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Mobile has better targeting than early Internet: digiday keynote

NEW YORK - Mobile marketing has more momentum and better targeting than the early days of the Internet, according to a member of the digiday: Mobile keynote panel.

The panel focused on the state of mobile marketing and featured analysts with data on mobile marketing usage. Panelists discussed response rates, campaign sizes, appropriate approaches to campaign measurement, top spenders now and in the future, SMS versus WAP banners, in-application advertising and emerging ad formats.

?Certainly novelty has some impact on the high response rates achieved by mobile advertising, but compared to early days of online, mobile has much more momentum and there?s better targeting on mobile,? said Ali Rana, vice president of digital strategy at Dynamic Logic, New York.

?The messaging is very simple within mobile ads, and the focus is on awareness, communication and persuasion metrics,? he said. ?Mobile adverting performs very similarly to online and TV in that context, because there?s not a lot of clutter on mobile?most mobile ads are single-frame ads.

?Targeting and simplicity are two keys areas where mobile has the advantage.?

Advertisers can run campaigns with more interactive creative on advanced mobile devices such as the iPhone, which also provides marketers with the ability to connect to consumers anytime, anyplace, Mr. Rana said.

As an example he cited Visa?s campaign featuring interactive interstitial ads within the New York Times iPhone application (see story).

While there is a lot of hype around applications right now, even more important to marketers is the development of the browser, according to Mr. Rana.

?As the browser becomes better, you?ll see tremendous increases in what you?re able to do,? Mr. Rana said.

Whether across the mobile Web or within text messages or applications, mobile advertising provides significant lift to brand engagement, according to Nielsen.

?Brands should be focusing on providing utility and enrichment using the mobile channel,? said Julia Resnick, vice president of mobile media at Nielsen, New York. ?People are able to engage in rich media in a relevant way because of the targeting available to mobile advertisers.

?It?s an anytime, anywhere exchange of information on mobile,? she said.

Mobile is a composite of other types of media, so it is ideal for weaving together the various channels into a single coherent marketing strategy.

While applications are trendy and the mobile Web has the most potential down the road, right now SMS has the most reach?and text ads are getting results for brands.

?The workhorse is SMS for foreseeable future due to its reach, but brands need to take into consideration the mobile Web, apps, games and video?all of these different channels,? Ms. Resnick said. ?Figuring out the right strategy, the right approach to an ad campaign, should be based on a brand?s target audience.

?Different media vehicles make sense depending on who you?re trying to target,? she said. ?Most mobile ads are currently WAP-based or text-based.

?The number of apps is growing wildly but ads getting served in apps are still emerging.?

Ms. Resnick believes that specific targeting by device probably will diminish over time, and that behavioral and location-based targeting will increase.

In mobile, as with any marketing channel, it is important to know the target audience well.

?You have to ask who are you trying to reach and what are you trying to reach them for,? said Evan Neufeld, vice president and senior analyst of mobile at comScore, Chicago.

?There are different demographic profiles for each device, so brands should ask, ?Is an app relevant to what I?m doing and a fit for my target audience??? he said.

Since iPhone applications do not have widest reach?despite the high level of buzz?brands may be better served focusing on the mobile Web or SMS.

?Brands follow eyeballs?look where your audience is, target your marketing program those channels and build accordingly,? Mr. Neufeld said.

While the ridiculous click-through rates achieved when mobile advertising was in its infancy may be a thing of the past, mobile will probably not see the dramatic drop-off that ads across the PC Internet have seen.

?We were seeing click-through rates of 25 percent in 1996, and that was obviously not sustainable, but there?s compelling evidence that we?ll continue to see better metrics on mobile than online,? Mr. Neufeld said.

?It won?t be the 25 percent to .002 percent drop that you see in the online space?the degradation factor will be less pronounced on mobile,? he said. ?The mobile experience is much more about opting-in to receive specific messages in specific contexts versus the floodgate vision a la Minority Report.

?Marketers have to keep in mind what is advisable and legal to do and follow the process where people are going to have to opt-in to receive super-targeted offers.?

In many cases applications are essentially ads, according to Mr. Neufeld.

However, other panelists stressed the need to think beyond just the iPhone.

?There?s obviously been a lot of hype surrounding the iPhone, and it drives high consumption, which is positive, but marketers need to think whether or not that is their target audience,? said Lynn Tornabene, New York-based chief marketing officer of Quattro Wireless. ?Today there are a lot of good audiences to target on other carriers and other devices.

?Obviously iPhone users are highly responsive, but be sure to think about platforms other than the iPhone,? she said. ?Also, consider whether it would be more effective integrating your marketing message into a platform that already exists out there.

?Take advantage of the distribution of existing apps before you create your own.?