We all agree that when something pops up on our mobile, it is difficult to ignore it. Whether it’s an annoying message or an operators’ promotional ad campaign, we just end up reading it. Mobile phone has become the most ubiquitous device that stays with us all the time, making it an ideal medium to reach consumer. We see so many ads appearing on TV channels and internet sites that they all seem to get lost in the clutter. If we compare all the mediums, it is found out that mobile advertising has a greater potential than internet advertising as the delivery medium is more immediate and personal.
The three major internet based providers – Microsoft, Google and Yahoo – consider the mobile advertising service as a lucrative investment that can possibly increase their revenue even more than the online advertising. Google and Yahoo have already started to include advertising in their mobile search and portal properties. Microsoft has recently announced that it is entering the mobile advertising space. It has started by placing banner ads on the MSN pages such as viewed on mobile screens. Microsoft has previously offered mobile display advertising in Belgium, France, Japan, Spain and the U.K, but now it has been implemented for United States users. Paramount Pictures and Jaguar Cars are among the first companies to advertise on MSN Mobile in the U.S. market. The technology for mobile advertisements comes from a recent acquisition by Microsoft of ScreenTonic.
It is very important for the players to deliver those ads which are truly relevant and unintrusive for the user. Digging deeper into the mobile ad market, Kelsey Group's U.S. Mobile Advertising Forecast predicts that the U.S. mobile ad market will grow from $33.2 million in 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 112 percent. Other analysts have predicted the mobile ad market will grow to anywhere from $1.5 billion to $2.9 billion in 2011.
Apart from this, the main goal in mobile ads is to go beyond exposure and click-throughs and exactly understand the mobile ad effectiveness. A Director in Global Innovation at Millward Brown stated, “Marketers need to measure thoughts as well as thumbs when it comes to mobile advertising. Looking just at click-throughs or site visits; provide no indication of what people feel about brands which are advertised in this relatively new medium.”
In the present state we can only say that by looking at the way with which mobile market is growing, it seems like mobile ad will become a big business down the road, making it a more lucrative business than online advertising.
