We hear a lot from so-called “industry experts” or analysts who make huge claims as to how mobile marketing is going to “take off” this year, or that this year “isn’t quite the year for mobile marketing” and so on. Most of the time these claims are based purely on opinion and lack any real substance.
A new survey sponsored by a partnership between Millennial Media and DM2PRO decided to go directly to the source — meaning major brands and advertisers themselves– to see just how mobile marketing is working out for them, and to get an understanding as to how they plan on spending their marketing dollars using the mobile channel in the future.
100 leading agencies were surveyed to compile and in-depth analysis of mobile advertising performance and forecasts of future spending. Dubbed “The State of the Industry,” the survey compiled data to provide a critical view on where the industry stands today, where the industry is and is not, and why agencies and publishers are planning to buy mobile in the future.
The survey indicated that 60 percent of non-mobile marketers are planning to employ some form of mobile advertising in 2010. Subsequently, the increase in mobile spend was one of the more surprising aspects of the survey’s results. Out of those surveyed; 31 percent of agency respondents stated they will invest between $100K and $249K next year, while more than 15 percent stated they plan on investing over $1 million.
More than half of Q4 mobile campaigns will represent between 1 percent and 10 percent of their client’s total spending, but for a few, the number could be an impressive 40-50 percent. Overall though, nearly three quarters of the respondents stated that they had developed mobile campaigns for themselves or their clients, while around 28 percent hadn’t utilized mobile at all. To me, a leading agency that doesn’t utilize the mobile channel for their clients shouldn’t be a leading agency at all.
When it comes to how mobile marketing is performing overall, 78 percent of respondents said the medium met their campaign goals, while an additional 9 percent said mobile performed “beyond our wildest expectations.” Nearly one third of respondents stated that mobile has become an “indispensable” part of their media mix, while another 67 percent ranked mobile as “somewhat valuable” and only 2 percent said it wasn’t valuable at all.
It’s interesting to note that nearly 89 percent of respondents indicated that mobile was only a small part of a much larger multi-platform buy, and that internal resources remains the number one barrier to entry into the mobile channel. More than 80 percent of agencies surveyed, who have participated in mobile campaigns, have hired or developed internal resources to support them. Agencies expressed concern over the fact that it still involves multiple partners to “expertly execute on the promise of mobile media,” meaning things like technology partners, metrics, buying networks and app developer resources, among others.
Still, it’s always interesting to get a better understanding of how mobile is being used and what the future plans are for those who are actually involved in the practice of mobile marketing. Check out the survey itself for much more info and supporting data.
