Mobile advertising performing well
The start of ’09 has seen an increase in mobile advertising from 51%, when we first started tracking this data in the UK, to 55% in January ’09. We saw a minor decrease in Q4 ’08, which may have been related to a slight pause by advertisers, prior to Christmas advertising.
All channels have seen an increase in awareness since Q4 ’08, with the biggest increases in SMS based advertising, Web advertising and advertising heard whilst listening to the radio.
Colin Strong, head of Mobile Communications research at GfK Technology comments "SMS is often ignored when analysts look at this area but it continues to be the most significant mobile advertising channel. Mobile devices provide advertisers with a rich variety of channels for advertising, not least mobile web, which is showing a strong growth”
Mobile devices are used to advertise a wide range of products and services and, although network operators continue to be the best recalled of the various advertisers, music related advertising and, specifically, music downloads are recalled on a relatively frequent basis.
Otherwise, the areas in which advertising is reported as seen tends to be somewhat ‘downmarket’, with financial services (read ‘debt consolidation’), ‘adult’, gambling and dating all making an appearance.
Colin Strong comments, "There is strong continued growth in this category, with advertisers waking up to the potential of the mobile phone for very targeted marketing. The nature of the advertising recalled indicates that this is still early days, but more and more blue chips brands are experimenting in this area.”
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