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Fourth quarter will be watershed moment for mobile advertising: Greystripe

Mobile ad network Greystripe is forecasting bookings that will put the upcoming fourth quarter at a 600 percent increase in mobile advertising spend from the fourth-quarter 2009 as brands demonstrate unprecedented demand.

In particular, retail, automotive and consumer packaged goods brands are leading the charge, with iPhone and Android generating the most demand. Greystripe expects a majority of Fortune 100 consumer brands to run mobile advertising campaigns this holiday season.

Mobile Marketer?s Dan Butcher interviewed Dane Holewinski, director of marketing at Greystripe, San Francisco. Here is what he had to say:

What will make this holiday season different from past holiday seasons?
This year, we are seeing a huge increase in the number of big brands running mobile campaigns, and an increase in the average spend per campaign.

Last year, mobile was largely seen as optional and experimental. This year, mobile is a primary component of holiday campaigns.

Early-adopters have proven that mobile is an excellent medium for driving brand awareness and increasing return on investment.

Two recent campaigns for Buick and Corona on the Greystripe network resulted in a 35 percent and 49 percent increase in purchase intent, respectively. Such impressive results are hard to ignore, especially during the holiday season.

What is driving interest in (and spend on) mobile advertising among Fortune 100 brands?
Results, results, results. Mobile campaigns with Greystripe have proven time and again to outperform other forms of advertising in delivering an increase in metrics that brand care about.

Mobile campaigns reach consumers always and everywhere. Especially during the holiday season, brands understand the power of mobile to impact sales both online and in their bricks-and-mortar outlets.

As a competitor to Apple devices, what impact has Android had on the mobile advertising ecosystem?
Brands care about audience and engagement, not platform. Android?s growth to significant scale has made it a critical piece of the mobile marketing mix.

This has translated into a huge growth in the number of brands that are buying cross-platform campaigns that include Android and increasingly rich-media mobile Web.

As a point of comparison, last holiday season nearly 100 percent of Greystripe campaigns where focused on iPhone applications.

This quarter, 75 percent of its brand advertisers are buying across at least two platforms, with iPhone and Android being the most popular.

This roughly doubles the cross-platform interest from our advertiser base just three months ago.

What are some best practices for integrating mobile advertising into a brand?s overall holiday marketing strategy?
No. 1: Brands and agencies should begin with a deep understanding of their target audience and understand the role that mobile plays and could play in building a relationship and influencing the buying behavior during the holiday season.

No. 2: Mobile should be evaluated as part of the overall brand holiday marketing strategy.

For many brands, this will mean creating a custom mobile campaign that takes advantage of the unique capabilities of mobile like touch interactivity and location.

For others, it may mean expanding a consistent message and creative across all digital channels.

Both of these can be done efficiently across platform with Greystripe by utilizing our Lightning Technology, which delivers rich-media Flash ads to iPhone, iPad and all Android devices both in-application and in the mobile Web. We also gladly support HTML5.

No. 3: For a mobile campaign, focus on audience not platform. Mobile engagement with a brand?s audience is possible across a number of platforms. Limiting campaigns to a single platform reduces reach unnecessarily.

No. 4: Be clear what the results of the campaign are and plan the mobile marketing mix and creative accordingly.

If the goal is to increase brand awareness so that a brand is top-of-mind during holiday shopping, the campaign will look different than if the goal is to drive collection of email addresses or drive direct sales on a mobile device.

No. 5: Invest in creative to maximize results and ROI.  Greystripe has found that its large rich-media ads outperform standard banners by 136 percent.

Further, two recent Immersion campaigns, Greystripe?s most engaging ad format, for Buick and Corona on the Greystripe network resulted in a 35 percent and 49 percent increase in purchase intent, respectively.

Final Take
Kevin Granath, New York-based vice president of ad sales at Greystripe

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