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62pc of consumer time involving online retail is on mobile: report


Vungle?s assertions come encased in its Mobile Advertising Benchmark Report, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, focuses on in-app video as an avenue to consumers? undivided attention (Vungle is an in-app video advertising platform). The report contains a plethora of findings on digital consumption, and could serve as an asset to marketers with ample resources at their disposal, but a less than clear outlook on how to use them.

"We see a gap here for a couple of reasons," said Catherine Mylinh, vice president of marketing at Vungle. "One, many companies are still behind when it comes to a mobile-first advertising approach, and as a result, advertisers are spending money on mobile, but they aren?t really able to effectively measure how their ads are doing. 

"Companies that have taken a mobile-first approach ? Uber, Instacart and MZ (formerly known as Machine Zone) for example ? have designed ads that are optimized for mobile devices and see a higher conversion rate on their ads," she said. "More traditional advertisers, however, might take a video, developed, say, for YouTube, pare it down and use it as a mobile ad. 

"The problem here is that the pared down ad is not optimized for the mobile device with regard to user context and experience, and as a result, the consumer does not respond."

Mobile Advertising Benchmark Report
The report claims that in the U.S., combined digital advertising spend is set to surpass that of traditional TV advertising in 2017. However, mobile advertising budgets will not catch up to TV ad spend until 2020.

And, considering consumers are now tending to spend most of their time on digital channels (desktop, mobile) as television viewing is sharply declining, it is especially surprising to see Vungle?s findings that mobile video advertising takes up a small fraction of total digital ad spend, with projections hovering around ten percent for the next five years. 

Vungle claims in-app video advertising in an untapped gold mine

Vungle asserts that slow growth in mobile video marketing represents an opportunity for the enterprising brand marketer to ?reach consumers in the apps they use the most.?

According to the report, 53 percent of consumers either often or sometimes watch video on their mobile devices while watching TV, and, as such, TV has become a multiscreen experience shared between TV and other devices, but mobile video ?remains a dedicated one.?

This logic, compounded with Vungle?s finding that 98 percent of 18-34 year olds use their mobile devices to watch video, makes mobile especially fertile (and relatively untapped) ground for video advertising success. 

While overall ad spend shows the shift mobile marketing is already happening, much of that budget is not going toward in-app video ads ? which Vungle claims is the most cost effective platform to reach ?key high-value demographics,? namely, millennials and Gen Z. 

Ad platforms
The report also contains a section on rewarded video ads ? ads let users opt-in to watch an ad in exchange for a reward, such as a power-up after losing in a game, a next-order discount following a purchase, or anything else specific to an app. These ads garner significant engagement rates, but marketers must be adroit in deploying them.

Major social platforms are catching on

Vungle?s report comes in the midst of turmoil within digital ad circles due to the ubiquity of ad-blocking software. While mobile ad-blocking may be customer-friendly option for mobile phone providers, embracing it could lead to fallout from advertisers and publishers that make the potential benefits unclear (see story). 

Twitter finds itself in a similar ad dilemma: Despite the platform?s introduction of new features to protect users from abuse and harassment, some argue that these features do not go far enough, and others argue that they could have a negative effect on ad revenue (see story). 

"When we put this report together, we looked at both our own data and external reports to understand typical consumer behavior," Ms. Mylinh said. "From our research, it?s safe to assume that people often watch TV while using a mobile device. 

"It can be tempting to assume that this also means that consumer attention is always divided regardless of the platform being used, but it?s not quite a two-way street."