How will mobile advertising continue to progress in 2018?
The future of
advertising is mobile. Despite the claims from print publications and other
off-line advertising mediums around their continued relevance and value to
brands, an increasingly large proportion of advertisers’ annual budgets is
going towards mobile advertising each year.
Indeed, recent
figures detailing global advertising spend from eMarketer highlighted that
spending on paid media worldwide will have risen by 7% at the end of 2017, to
$584.14 billion, and that this increase was mainly driven by investment in
mobile advertising formats.
Indeed, in the same
report, eMarketer documented that mobile advertising spend will be $142.78
billion in 2017, a rise of 33.6% from 2016.
Big brands are
constantly looking for ways to reach their targets and new audiences, both in
terms of the content they put out there and the platforms they adopt.
The mobile experience
As consumers
continue to spend more time on their devices browsing the internet and in apps,
brands need to find smarter ways of accessing millions of untapped screens.
It’s true to say that Asia leads the way in terms of innovation and
trailblazing new technology. That said, other regions aren’t complacent and
standing still when it comes to innovation.
For instance, we’ve
seen a lot of news from mobile operators around the globe in recent weeks
detailing relaunches for advanced Rich Communication Services (RCS) designed to
give users a more experiential, multimedia experience from their messaging
platforms.
The key challenge
for mobile operators is one which has been prevalent for many years – that of
monetizing these messaging platforms and apps, as well as providing users with
the type of experience that competing providers have achieved.
There is, it seems,
a timely opportunity to utilize the appetite of advertisers and big brands to
access a greater volume of targeted mobile screens, whilst also meeting the
high demands of users for that all-important, multi-layered, multi-media
experience on their mobile.
Mobile operators
It is a fact that
mobile operators have experienced diminishing average revenue per user (ARPU),
high churn rates and reduced customer loyalty in recent years.
Why? Because
demanding, cost conscious mobile users were quick to trade in traditional
messaging platforms and operator services for over-the-top (OTT), instant
messaging (IM) which was provided using the internet and therefore
free-of-charge, whilst the mobile operators have had to invest in the network
infrastructure and the associated costs.
That said, SMS is
still widely used and increasing, with mobile operators now offering messaging
as a free service. Additionally, the use of Application to Person (A2P)
messaging has been highly successful and is increasing; providing many
different organisations with a secure and reliable communications channel – how
many of us now get text messages to remind us about appointment times or
deliveries which are on their way?
This is because SMS
has proven to be a trusted channel of communication for businesses to provide
information to their customers, as well as being ubiquitous unlike the various
IM platforms which vary according the users’ personal preferences and use.
Fast-forward to the
present day and there is now a commercial imperative for mobile operators to
find ways of monetizing their messaging platforms and apps.
The point is perhaps
best encapsulated in a recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
which found that mobile operators will face a profitability squeeze in 2018 as
they attempt to balance the investment required to satisfy demand for 4G and 5G
mobile connectivity and cost, with a growing number of competitive threats.
Not only this but
savvy consumers are becoming more aware of the value of their user data and
will, undoubtedly, become even more demanding towards their mobile operators
when it comes to obtaining user incentives and discounts from their mobile
network provider.
Next-generation mobile advertising
Mobile users already
accept the addition of digital advertising, be it in the form of banner ads,
sponsored content, pop-ups, mobile videos, branded surveys and the list goes
on, provided they feel either the mobile experience is one which they really
enjoy, or there is a financial or material advantage to them of accepting the
advertisements on a particular platform – often it is a mix of both.
Additionally, it
almost goes without saying that data is driving increasingly acute
personalisation and relevancy of adverts to a level which has never been seen
before, from alerting someone when there is a sale on in their favourite shop
to remembering important dates like birthdays and anniversaries, so the
addition of in-app advertisements has benefits beyond financial for many.
Mobile operators
have arguably the best data on mobile usage available today but they need to
grasp the opportunity to fully monetize this – especially bearing in mind the
revenue squeeze predicted by the EIU in 2018.
Highly targeted and
unobtrusive digital adverts within messaging conversations, along with
monetization of apps including customer care, money such as wallets and
payments, internet TV offered via mobile and IoT apps such as smart home,
wearables and smart retail could provide the answer.
Indeed, having moved
on from the days when poorly targeted digital adverts were more of an annoyance
than a benefit, today’s technology can offer mobile users an enhanced profile,
preferences and data-driven experience which delivers real value.
From the user’s
perspective, their data is power, and they should make the most of the airtime
they are willing to offer advertisers in the form of preferential mobile
contracts, user incentives and better handsets in return for accepting this new
wave of advertising content.
In a world where the
lines between desired content and advertising is well and truly blurred, why
wouldn’t you monetize, in whatever form that might be, your precious data and
have the added benefit of highly targeted and lifestyle enhancing content from
brands you are already interested in.
2018 will be an
interesting year for mobile – with mobile operators under more pressure and
facing financial challenges. Innovation will be key to their survival as B2C
providers and although we have already seen some mobile operators looking to
partner with OTT providers in a bid to win back market share, the more exciting
play will be in technology deployments which enable them to regain the upper
hand to win back that all important customer loyalty, drive additional revenue
and boost profitability.
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