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Mobile advertisers urged to reassess audience, use new technology

NEW YORK- Speakers at Mobile Marketing Day 2011 took the ?new wave? part of the ?Mobile 2.0: How a New Wave in Mobile is Driving Performance? panel to literal lengths, tying pop culture references into their discussion of how today?s mobile advertising and marketing is becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Panelist Steven Golus, vice president of sales/general manager of mobile at Dataxu, Boston, used lyrics from the Talking Heads and the Ramones to compare the evolution of mobile media buying, from mobile display to desktop display, to the evolution of music.

?Mobile is still complex,? Mr. Golus said. ?It?s still difficult to launch a campaign within a fragmented market, with tracking changes, lack of transparency, and lack of insights and poor optimization.?

Relevancy matters
Mr. Golus traced the progression of media buying from direct buys from publishers like Yahoo or AOL, to 2007?s rise of ad networks, to today?s increase in demand side platforms (DSPs). The simplicity that DSPs bring to the table allows for the focus to shift to the content of the advertisement?and the overwhelming notion here was the importance of relevancy. 

Panelist Scott Hendrickson, vice president of advertising sales at Where Inc., Boston, said that everything boils down to location, and that is where relevancy should be a focus. The point is to serve the right ad to the right user at the right time.

?Whenever you insert location into local banner ads, you?re seeing an increase of 40 to 50 percent,? Mr. Hendrickson said.

Mobile vs. apps
?Apps are growing very fast, but mobile Web is not something you should ignore or forget about,? said Ernie Cormier, president/CEO of Nexage, New York.

Mobile inventory is split between mobile Web and applications at a ratio of 3:1, and while both are growing, Mr. Cormier stressed that companies should look for vendors and technology that work across both platforms, and work with people that can address both mobile Web and apps.

?When you bundle the two of them, you end up with a much richer set of tools that you can use,? Mr. Cormier said.

Banner banter
Each panelist had a fair amount to say about the banners, mostly about the importance of exploring new technology to makes the ads more interactive and user-friendly.

Mihael Mikek, CEO of Celtra, Cambridge, MA, encouraged the use of HTML 5 and rich media by mobile advertisers.

?One thing that we still believe is that content is king,? Mr. Mikek said. ?If you want that, you need to be using HTML 5.?

The use of the new technology isn?t enough, however. Mobile advertisers need to focus on understanding users? behaviors within the ad, Mr. Mikek said, citing an example that compared banners within Marriott to those within Evian?s mobile site.

While both ads had similar click-through rates, Marriott?s optimized site lured a substantially higher number of users inside?45 percent compared to Evian?s 6 percent.

?If you want [users] to engage with the content, you have to understand how they?re using the banners,? Mr. Mikek said. ?What they?re clicking on, the time spent within the banner, and how we can improve.?

Final Take
Rheana Murray is staff reporter at Mobile Marketer, New York