Brands Shift Focus of Mobile Outreach

Agencies say more clients are interested in Android devices and SMS advertising

As more consumers interact with brands via both smartphones and feature phones, marketers are approaching mobile advertising in new ways.

STRATA, a software company for media buying and selling, polled agencies about their clients’ preferences in Q1 2011. When it comes to mobile advertising, 37% of respondents said they are creating display advertising the most, and 25% noted SMS advertising. This is compared to 63% for display advertising and 15% for SMS advertising in Q4 2010.

Location-based advertising also doubled as a priority, with 7% of respondents saying they are mostly creating location-based advertising for clients, up from 3% in Q4 2010.

While the iPhone and Android devices receive a lot of press, the reality is that most consumers still have feature phones. And while smartphone owners are more engaged with their devices, many feature phone owners are also willing to interact with brands via mobile.

“SMS often gets overlooked, but the vast majority of users of all ages are texting,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital marketing agency 360i, at the 2011 Public Relations Society of America’s Digital Impact Conference in May.

In September 2010 eMarketer forecast that SMS would be the biggest single mobile advertising format in 2011, with a 38% share of mobile advertising spending.

Not only are marketers shifting their advertising focus, but they are also open to working with various mobile devices. According to STRATA, 76.3% of respondents said their clients are most interested in advertising on the iPhone, down from 80.6% in Q4 2010. Android devices are also popular and 46.1% of respondents said clients were interested in advertising on Android, up slightly from 45.8% in Q4 2010. Interest in BlackBerry as an advertising channel, at 51.4% in Q4 2010, dropped to 35.5% in Q1 2011.

As mobile advertising becomes a bigger focus for marketers, they are diversifying their programs, and working with more devices and various types of ads. As consumers increasingly use smartphones or become accustomed to interacting with brands via SMS, marketers can reach specific groups and target audiences by using a mix of advertising and working with several platforms and devices.

Keep your business ahead of the digital curve. Learn more about SMS marketing and the tools that can effectively help you reach and engage your audiences now.

Referenced Article from eMarketer

58% Of Mobile Web Users Get Their Content Fix Through Browsers

Yes, smartphone apps are still in vogue, and most mobile app stores continue to grow by leaps and bounds. Yet consumers spend more time engaging with the mobile Web on their smartphones than through ad-supported apps, according to STAT (Simple Targeting & Audience Trends) report. It claims more than 58 percent of mobile internet users in the U.S. are getting content through their browser(s), compared to 42 percent via mobile apps.

An explanation for the discrepancy was not given, but I suspect this has something to do with the existence of more websites than there are apps, and that jumping from one app to the next to consume content isn’t as good a user experience as simply opening a new page or tab within your mobile browser of choice.

Additionally, a lot of major Internet services (Gmail, Bing, Google search etc.) tend to function as good or even better through the mobile browser than via native apps.

As for the favored mobile platform, SMS remains the most ubiquitous and effective one that works seamlessly with a mobile browser. Using SMS to bridge the gap between the end user and a mobile Web site should yield the best results.

Partially from Tech Crunch article by Robin Wauters