| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 02/23/2012 | New York NY | |
| 02/26/2012 - 02/28/2012 | Miami Beach FL | |
| 02/29/2012 | West Hollywood CA | |
| 03/01/2012 | New York NY | |
| 03/04/2012 - 03/06/2012 | San Francisco CA | |
| 03/07/2012 | San Jose CA | |
| 03/09/2012 - 03/18/2012 | Austin TX | |
| 03/13/2012 | Boston MA | |
| 03/19/2012 - 03/20/2012 | San Francisco CA | |
| 03/20/2012 | Atlanta GA |
iMedia Connection
Reaching mobile consumers is on the thoughts and minds of brand managers heading into 2012 and beyond. The challenge is to drive meaningful engagement across a highly fragmented landscape while providing a positive & relevant experience to the consumer.
TabTimes
iMedia
There’s a lot of talk around mobile marketing and advertising, but the significant investments being made do not accurately represent the full spend earmarked for mobile ad campaigns. Search still commands a large percentage of most mobile budgets and eMarketer projects that it will continue to grow as the majority year-over-year. To reverse the trend, we need to secure more investment in mobile advertising by continuing to showcase the value of mobile rich media.
Mobile Marketing Watch
The latest projections published this week from research firm Berg Insight suggest that the total value of the global mobile marketing and advertising market is on pace for record growth over the next 48 months.
According to the latest estimates, the industry will see 37% growth by 2016, bringing the industry’s total value to $22.6 billion at that time.
MediaPost
It’s still far too difficult to buy mobile advertising online, and about 90% of ads on publisher sites never appear on a part of the mobile screen that consumers view without scrolling down the page, said Greg Stuart, Global CEO, Mobile Marketing Association, during opening remarks at the industry conference in Los Angeles.
ClickZ
An eMarketer report declared that mobile display will be a dominant ad format by 2015, when U.S. mobile ad spending will increase to $1.9 billion from this year’s $434 million. More advertisers are willing to invest in mobile, particularly display ads, because of its advanced targeting capabilities and the opportunities to engage a growing population of smartdevice users.
Matthew Yorke
Ever feel like you have seen this movie before? Heady growth rates, market consolidation at huge multiples that will never truly get financially justified, frenzied media coverage on the one hand, and on the other reluctant enthusiasm and healthy doses of skepticism. This could be the year 2000 and we could be sitting in meetings discussing a small but growing online advertising number against a gigantic but static print number. Today, the hot topic for media companies is mobile compared to a big and still growing online ad market.
Apple’s Steve Jobs predicted 2011 would be the year of the tablet. With that prediction he is undoubtedly right, but only half right. It is also the year mobile finally breaks out from all the false promises and actually exceeds expectations.
I wrote about the 3 Ps of publishing in a Minsider column in April 2011 and portability—one of the 3 Ps– has become the most significant change for publishers and consumers. The natural assumption is that mobile is a consumer story and b2b media and marketers are on the sidelines watching with envy. Well, it is just not true!
IDG Global Solutions in July 2011 released the results of a mobile survey of almost 13, 700 people in 16 countries that measured the adoption of smartphones, tablets, and their applications usage. There are some really interesting findings:
• More than two thirds of respondents use a smartphone for personal or business use.
• 70% browse the Internet regularly and use mobile applications, with almost two-thirds of participants using between one to seven apps.
• 27% already own a tablet with 67% planning to buy one in the next 12 months, of which 80% will buy an Apple iPad!
• 67% of tablet owners share the device with colleagues and family, extending the tablet experience and reach beyond the 27% ownership figure.
Not surprisingly, Apple is either #1 or #2 in all markets as far as handsets are concerned.
Perhaps, what surprised me the most is the consumption data from b2b users compared to b2c consumers. B2b users are making more calls, sending more text messages, browsing the Internet more often, accessing more mobile email, and downloading more apps than b2c users. The mobile opportunity is here for both media and marketers and no question that includes b2b.
In a frenzied world of activity and information overload, the smartphone stays with you all the time and mixes personal and professional activities seamlessly. In the high-tech category, where average sales times are 18 months, mobile offers an opportunity to reach target audiences wherever and however they want to consume content. Why should we assume that IT professionals will wait to preview a whitepaper or watch a case study until they get back to the office? That just makes no sense. Far more likely is via their social graph and mobile widgets, they will see that an IT peer just commented on a piece of content that is relevant, open a link in a mobile browser, read the content, and possibly add a comment.
In an era of real-time marketing, mobile is the enabler. The challenge for both publishers and marketers: do we make the same mistakes we made in online, post static versions of publications or brochures and call that a website? We are in the very early stages of mobile, social, and location-based integration, the smart publishers and marketers will create content and experiences specifically for the mobile platform, not just adapt existing digital content.
Not convinced yet: an estimated two billion people access the Internet, 50% of them via a mobile device. IDC predicts 472 million smartphones will ship this year. Gartner forecasts the mobile ad market will be worth $20.6 billion by 2015.
Seen this movie before? This time media companies with innovative marketer clients can lead the revolution, not get swept up by it.
Matthew Yorke, President IDG Global Solutions
The social web and related marketing services dominated programs with major technology marketers in 2010. While social began to emerge in 2009, it became a major revenue source and requirement by brand-name marketers.
We expect the growth of social advertising, social listening/analysis, and social content as advertising services to continue in 2011. A recent eMarketer report validates the trend: in 2011, four out of five U.S. businesses with 100 employees or more said they plan to use social media marketing. Recently, Google said the future of online display advertising is social display advertising. We fully expect 2011 to be the year where we stop talking exclusively about social media and start talking about social business.
The mobile train arrives
As for key opportunities and challenges ahead, the mobile train finally arrived in 2010 … the hype long since departed. 2011 will be the year when mobile advertising in all its forms becomes serious business. IDC predicts mobile advertising in the U.S. alone will be a $2 billion business.
Worldwide, more than 330 million smartphones and 42 million tablets will be sold. These new hyper-connected devices, which in the case of tablets will offer rich and vibrant brand experiences for advertisers, will shift consumption habits and take more and more of consumers’ time. The challenge for media companies and advertisers is where to invest: Is it Apple, Google, Research in Motion, and/or Microsoft?
We expect a lot of experimentation around the traditional website experience, as well as iPad-optimized treatments, app-specific experiences, and paid and free app versions as publishers seek to understand the needs of users and push the boundaries on paid/free content and distribution channels. All of this offers tremendous growth opportunities – as long as the industry continues to innovate.
Increasing importance of data
The importance of data rose in 2010, fueled by ad networks, exchanges and real-time bidding (RTB). One estimate shows almost half of display ads are served by exchanges and sell-side platforms, 33% via ad networks, and only 19% by publishers directly. The shift to automated systems will escalate in 2011 driven partly by efficiencies, partly by the real-time elements, and mostly by data.
But data will not be limited to exchanges and networks. We are entering an era of real-time marketing where data feeds a model of intelligent and actionable insights collected by publishers and delivered to marketing clients. Understanding how to capture and analyze that data will be a big challenge for publishers that need to adapt their work flows. There may be an even bigger challenge if the government responds to concerns about data privacy with new regulations.
Social media, mobile, and data crept up on us in 2010. In the new year, these trends will come together and transform the way media companies reach consumers, how content is personalized for them, and the relationships media companies have with advertisers.