Industry analysis: Mobile specific advertising

Abstract

Mobile advertising industry is rapidly growing and has become a major source for brands, agencies and marketers to reach their target consumers directly on their mobile phones. With the advent of technologies, mobile has become much more than just a communication device. Smart phones have provided access to SMS, MMS, content downloads, mobile web, mobile applications etc. Targeting consumer is easier and more efficient as mobile phone is an extremely personal device and typically one phone is used by unique user. Advertising can be defined as a message to the potential consumers for buying or trying out your products or services. You can also create a brand image through repeated advertisements if it’s aligned with the products or services you offer. Newspapers, Magazines, Billboards, Radio, Television etc. were the major channels for advertisers but the Dot Com boom enabled user to surf information available through World Wide Web (WWW). Search engines made the task of searching relevant information easier and with the enhanced browsing experience, people kept joining the virtual online world. Internet attracted a lot of revenue from advertisers but targeting customers became more specific with the advent of mobile era. Mobile devices evolved from just being a communication device and became a part of day-to-day life of people. It provided advertisers a way to target their consumers more efficiently. Mobile advertising has become a fast-growing business, just like internet advertising. It has become a major part of digital economics as mobile content providers rely heavily on mobile advertising as it provides them with major source of revenue. Mobile advertising industry has also become increasingly important for the whole media industry as mobile has become a major source of targeting consumers due to its vast reach. Last year, global mobile ad revenue increased 105% to total $17.96 billion, as per figures from eMarketer. In 2014, mobile ad spending is on pace to rise another 75.1% to $31.45 billion. The expected number tells us the potential of mobile advertising and growth prospects of mobile ad industry as it would account for nearly one-quarter of total digital ad spending worldwide by next year. Social media companies like Facebook accounted for majority of the growth. Google and Facebook combined saw their net revenue by mobile ad increased by $6.92 billion and as per estimates, mobile is expected to account for 63.4% of Facebook’s net digital ad revenues in 2014. Appendix E gives a glimpse of global mobile economy and its attractive attributes.