At day two of the Mobile Marketing Association’s forum in New York City, some interesting industry stats were released that give us an insight into the growth and use of various forms of mobile marketing.
As usual, the growth rate for mobile marketing as a whole is expected to be around 26% this year- much lower than recent year’s projections, but still impressive nonetheless when compared to other forms of advertising. It was estimated by the group that overall marketing expenditures will be down 7% this year, so any growth in mobile is more than welcomed.
More research shows that brands are more comfortable with mobile than agencies- about half of agencies said they overall viewed mobile marketing as still being part of experimental expending, compared to 36% of brands. Even more surprising, both brands and agencies reported having “average” success with mobile efforts compared to other marketing channels.
While that might not be the ringing endorsement the industry would like to hear, especially at an event dedicated to mobile marketing, MMA President and CEO Mike Wehrs said the increase in mobile spending despite the downturn shows that more dollars are shifting to the category from traditional media. “The benefits of mobile marketing are clear and they’re being proven out,” said Wehrs, in terms of metrics like ad response rates and brand lift found in MMA case studies.
The stats and information released at this year’s event seem to prove that the recession and reduced ad-spend overall are hitting the mobile channel just as hard, and being a new and largely un-tested form of marketing doesn’t help either. Hopefully by this time next year, the numbers will be on the uptake once again.
