We talked a while ago about how mobile usage – just like web usage - will be about services rather than content. Thankfully, new figures suggest that wasn’t complete tish. But what does it mean for media owners and advertisers?
Nielsen said that mobile internet usage shot up 25% in the third quarter of this year and the five most popular sites were BBC news, Google search, BBC weather, Facebook and Hotmail.
Kent Ferguson, senior analyst at Nielsen, said of it all: "The fact that weather, sports, news and email sites make up the majority of leading mobile sites shows that mobile internet is mainly about functionality and need at the moment, as opposed to the more entertainment and e-commerce-focused make-up of the leading PC-based sites."
So, now there’s (even more) facts to back up the theory, what can be done about it? Well, as advertisers we shouldn’t be thinking about what content it might be right to tie our advertising to, but what it is mobile users might want and need from our particular brand.
I’m Toyota (picked at random - well done them). Should I pump out my 30-second spots wherever mobile TV appears? Should I put banner ads on Autotrader’s mobile site? Well, I could. But, better to pick services that my customers want – and that fit the brand – and deliver those. ‘Today. Tomorrow.’ is the company’s current UK positioning. So, journey planners? Travel news? Traffic problems based on your GPS positioning? I’d be all over it.
Toyota could of course do all this work itself and seek to build a mobile site all around this kind of stuff. But, personally - and here’s where the media owners come in - I’d be after an expert brand that has the resources, infrastructure and credibility to attract my audience. And that’s when I’d be on the phone to Autotrader.
I’m positive that mobile ad banners will grow as a revenue source. But I’m equally positive that their value to advertisers will diminish – just as they have on the web – and soon prove an unprofitable format to support. Understanding that digital is about service, not content, will help media owners avoid that issue sooner rather than later, and have something useful to say for themselves the day the Toyota call comes in.
