The report is out — and agencies and brands are pouring over it.
The much-heralded analysis, compiled by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers analyst Mary Meeker, is an industry must-read. This year’s “2015 Internet Trends Report” focuses heavily on mobile media.
It’s no secret that mobile is growing. And it’s driving programmatic growth.
But according to Meeker, “the gap between time on mobile devices and mobile ad spend represents an opportunity worth $25 billion.”
“While mobile ad spending overall was up 34 percent last year, marketers who make an even greater investment could see huge returns as more and more consumers favor mobile devices over their desktops,” noted B2C in its story on the new report. “Programmatic marketers are ideally positioned to benefit from this. With the ability to deliver mobile ads that are location-specific and highly relevant to consumers’ needs, they can transform mobile users into mobile shoppers and repeat customers.”
Vertical viewing is another issue.
Five years ago, Meeker says, time spent viewing content on vertical screens like those characteristic of mobile devices clocked in at just 5 percent. Now it’s 29 percent.
“Mobile has changed the way consumers engage with content. So why are so many brands still delivering standard banner ads to mobile users?” Meeker concludes.
“To successfully engage them, digital marketers should design for mobile first, taking into consideration user behavior as well as the medium’s unique attributes,” according to B2B. “Consider an app like Snapchat. As Meeker points out, the Snapchat experience begins in camera mode to encourage immediate interaction. Full-screen vertical video ads on the app, meanwhile, have been found to generate 9 times the completion rates of horizontal mobile video ads.”
Targeting comes in for some straight talk, too.
Ad format aside, mobile affords the ability to target on-the-go consumers – particularly when paired with programmatic. It creates an opportunity to design and optimize ads in real time, putting marketers in better control of the mobile advertising experience.
“Advertisers must offer creative that’s not only customized to mobile screens but to user shopping habits, content preferences, and product needs,” explains B2B. “Increasingly, a mobile-first approach necessitates a marketing strategy rooted in data, and programmatic can leverage users’ unique universal device IDs to serve more relevant ads.”
It’s time to leave the old formats behind and get with the mobile zeitgeist, Meeker asserts.
“The time has come for marketers to go beyond the mobile formats of old. Brands should concentrate on developing ads that resonate with all of those users who are leaving their desktops behind, and the dynamic and responsive ads traditionally associated with programmatic are just the beginning. Native advertising, in-image ads, in-feed ads…these are just a few formats that can be seamlessly incorporated into the mobile content experience. The more inventive and mobile-ready the ad, the better the response.”
