By Ben HumphryThe ‘Year of Mobile’ has been raging in the atmosphere of predicted media trends for at least the last five years.  Despite chirpings of mobile ad spend growing to massive degrees; we’re still a long way off mobile representing any more than a rounding error for most campaign budgets.
 
According to the most recent IAB the UK’s mobile ad spend had increased to £203m for 2011; let’s not forget that this only accounts for around 5 percent of either TV or online’s spend. However, there is no doubt that mobile advertising is growing in importance in the media mix.  What is promising is that mobile’s share of media consumption is about 30 per cent of that for TV or fixed internet. This is even bigger when we account for mobile’s increasing dual/triple screen usage.
 
There are many reasons for this discrepancy in figures. First and foremost, mobile presents a challenging environment of multiple media consumption, where each media has different formats. There are also tightly controlled routes to access these media because they all have operating systems which pertain to different regulations.
 
At the moment, mobile ads are difficult to target, hard to manage, and restrictive in terms of what they can measure.  While it can potentially provide effective geo-targeting, IOS lacks the usual mechanism to track users for data-driven or behavioural targeting because third party cookies are restricted.  This is the reason why until now the majority of ads have been sold with a cost per click model, allowing for the management of a simple ROI.
 
Brand advertising is pretty much non-existent right now. Other than through digital magazines and a handful of branded apps (almost certainly both representing test campaigns rather than general marketing), very few brands have ventured onto mobile platforms.
 
There are several vital requirements that brand advertising must deliver in order to be effective. The ad must reach a target audience, convey a strong message, and finally the brand impact of that message must be measured.  But mobile faces challenges in these certain requirements. We have an environment where cookies are strictly controlled so audience information is hard to collect and even harder to maintain. Furthermore, messages that a brand is trying to convey are limited to either basic formats or require multiple creative executions. Also, the same limitations as every other medium apply in terms of measuring the messages; traditionally brand impact can only be measured using expensive market research, post-campaign.
 
However, what remains exciting is that we’re starting to see improvements.  Mobile- specific ad platforms have been enhanced considerably because they can deliver rich formats across operating systems and mobile web environments. Technology vendors, like nugg.ad, who have specialised in brand engagement tools in digital advertising, have created audience and brand measurement tools for mobile.
 
These kinds of advances enable brand advertisers to choose an audience based on social demographics and product preferences, deliver a rich, engaging message to them on any phone and understand what portion of the total audience they’ve reached. What’s more, the impact it has had on brand recognition, brand affinity and intent to purchase can be captured in real time, and used to optimize the campaign.
 
We have in front of us the technology, the audiences and a maturing medium to create impact through mobile. I would say education is the only thing that is keeping brands back from using mobile extensively. In time media owners will begin to implement the latest technology on their mobile properties and the much-lauded ‘Year of Mobile’ will inch itself slowly towards reality.

Ben Humphrey is country director UK and Ireland at nugg.ad