Leadpile’s Blog

Sitting at my desk I can look around and see a LG phone, Dunkin’s cup, Apple computer, and the list can just go on and on. Whether it’s billboards, magazines, people’s clothing, or on the internet, advertising is literally everywhere. But where hasn’t advertising really tapped into yet? Your cell phone.
Mobile advertising is a market that many companies are trying to get more into. With everyone and their mother having a smart phone, it only makes sense for this to be the next big step in advertising. According to emarketer.com, the projected spend for 2009 in mobile advertising is 416 million, and it will soar up to $1.56 billion by 2013. Currently, the main forms of mobile advertising are through texting and banner ads. The mobile banner ads work in a similar fashion as internet banner ads. With mobile texting advertisers can purchase packages to meet their needs (packages can include a certain number of texts per month along with keywords) and then send them out to all their contacts.
Personally, I think that mobile advertising is great. Just the other week, I received a text for free admission to a concert because I had been at that same venue earlier that week. All I had to do is just show the text at the front door and I was in. No strings attached! Marketing strategies with incentives always seem to work the best. It gets the consumer in the door (for free in this case) and it still brings in revenue with other purchases such as food and beverages. If this isn’t a win win situation, then I do not know what is.

One of the newest forms of advertising is mobile adverting/SMS marketing. Being that this form of lead generation is completely different, there has to be alternative ways to measure success. After looking into this further, Gigaom.com pointed out some valid points on how mobile advertisers can effectively track stats.

Reach

Mobile enables a closed loop functionality like no other medium. Transactions are essentially a measure of the “true” ROA. We need to measure how a campaign impacts a company’s bottom line. If the campaign doesn’t move the needle over time, it didn’t really work, but we won’t know whether or not it has without measuring.

Leadpile has seen some successful publishers generating quality leads through mobile advertising, however after reviewing some of these point, maybe there are some enhancements Leadpile and other networks need to look at implementing. How big will mobile advertising get?

The obvious answer to this mostly rhetorical question would seem to be “yes”.  However, numbers just released from The Nielsen Company indicate that Americans are still watching a lot of television.  The older the person, the more television, on average, they are watching.  The way people are watching television is changing, and the report is even called the “Three Screen Report”.  People are now watching television on their computers and mobile devices in addition to the standard way.  These additional methods of viewing have added to the time spent watching television programs.  The average American is now watching more than 151 hours of television each month, or about five hours each day.  Last year people were averaging around 145 hours of viewing each month.  So, yes, technology is changing the way we watch television, but is it for the better?

According to emarketer.com, 2009 is going to be the year of spending advertising dollars on online video.

US marketers responded on how they plan to spend their 2009 online marketing budgets.

Of the people surveyed, here is who plans on spending their budgets on what:

1.  Online video  (66.8%)

2.  Social media   (41.6%)

3.  Search    (34.1%)

4.  Podcasts/webcasts (32%)

5.  Rich media  (30.5%)

6.  Banner ads   (22.8%)

7.  Mobile  (17.4%)

8.  Other   (6.8%)

This shows that more than two-thirds of respondents said they would focus their budgets on online video in 2009. According to the article, “eMarketer estimates that spending on online video advertising will grow to $4.6 billion in 2013, representing a more than sevenfold increase from the $587 million spent on the format in 2008.”  Therefore, if you are not planning on doing any online video with your marketing campaigns, you might want to at least entertain the idea.  Leadpile Lead exchange is utilizing online video to educate the public on Leadpile. Take a look in YouTube and see for yourself. How will you try and utilize online video to help promote your company?  Time to start thinking about that.

Have you joined the texting revolution? If you haven’t, you are behind the times. Some surprising numbers have been released, and I cannot believe how much texting is going on. How many text messages do you believe were sent this year in the month of June? Would you believe 75 billion? Last June, 29 billion were sent, so texting has increased by 160%. Mobile data revenues for the first half of the year rose to $14.8 billion which is up 40% from last year. Mobile data now accounts for one-fifth of all mobile revenues.

Now a word of caution to advertisers — don’t just start sending a bunch of text messages. Recent studies indicate that internet users that have opted in to receive marketing messages, do not want to receive those messages via text. Only 1% of this group prefers to receive marketing text messages. It is important to use marketing text messages where appropriate, and most importantly, welcomed by mobile users.

Your phone beeps and notifies you that you have a new text message.  It’s an advertiser’s message about their latest deal they have.
According to a post in Mobile Marketing Watch there is an increased interest in mobile marketing. This is advertising done through a cell phone.  Think about it, who does not have a cell phone these days?  It seems even cellular carries are even receiving a lot of response from advertisers trying to get a piece of this market.
After looking more into this, it appears that there is even some conflict with banner sizes that Google has potentially created, and what the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has created.  Being a newer form of marketing I am sure there are going to be a lot more “growing pains” amongst the two.
The largest volume of marketing money is still being spent on the internet, however is the mobile marketing industry something that people are getting a taste of and trying to learn more about?
It appears yes it is…..So how about a Leadpile iSaveNow form for this mobile marketing frenzy?
MORE to come……..