Author Archive
Measurement Is What’s Holding Mobile Back, Says AdvertisingAge
According to AdvertisingAge (and eMarketer), people are beginning to spend more time with mobile devices than they do with print media, yet mobile ad spending has slowly been trickling in. Mobile writer Kunur Patel investigates why in today’s AdvertisingAge.
Patel states,”lack of accepted measurement is what’s holding back massive spending.” While measurement hasn’t held back predictions that mobile will continue to grow rapidly, with eMarketer predicting that mobile ad spending will reach $2.6 billion in 2012, it clearly may be slowing advertiser-adoption rates.
Patel smartly points out that mobile ads look a lot like advertising on the Internet. A crucial flaw to mobile advertising to date is that the first mobile ad models were patterned after click-based online display banners. However, click-based units don’t create user-friendly experiences on mobile devices.
Banner click-based display ads that force users out of apps are disruptive to a user’s mobile experience. Steve Jobs recognized this problem when launching Apple’s mobile platform, iAds. “Today when you click on a banner ad, it yanks you out of your app and throws you onto the advertiser’s web page. So people don’t click on the ads,” he said. A recent Harris Interactive survey also revealed that nearly half of U.S. adults clicked on a mobile ad by mistake. The implications of these results are immense—nearly half of mobile advertising dollars are wasted due to people accidentally clicking within mobile apps. This poses a problem for marketers who could be charged for accidental clicks.
One way that marketers can see higher ROI from mobile advertising is to look beyond the click. The Relevancy Group 2011 survey found that 56% of respondents are dissatisfied with or don’t use click-based advertising. The survey also revealed that 41% of marketers say that the most effective form of mobile ads are those where they pay only for signups—as opposed to clicks or impressions.
The above research and data points all prove the same thing: clicks don’t work in a mobile world. This means adopting mobile advertising models based off the Internet might not be the best way to go mobile.
To learn how you can make mobile work for you, download the white paper Five Tips Every Mobile Advertiser Should Know.
Laos In Harmony Premieres an Official Music Video for “The Introduction”
Early this year, I wrote about how Clinton Regis, Pontiflex’s Systems Administrator, shared a single called “The Introduction” with us by his music group Laos In Harmony, a gospel music ministry based in Brooklyn, New York, who’s name is derived from the Greek word “Laos” which means “people,” hence “Laos in Harmony.”
Today, Clinton informed me that “The Introduction” has an official video. Click play above or check out “The Introduction” on YouTube. The single is also available on Zune, Spotify and Google Music.
For more information, visit Laos In Harmony. You can also “Like” the group on Facebook and follow them on Twitter (@laosinharmony).
The iPad Threatens the PC Market
According to The New York Times, the iPad started out as a side business for Apple but has quickly become a franchise. The iPad counted for $9.15 billion in revenue during the Q4 2011 holiday season, or about 20% of Apple’s total revenue. This means that about 15 million iPads were sold, which is more than twice the number sold in 2010.
Analysts are predicting that iPad adoption will continue to increase, cannibalizing the PC market. According to technology research company Canalys, PCs outsold tablets almost six to one last year. However, this was a significant change from 2010, when PCs outsold tablets 20 to one. In addition, PC sales have been flat for the past two years in a row.
Read more about the fast-growing iPad market here.
Revenue From Mobile Apps Expected to Reach $46 Billion by 2016, Says eMarketer.com
According to eMarketer, the “Mobile Application Business Model” study released by ABI Research found that overall revenues from mobile apps, which includes in-app purchases, pay-per-installs, in-app advertising and subscriptions, will reach $46 billion by 2016. This is more than 4X greater than the $8.5 billion earned in 2011, respectively.
This goes to show that when it comes to mobile, apps are where it’s at! Check out our in-app advertising platform AppLeads.
Mobile Devices Outnumber Humans, Take Over the World
Last week, BBC News published an article that revealed a startling new finding: this year, mobile devices will outnumber humans, according to recent data from network firm Cisco.
Other interesting data points from the Cisco report include:
- By 2016, there will be 10 billion mobile devices in the world.
- By 2016, networks will carry 130 exabytes of data each year, equivalent to 33 billion DVDs.
- Mobile data traffic in 2011 was 8 times the size that the global internet was in 2000.
Also according to Cisco, tablet use tripled to 34 million devices in 2011. Tablets now generate more than three times the traffic of smartphones. By 2016, Cisco predicts that tablets will account for more than 10% of global mobile traffic.
Read the full article here.
Congrats to Digitas’ Keira Lorentzen, the winner of our Xbox giveaway!
Last month, we held a contest for a Xbox 360 Kinect. We’re happy to announce that Keira Lorentzen, Vice President, Group Director, Digitas, is the winner.
Congrats, Keira!
Below is a short Q&A we did with our contest winner about her years in advertising, how Digitas approaches mobile and more. Keep reading!
How long have you been in advertising?
I have been in advertising for almost 15 years now. I started my advertising career as the Marketing Director at a small statistical software company. I then went on to business school and landed at Digitas where I have been for the last 11+ years.
I am an analytical person at heart. I love the analytics and research side of advertising and consumer behavior. I joined Digitas after business school because data-driven strategy and analytics is a big part of what makes us the world’s leading integrated brand agency, with digital at its core. By understanding and engaging consumers, we are able to develop winning ideas and creative that drive business results year-after-year.
Mobile is an incredibly important part of our work today. As we move towards a post-PC digital era, we focus on mobile first for a lot of our campaigns. In fact, our mobile practice grew over 130% in 2011. And in Boston, we recently opened the Digitas Mobile lab, a place where employees and clients can touch and test the newest mobile technologies, and then apply them to their work.
I’m excited for all the innovation we’ll see in the advertising industry this year. In particular, there will be a lot of growth for both social and mobile commerce. For social commerce, as more and more brands find the right technologies, their followers on social networks will also become more comfortable with both the convenience and the offering of shopping on social channels.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway contest!
Employers embrace sleeping on the job
Last night, CBS ran a clip on how napping is being embraced by employers for health benefits and to increase productivity. Guess who appeared in the interview? You guessed it! Pontiflex employees. CEO Zephrin Lasker, technology and user interface guru Nick Herman and media diva Danielle Phillip appeared napping in the clip. Zephrin and Nick also were interviewed. The best part is that we’re not alone in our prop-napping policies! According to CBS, companies such as Google and Nike also encourage napping in the office. Read more about the benefits of office napping here.
Apple Will Crack Down On Those Manipulating App Store Rankings
When it comes to its App Store rankings, Apple don’t play. According to moconews.net, it only took one allegation that some app developers are using download bots to boost their rankings for Apple to respond quickly. According to a developer’s post on Touch Arcade Forums, some third-party services are offering app download bot treatment for $5,000. Services are also offering to place positive reviews on apps.
Apple posted a response to this on its developer site, in an attempt to caution developers against manipulating Apple App Store rankings.
“Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it. However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts. Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership. Get helpful tips and resources on marketing your apps the right way from the App Store Resource Center.”
But how would Apple go after all the companies offering these services?
Time will only tell. But app developers should be aware that by using services to inflate app rankings, they are risking being banned from the Apple App Store. They should also come to know that while using incentivized ads may inflate rankings, they won’t lead to an app’s success in the long term.
In fact, a recent Harris Interactive survey found that incentive-based ads aren’t popular amongst app users. Among people interacting with incentivized mobile apps, only 3% use those apps often. Also, 37% said they uninstalled the apps after redeeming the incentive, and 25% never used the app at all.
These survey findings should make developers think twice before attempting to inflate their app rankings. Once they do, they’re sure to find the risks outweigh the benefits of using incentivized app services and mobile ads.
Marketer Survey Reveals Mobile Ads Are Out of Sync with Marketers’ Priorities
(Click to enlarge the chart)
By the time you’re reading this blog post, you’ve most likely heard about eMarketer’s predictions for mobile advertising spending growth in 2012 (and if not read about them here). Since marketing dollars continue to flow into the mobile bucket at an eyebrow-raising rate, we thought it’d be a good idea to survey marketers to find out where they are with mobile advertising.
And that’s exactly what we did. In January, Pontiflex surveyed 200+ marketers to ask 10 simple questions about how they are using mobile.
By far the most compelling survey finding is depicted in the chart above (click to enlarge the chart). According to the survey results, 44% of marketers utilize mobile apps and mobile advertising to extend the reach of their digital marketing campaigns, 23.3% utilize them to grow their email marketing database and 18.3% use them to grow their social communities. Only 22.9% said that they use mobile apps and mobile ads to drive mobile app installs.
Since most mobile advertising is geared towards app discovery, these survey findings reveal that most mobile ads don’t align with marketer priorities. This means there is an imbalance in the mobile advertising world.
With consumers spending so much time on mobile devices, marketers must be able to use mobile ads to accomplish a variety of goals just like they would with TV or online media. Unfortunately a lot of mobile advertising is not aligned with marketer objectives. Marketers have spoken. The mobile ad industry must now listen.
Mobile Ad Spending Could Reach $2.61B in 2012
The industry is a buzz this morning with new mobile predictions made by eMarketer.com.
According to AdAge, eMarketer predicts that mobile ad spending in the US will grow 80% this year to reach $2.61 billion. This is a revision from a previous projection that mobile ad spending would reach $1.2 billion in 2012. Also according to eMarketer, mobile ad spending reached $1.45 billion in 2011, up from $769.6 million in 2010. Google is accredited with getting more than half of the pie.
No wonder so much attention is being paid to the mobile ad landscape. And these figures predict that the trend will continue.
Arun Krishnan
Jason Penta
zlasker
Roshan Bangera
Jordan Cohen
eadlman
Geoff Grauer
Jerrie Gullick
Jon Beardsley
Nick Herman
Stacy Huggins
Tiffany Sumner
Avantika Banerjee
Daniel Egan
Lisa Khan
tgeisenheimer
pontiflexrob
Ganesh Prabhu
