks that “all forms of content will ultimately converge around the cell phone.” The cell phone can do all of the things the previous 6 forms of mass media can do, and it does it within a form that is easy to take with you. And, no one leaves home without their cell phone anymore.

This means that if you aren’t doing any mobile marketing, and if you don’t have a mobile Web site, you need to get one and soon.

Some Numbers on Why You Should Get Into the Mobile Game Now

• Emarketer forecasts that worldwide mobile marketing and advertising will reach $19 billion by 2012.
• Gartner estimates the worldwide mobile advertising market will be worth more than $12 billion by 2011.
• The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) expects the U.S. market for ad funded mobile entertainment will grow to $336.35 million by 2013.
• ABI Research reckons the global mobile marketing industry was worth $1.8 billion in 2007 and is expected to grow to $24 billion by 2013.

How to Set Up a Mobile Campaign
There are plenty of Web sites to choose from to set up a mobile campaign. Google (of course), Decktrade and Mo’Jiva are the big three that are showcased in a white paper provided by Bango. It’s called “Mobile Advertising for Newbies” and is a 35-page intro and step-by-step guide to setting up your mobile campaign at the big three sites. The stats listed in this blog were provided by the white paper. You can download the white paper for free from www.bango.com/whitepaper. You have to give your name, phone number and email address, but this guide is very informative and probably the most detailed guide out there for starting in mobile advertising. I’d highly recommend it if you are new to mobile advertising.