Mobile no longer off-limits to advertisers, says NeuStar exec
April 16, 2008
Now imagine the space filled
SAN FRANCISCO – The Mobile Marketing Pavilion at ad:tech San Francisco was a big hit, with the dozen or so exhibitors attracting a lot of traffic.
The pavilion also had a section for a mobile marketing panel titled, “Implementing Mobile Into Your Next Campaign,” presented and sponsored by NueStar.
“If you take a look at the evolution of computing, we have moved from large mainframes in the '60s to mobile now,” said Matthew Valleskey, senior marketing manager at NeuStar. “Computers are getting smaller and more connected and more personal.”
The mobile phone is personal, portable, ubiquitous and tractable, he said. It’s a personal experience, since people use their phones not only to communicate but also carry with them at all times. Not surprisingly, brands are realizing that they can get people on their phones.
Mobile marketing as a discipline is growing. CSCS is seeing a 43.2 percent conversion rate and mobile WAP 21.1 percent. Mobile search sees a 6.7 percent conversion and in-video mobile ads 3 percent.
The mobile messaging advertising market is expected to grow to $12 billion by 2011, according to interactive marketing research publisher eMarketer.
“Mobile is no longer off-limits in the minds of advertisers,” Mr. Valleskey said. “There is a mobile marketing ecosystem that consists of carriers, aggregators, mobile application developers, publishers and users.”
Mobile opt-in campaigns are good because they let a brand compile a database of users that are interested in receiving information on the brand.
SMS currently leads the mobile channel. A whopping 75 percent of wireless users engage in text. All phones are text-capable. There are twice as many SMS users as there are email users.
Eight billion text messages are sent every month and this number has grown 300 percent over the last two years.
“It’s important to keep the content in your mobile campaign relevant and brief,” Mr. Valleskey said.
For its part, mobile search provides users with a means to explore the mobile Web and find mobile mobile content.
Also, streaming media such as mobile television and video, is expected to reach $12.7 billion in 2011. Last year there were more than 7 million U.S. mobile subscribers who paid for either mobile TV or video content and services.
Downloadable content is doing well, too. Mr. Vallesky said 20 million U.S. mobile subscribers bought a ringtone in January 2007.