The ink had barely dried on Google’s $750 million deal to buy mobile ad network AdMob before some were saying it heralds “the year of mobile.” Of course, the year of mobile has been predicted virtually annually for the past decade.
There is compelling evidence that this time it’s different. Overall, there are now more mobile phones in the world than personal computers. There are more than 4.6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, according to eMarketer. Yet mobile advertising remains a tiny market. eMarketer expects it to generate just $416 million in U.S. ad spending this year, about the same amount spent on search marketing in two weeks. This will undoubtedly change, although perhaps not as quickly as mobile’s biggest boosters hope, according to agency executives, analysts and mobile veterans. Here are the key reasons why:
Stepping on the Scale: For all the big numbers bandied about in mobile, the opportunities today are quite small. Think about smartphones. The typical person in San Francisco or New York could be forgiven for believing everyone is toting around an iPhone. That’s not the case. In fact, fewer than one in five Americans has a smartphone, according to most estimates. That knocks out the most advanced ads like applications—and greatly cuts into the opportunity to reach mobile consumers.
Said Alistair Goodman, CEO of mobile ad tech provider Placecast: “You’ve got to be able to run on all phones, not just on smartphones. Eventually, everyone will have one. Today that isn’t the case.”
Hunt for the Killer App: Current mobile formats borrow from the Web, treating mobile phones as little more than tiny computer screens rather than highly personal devices that physically accompany a person as they go through their day. AdMob is an example of an early iteration of mobile advertising. Most of the ad impressions it serves are tiny static billboards.
“I don’t think the ad formats we see now are the killer ad formats,” said Jonathon Linner, CEO of Brightkite, a location-based mobile service and a founder of early mobile ad network Enpocket.
What’s more, targeting ads to mobile phone users is still in its infancy. The carriers sit on a trove of user information and location data that is largely unavailable to marketers. Brightkite hopes to change that by showing ads to users based on their physical location. In a campaign launching this month, it’s combining location and prior user behavior with augmented reality to show users on-screen product offers from nearby retail outlets.
Continue to next page →
