Web-linked portable media players to grow mobile marketing: Study

By Mickey Alam Khan

March 25, 2008

Julie Ask, vice president of JupiterResearch

A new study claims that the launch of portable media players with Internet browsing functions will grow the reach of mobile marketing.

Such media players with dramatically improved user interfaces and the capability to fully render HTML Web sites will also drive consumer demand for online access on portable devices, according to JupiterResearch.

“If there’s a big enough screen and there’s a full browser and if there’s a fast connection to the device, people are going to use the mobile Web even more,” said Julie Ask, San Francisco-based vice president of JupiterResearch.

The majority of page views and ad impressions on mobile phones and portable media players are on a small screen with a mini-browser, JupiterResearch said. But impressions and clickthrough rates per device are higher for devices with full browsers.

Adoption of online browsing on mobile phones will grow from 16 percent at the end of 2007 to 19 percent by this year’s end.

The market researcher expects advertisers will spend $2.2 billion by 2012 on mobile messaging, display advertisements and search through mobile technology.

Ms. Ask said that mobility adds a time and space dimension to media and advertising that will help push CPMs. Her research shows that ads with location tags are selling five- to tenfold premiums over basic ads.

Add to that the use of demographic and behavioral data combined with devices that support rich media and this makes fertile ground for mobile marketing.

Wireless carriers should launch affordable portable media players and introduce business models that defend their place in the value chain by adding data layers to user profiles, JupiterResearch said.

The response to Apple Inc.’s recent decision to open its iPhone mobile phone to third-party applications – more than 100,000 software developer’s kits have been downloaded – proves that there’s a demand for a viable mobile marketing platform.

“One of the things [mobile marketers] will have to do is programming for these other devices,” Ms. Ask said.

The findings were published in a new report titled, “Mobile Internet: Adding Portable Media Players to the Mix to Drive up Audience Size and Revenue.”

Mobile ad network AdMob, San Francisco, helped JupiterResearch complete the report.

While the report was positive on mobile marketing, its author did acknowledge some challenges.

“Finding an audience,” Ms. Ask said. “There’s not enough of an audience. And there’s too many limitations on the available inventory formats today on cell phones.”