At the Borrell Associates Local Online Advertising Conference in New York City today, the pre-session addressed this very challenge. And when I write “challenge,” I mean “huge goddamn problem we better address now.”
And let me ask you this: how does your website look on a phone? If it’s not pumping out a mobile version, the answer is “terrible.” And don’t stick up your nose at the mobile audience. According to Konny Zsigo, President of The Wireless Developer Agency, 20 million people use only their mobile phones to access the web in the US. They’re not even going to their computers, folks. And in the US there are 100 million mobile web users in all.
If you heard one third of the populace was using a product that could receive and produce media, you’d probably want to get in on that.
And how about all those phone platforms? Think you’re all set if you have an iPhone app? Disney, Zsigo tells us, produces content for 3,500 different kinds of phones, And lest we think there will be some sort of Great Summit to bring together all those difference platforms?
“The first rule of mobile is this: device fragmentation is a reality,” said Zsigo. “You have to embrace this. Despite what anyone tells you, we are not coalescing around any one standard. The carriers are constantly looking for abilities to reach segmented audiences, so they go to these phone manufactures who create yet another product… leaving behind this ‘trail of terror.'”
It’s a moving target. According to Zsigo, most people cycle their phones (get new ones) every 18 months. And a large group cycles their phones every 12 months.
There is good news… no make that great news… about mobile advertising. The phone companies and carriers already have the demographics down to the person. Name a phone model, and they’ll tell you which group is most likely to own it. The data is so much better than Nielsen TV ratings.
You’ll get still more data, Zsigo says, if customers are using your app.
Mobile ad “clicks” are so much more valuable than a website click. When a mobile ad is clicked, the advertiser can capture the device make and model, the carrier, uniques (no cookies required), the referring site and whether the person is a repeat visitor. That’s a lot of valuable sales information.
So yes, it’s a total pain figuring out the mobile audience. But it’s also where the money will be. And we’re going to be hearing a lot more about that as the conference goes on.