In early November, Google announced plans to dominate the mobile market with its Android operating system, offering $10 million in rewards to the developers who build the best Android applications. Meanwhile, Yahoo! is busy locking up worldwide distribution deals for its Go 2.0 system and has signed up major phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG Electronics and HTC.
Since mobile phones are in the process of becoming mini pocket PCs, there's no doubt mobile is about to get hot. Marketers, start your engines; it's time to concentrate on a local-mobile marketing strategy now.
The stakes
Money is there to be made despite the years of slow motion. In 2006, the mobile ad spend was $1.5 billion worldwide (eMarketer). That may seem rather puny compared to the $24 billion spent on internet advertising, never mind the $450 billion spent on total advertising for the year. The lack of interest in mobile has been mostly due to limitations of technology, which are being overcome with the iPhone and other smartphones to hit the market, not to mention Google's push to provide an operating system with apps that make phones into mini PCs.
The problems concerning privacy are also melting away as research continues to show that mobile users will accept ads for free services. IBM Institute for Business Value conducted an online survey of more than 2,400 mobile users in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan and Australia, reporting a majority of these users would accept ads for free services. To provide a current example, Virgin Mobile USA signed up about 330,000 of its 4.8 million subscribers for its Sugar Mama program that "pays" subscribers one minute of free call time for every 45 seconds they spend interacting with an ad on their phones or the company's website. Since the program launched about a year ago, Virgin has given away 9 million minutes of mobile talk time, as reported in Business Week.
Despite the fact that mobile spending is miniscule now, this platform will grow rapidly with its ubiquitous nature that almost imparts omniscience. Imagine the beauty of having instant access to information in your pocket 24/7 with Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 apps at your fingertips.
The monetary projections vary widely, perhaps in anticipation of advanced technology yet in development. ABI Research projected a 13-fold increase in global spending on mobile marketing and advertising between 2006 and 2011. Informa Telecoms & Media predicted mobile advertising will be worth $11.5 billion by 2011. eMarketer is more bullish, predicting $14 billion by 2011. Yet other analysts say mobile marketing can get as high as $20 billion worldwide by then.
In the U.S. alone, Kelsey Group expects mobile search ad revenue to grow from $33.2 million in 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2012, representing a compound annual growth rate of 112 percent.
The obstacles
For mobile to succeed, it will be necessary to achieve cooperation between the mobile carriers, the handset manufacturers, the software developers, and the search engines. These are the major players that have the most to gain or lose, and they're all fighting for control. The carriers are the most anal, trying to control their customers and databases.
But the customers refuse to be controlled. iCrossing's 2007 mobile study shows that mobile users prefer Google, Yahoo and MSN rather than the default search provided by carrier deck. These walled gardens won't last much longer as the smartphones give users unfettered access to the mobile web.
The development of the mobile web gives your business the opportunity to extend its reach through an additional marketing channel. Competing in the mobile channel requires the following three-prong strategy.
Author notes: Paul Bruemmer is director of search marketing at Red Door Interactive. Read full bio.
No comments:
Post a Comment