Advertising
Google poised to end 2010 with a 59% share of the $877 million U.S. market.
According to a new estimate by IDC via Bloomberg Businessweek,Google is now by far the dominant player in mobile advertising, poised to end 2010 with a 59% share of the $877 million U.S. market. IAd-maker Apple is a distant second with an 8.4% share, followed by Millennial Media with 6.8%.
But Google didn’t specify how that amount breaks down by search, display, in-app ad sales or other types of mobile revenue. Presumably it’s a worldwide total, but Google also didn’t indicate U.S. versus global mobile revenue.
IDC estimates that only about $150 million came from mobile apps and another portion from licensing fees, while mobile ads accounted for the majority of sales. Before Google provided the $1 billion figure, RBC Capital Markets had figured mobile ad dollars of about $650 million, with $500 million from search and the balance from display.
In the Google conference call, Jonathan Rosenberg, the company’s head of product management, had also emphasized the growth of mobile search, with query volume increasing five-fold in the last two years. That’s thanks in no small part to the rapid expansion of its Android platform. But the point is that if search accounts for the bulk , or at least a meaningful portion, of Google mobile ad revenue, then comparing it to revenue from mobile display ad networks is comparing apples and oranges.
With its iAd platform, Apple is limiting itself for now to in-app advertising on iOS devices — a much smaller part of the mobile ad pie Google is going after. So comparing them side by side, as IDC does, doesn’t make a lot of sense. Both companies have pushed aggressively into mobile media and advertising but are focused on different parts of the business.
One problem with trying to calculate mobile ad share is that the space is still so fluid and dollars so small, its hard to get a fix on where companies stand in relation to one another. Apple’s estimated share shot up after its Quattro Wireless acquisition and subsequent launch of iAd — only to shrink back down the next quarter, with Google tossing out its $1 billion mobile number.
A bigger hurdle is that companies just aren’t saying much about their mobile ad business at all, leaving a lot of room for guesswork. It’s not as straightforward as tracking quarterly smartphone shipments or market share by mobile platform.
IDC’s estimate of mobile ad market share has generated attention because it’s one of the only prominent tech research firms to attempt a ranking. But the firm should do a better job of explaining how it derives its mobile ad figures and what types of mobile advertising they reflect. As it is, the IDC estimate doesn’t add much insight into competition in the segment.
Google’s Seven Display Ad Predictions
by Laurie Sullivan, Media Post, Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 3:21 PM
What will display advertising look like by 2015? At the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Conference 2010 in New York, advertising executives got a taste this week of the future of display advertising from Neal Mohan, vice president of product management at Google, and Barry Salzman, managing director of media and platforms at Google.
Mohan and Salzman made seven predictions on what the future of display advertising could look like by 2015, while sharing innovations that Google engineers have been working on for the past few months. Real-time search and social media opens up a variety of options for advertisers.
Google’s Seven Predictions By 2015:
1) 50% of online ads will have video in them and be bought on a cost-per-view basis. Today, 24 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube each minute. Google Tuesday officially launched two YouTube video formats, TrueView, based on a cost-per-view advertising model after dabbling in it for nearly a year. This means advertisers only pay when consumers chose to watch the advertisement. TrueView will roll out later this year.
2) 50% of all display advertising targeted to a specific audience will rely on real-time bidding.
3) Mobile will become the No. 1 screen for advertising. The mobile screen will become the first screen that consumers go to on a variety of mobile devices.
4) Five new metrics will emerge to measure the success of ad campaigns. They will become more successful and important. Some exist already: engagement and interaction rates in rich media, video view, and impact on Web search results. Others might include sentiment analysis to measure the viral influence and the tone of consumer chatter about the brand across the Internet. Or, measure foot traffic into the store through geo-based technology.
5) 75% of ads will become socially enabled. In the long term, all ads will become social as the industry moves to an always-on communication.
6) 50% of brand campaigns will run rich media in the ads, up from 6% during the last year.
7) Display advertising will become a $50 billion industry. Google advertisers have increased the amount they spend annually with the technology company about 75% during the last year.
TeleNav Debuts Location-Based Mobile Advertising Platform For GPS Units & Apps
TeleNav has announced a new “drive-time search and navigation mobile advertising platform” to allow brands to deliver relevant and targeted ads to users based on the location and context of their search query. The announcement is a big deal considering the wide reach TeleNav has acquired by being incorporated in so many navigation devices and mobile apps.
TeleNav’s navigation services, both ad and non-ad enabled, are used by millions of unique users each month, with these users logging approximately 700 million minutes of application usage time each month. Search is key to TeleNav’s strategy, as users view more than 40 million mobile search pages each month, according to the company. 84% of these users are in their car when using TeleNav’s products to search for a place to drive, signaling a perfect opportunity to serve up relevant ads.
The company’s advertising platform uses proprietary technology to deliver a relevant and targeted ad for nearby advertisers based on the location and context of the search query. The platform also helps users make a decision on which business to drive to by allowing advertisers to include additional content, such as coupons, menus or promotional information. What’s interesting is the added metrics this concept provides advertisers. TeleNav offers a metric called “Drive-to-Rate,” which captures the number of users who viewed an ad and chose to drive to the advertiser’s business location.
“With growth in data-enabled phones and mobile search, users want more actionable local content, and advertisers want to drive and measure those actions,” said Michael Boland, analyst with BIA/Kelsey. “Guiding users to local businesses’ front doors and measuring that action will resonate on both sides of this equation.”
The concept will likely be a success given the fact that it’s a robust mobile advertising offering placed on top of an already far-reaching platform with a thriving user base. Whether users will want to see ads pop up as they’re searching and driving is up for debate, but the concept is solid nonetheless.
60% Of US Adults Have Noticed Mobile-Response Ads
In a new survey commissioned by Luth Research on behalf of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), it was found that 60 percent of respondents have noticed an ad that allows a mobile response, and 39 percent have noticed at least one within the past week.
The survey, entitled the “June 2010 U.S. Mobile Consumer Briefing,” is the MMA’s monthly survey of U.S. adult consumers about their mobile marketing behaviors and opinions. The results stem from a “demographically representative sample” of more than 1,000 U.S. adult consumers and was conducted June 28 through July 2. The survey asked consumers questions about the usage of their mobile phone and some of its features, including the make of their device, their carrier, preferred mobile response mechanism and when they last noticed an that allowed a mobile response.
The results show that Apple iPhone owners and young adults ages 18-24 are the consumer groups most likely to have seen an ad with a mobile response option. The survey also found that 70 percent of mobile users who noticed ads with a mobile response capability saw them on TV, with desktop and laptop PCs being the next most common media channel, followed by radio.
“The Consumer Briefing shows that the mobile channel is a highly effective way for brands and others to obtain responses from U.S. adults,” said Peter A. Johnson, vice president of market intelligence, MMA, and author of the study. “This effectiveness includes extensive reach across all adults and within certain demographic groups, such as young adults and Hispanics. But brands and agencies should pay close attention to which media outlets offer the best mobile response opportunities.”
Other finding of the survey include the following:
- Among those who noticed a mobile response ad on TV, one third responded. Asians, Hispanics and adults ages 35-44 were the most likely to use their mobile phone to respond to a TV ad.
- Response was highest in the media outlets with the lowest ad awareness. At least half of those who noticed mobile response ads in the cinema, in a print newspaper, in a print magazine or through direct mail had responded.
- Texting a keyword to a short code and calling a number were the top preferred methods of mobile response. Texting a keyword was most likely to be preferred by young adults ages 18-34, and adults ages 45 years and older significantly preferred calling a number.
- Asian mobile phone users were most likely to prefer sending an e-mail response, while Hispanic mobile users were most likely to prefer texting a keyword.
Adobe Mobile Survey
Adobe releases findings on new mobile survey.
Key findings:
Mobile websites are the predominant presence of businesses in the mobile channel, accounting for the bulk of their mobile traffic and surpassing the traffic generated by downloadable mobile applications. More than 80% of the respondents said they were planning or have already deployed a mobile commerce website versus 8% with a downloadable application-only strategy.
Respondents identified four key areas of execution for their mobile strategy: 1) promotions, 2) commerce, 3) product information display, and 4) branding. Promotions emerged as the top strategic element, followed by online commerce.
Rich, full-screen image zoom and videos are the most effective ways to browse or display products, according to a majority of the respondents. Grid viewing of thumbnails is deemed most effective for browsing multiple product images.
Overall, visual merchandising features are deployed by less than one-third of the respondents. However, as many as 81% of the respondents indicated they are planning to deploy those features, suggesting richer mobile experiences will be created over the coming months. Fully 96% of the respondents ranked catalogs & brochures, alternative images, and zoom & pan as most effective.
