Pocket-sized advertising
Mobile advertising reaches the mobile web. Marketers see great potential in banner advertising and are gearing up.
Mobile advertising reaches the mobile web. Marketers see great potential in banner advertising and are gearing up.
For a long time, the advertising industry kept its hands off the cell phone. For a long time, cell phones were declared to be an advertising-free zone where advertising had no place as an uninvited guest. This opinion has changed. Today, the industry is largely in agreement: the technology and the market are ready for mobile business. The advertising market of tomorrow belongs to those who can retain users with their content and services. The mobile data world promises attractive opportunities for advertisers. The mobile web in particular is seen as a beacon of hope for the advertising industry. Coca-Cola is already working hard to gain a foothold there: The beverage manufacturer launched a social network for cell phones in June. The company is working on a Myspace version for cell phones. It is called "Sprite Yard" and is intended to connect young people with each other and anchor the Sprite brand more firmly in this target group. Coca-Cola officially communicates that mobile marketing measures offer the greatest opportunities to win over new generations of customers.
Here in Germany, too, companies are investing in mobile web projects. They are experimenting with all kinds of services. The focus is on business models based on advertising. Experts have no doubt that the success story of banner advertising on the Internet will be repeated on cell phones. Marketers are working on making advertising space available on the mobile Internet.
Mobile accepted as a form of advertisingActive Mobile is playing a pioneering role in this area. The full-service agency, which belongs to Goldbach Media, already offers advertisers a pool of high-traffic mobile sites on which banner campaigns can be launched. The offer includes well-known portals such as mobile.cash.ch, mobile.20min.ch and mobile.meteonews.ch, which was one of the first service portals in Europe to bring up-to-date weather information to cell phones. No official figures are available on the use of these portals. Active Mobile Managing Director Mike Weber says: "We are recording access figures that are higher than we ever suspected at the beginning." According to Weber, it is not yet possible to establish a clear ranking of the mobile sites. However, benchmarks will become apparent this fall.
The marketer's experience shows that the new form of advertising is accepted by consumers and that click rates tend to be higher than on the web. According to Mike Weber, demand is predominantly for directories and news services. The situation is different in the USA. Overseas users mainly surf on sports platforms and show less interest in political offers.
According to market researchers, the market for mobile advertising (mobvertising for short) is very attractive. The industry expects spending on this still young form of advertising to triple in just a few years. In Germany, the one billion euro mark could be exceeded as early as 2010. Weber predicts a similar development for Switzerland. "Unlike online advertising, mobile advertising will not take ten years to reach today's media spending levels." For Weber, it is important that the still young Goldbach unit positions itself well today. "We want to be a first mover in this area with an attractive portfolio and new formats for the advertising industry," says the head of Active Mobile.
"Huge challenge "After initial experience with Peter Wick's Meteo-News service, the agency now offers around ten mobile sites on which banner advertising can be booked. The company's technical infrastructure makes it possible to adapt the campaigns to the respective cell phone type. Goldbach Media and the portal providers have not yet agreed on what a mobile campaign will cost in future. Mike Weber: "As we currently offer an unrivaled advertising environment, the CPM is set in the higher price segment. However, pricing is still being negotiated."
And what do the strategists in the advertising agencies think about the young advertising platform? Pascal Schaub, President of the Account Planning Group Switzerland: "Mobile banners are of course a fantastic new touchpoint for planning." However, Schaub warns against expecting too much: "The challenge is huge in this pocket format. People don't surf on their cell phones. Only offers where the user can participate immediately and receive added value will be successful in the long term."
It is difficult to estimate the extent to which the mobile web will become the linchpin of cell phone use. The operators' tariffs will be decisive. For those who do not purchase an Internet add-on to their subscription for surfing the mobile web will be charged a rate of between 10 and 20 centimes per 10 kilobytes of data, depending on the company. The transmission of one megabyte of data therefore costs 10 to 20 francs. This corresponds to about two to three normal homepages that are not optimized for cell phones. This is why there are calls for data flat rates, which could cause another problem if introduced. If cell phone flat rates were introduced, this could lead to network congestion, as can already be observed on the Internet.
Attractive target groupWho uses the mobile Internet? According to the latest Kommtech study (in collaboration with IGEM and Publica Data), 3.4 percent of the Swiss population surf the mobile Internet. This target group is nevertheless interesting for advertisers, as the end devices that access mobile sites are predominantly high-quality business cell phones. This indicates an exclusive user group. However, this fact could also be one of the reasons why the rates for surfing with a cell phone will remain high. In Switzerland, 85% of the total population has a cell phone. 22% of all households already have more than three cell phones.
Mobile marketing: Advertising via SMS has become established. The impulse for such an approach almost always comes from the consumer and is triggered via traditional advertising channels. In view of the new technical possibilities, display advertising is becoming increasingly interesting. This form of advertising is still not very widespread. It includes small banners, sponsor logos and interstitials, displayed as short interstitial ads when switching to another page. Spots in mini format can be shown on UMTS-enabled cell phones.
Mobile Content Event Mobile Marketing is the topic of this year's Digi Trend Forum in the fall. The experts will be asking themselves a whole bundle of questions: Which content is suitable? Who uses mobile services? Which devices are popular? You can register at www.digitrendforum.ch. Cost: 550 francs.
Users critical of mobile advertisingA recent study by the agency Universal McCann shows that 61 percent of users surveyed strictly reject advertising on websites designed for mobile devices. The study also makes it clear that consumers would particularly reject mobile advertising if they felt that their activities were being interrupted in any way. A total of 9500 people from 21 countries were surveyed for the study.
Christian Lüscher
For a long time, the advertising industry kept its hands off the cell phone. For a long time, cell phones were declared to be an advertising-free zone where advertising had no place as an uninvited guest. This opinion has changed. Today, the industry is largely in agreement: the technology and the market are ready for mobile business. The advertising market of tomorrow belongs to those who can retain users with their content and services. The mobile data world promises attractive opportunities for advertisers. The mobile web in particular is seen as a beacon of hope for the advertising industry. Coca-Cola is already working hard to gain a foothold there: The beverage manufacturer launched a social network for cell phones in June. The company is working on a Myspace version for cell phones. It is called "Sprite Yard" and is intended to connect young people with each other and anchor the Sprite brand more firmly in this target group. Coca-Cola officially communicates that mobile marketing measures offer the greatest opportunities to win over new generations of customers.
Here in Germany, too, companies are investing in mobile web projects. They are experimenting with all kinds of services. The focus is on business models based on advertising. Experts have no doubt that the success story of banner advertising on the Internet will be repeated on cell phones. Marketers are working on making advertising space available on the mobile Internet.
Mobile accepted as a form of advertisingActive Mobile is playing a pioneering role in this area. The full-service agency, which belongs to Goldbach Media, already offers advertisers a pool of high-traffic mobile sites on which banner campaigns can be launched. The offer includes well-known portals such as mobile.cash.ch, mobile.20min.ch and mobile.meteonews.ch, which was one of the first service portals in Europe to bring up-to-date weather information to cell phones. No official figures are available on the use of these portals. Active Mobile Managing Director Mike Weber says: "We are recording access figures that are higher than we ever suspected at the beginning." According to Weber, it is not yet possible to establish a clear ranking of the mobile sites. However, benchmarks will become apparent this fall.
The marketer's experience shows that the new form of advertising is accepted by consumers and that click rates tend to be higher than on the web. According to Mike Weber, demand is predominantly for directories and news services. The situation is different in the USA. Overseas users mainly surf on sports platforms and show less interest in political offers.
According to market researchers, the market for mobile advertising (mobvertising for short) is very attractive. The industry expects spending on this still young form of advertising to triple in just a few years. In Germany, the one billion euro mark could be exceeded as early as 2010. Weber predicts a similar development for Switzerland. "Unlike online advertising, mobile advertising will not take ten years to reach today's media spending levels." For Weber, it is important that the still young Goldbach unit positions itself well today. "We want to be a first mover in this area with an attractive portfolio and new formats for the advertising industry," says the head of Active Mobile.
"Huge challenge "After initial experience with Peter Wick's Meteo-News service, the agency now offers around ten mobile sites on which banner advertising can be booked. The company's technical infrastructure makes it possible to adapt the campaigns to the respective cell phone type. Goldbach Media and the portal providers have not yet agreed on what a mobile campaign will cost in future. Mike Weber: "As we currently offer an unrivaled advertising environment, the CPM is set in the higher price segment. However, pricing is still being negotiated."
And what do the strategists in the advertising agencies think about the young advertising platform? Pascal Schaub, President of the Account Planning Group Switzerland: "Mobile banners are of course a fantastic new touchpoint for planning." However, Schaub warns against expecting too much: "The challenge is huge in this pocket format. People don't surf on their cell phones. Only offers where the user can participate immediately and receive added value will be successful in the long term."
It is difficult to estimate the extent to which the mobile web will become the linchpin of cell phone use. The operators' tariffs will be decisive. For those who do not purchase an Internet add-on to their subscription for surfing the mobile web will be charged a rate of between 10 and 20 centimes per 10 kilobytes of data, depending on the company. The transmission of one megabyte of data therefore costs 10 to 20 francs. This corresponds to about two to three normal homepages that are not optimized for cell phones. This is why there are calls for data flat rates, which could cause another problem if introduced. If cell phone flat rates were introduced, this could lead to network congestion, as can already be observed on the Internet.
Attractive target groupWho uses the mobile Internet? According to the latest Kommtech study (in collaboration with IGEM and Publica Data), 3.4 percent of the Swiss population surf the mobile Internet. This target group is nevertheless interesting for advertisers, as the end devices that access mobile sites are predominantly high-quality business cell phones. This indicates an exclusive user group. However, this fact could also be one of the reasons why the rates for surfing with a cell phone will remain high. In Switzerland, 85% of the total population has a cell phone. 22% of all households already have more than three cell phones.
Mobile marketing: Advertising via SMS has become established. The impulse for such an approach almost always comes from the consumer and is triggered via traditional advertising channels. In view of the new technical possibilities, display advertising is becoming increasingly interesting. This form of advertising is still not very widespread. It includes small banners, sponsor logos and interstitials, displayed as short interstitial ads when switching to another page. Spots in mini format can be shown on UMTS-enabled cell phones.
Mobile Content Event Mobile Marketing is the topic of this year's Digi Trend Forum in the fall. The experts will be asking themselves a whole bundle of questions: Which content is suitable? Who uses mobile services? Which devices are popular? You can register at www.digitrendforum.ch. Cost: 550 francs.
Users critical of mobile advertisingA recent study by the agency Universal McCann shows that 61 percent of users surveyed strictly reject advertising on websites designed for mobile devices. The study also makes it clear that consumers would particularly reject mobile advertising if they felt that their activities were being interrupted in any way. A total of 9500 people from 21 countries were surveyed for the study.
Christian Lüscher
