For some time now there has been a huge amount of buzz around multimedia advertising on mobile devices.
The idea of being able to reach people with rich media advertising on this most personal of devices, as they're downloading music or watching a TV show or engaged with user-generated content, seems to offer so much promise.
Yet so far the category has yet to really take off, remaining in a state of near infancy.
And while spending on rich media mobile advertising is expected to ramp up over the next few years, it is still not ready for the mass market, according to a new study from Screen Digest, the London research outfit.
It forecasts that global spending will reach $2.79 billion by 2012, up from 475 million in 2008 (see chart, below).
“It’s not explosive growth but it is a steady one,” says Julien Theys, research analyst at Screen Digest. “The idea of explosive growth and some sort of bubble is, for us, not realistic because there need to be so many factors in place.”
What's not in place?
For one, there's no effective metric for measuring audience, allowing media buyers to compare mobile advertising with other media. This is particularly important for television. "For mobile TV to become an ad channel as such and not be integrated into the general TV audience market, you need specific metrics,” says Theys.
Also, there's a wide range of ways of pricing data downloads, which can be confusing to users.
Holding things back as well is handset usability, or the lack of it, how easy it is to use the features on any particular device. And the content delivered to mobile devices is often lacking.
As these challenges are solved, ad spending will rise, particularly in the area of mobile TV, which will account for the bulk of ad spending. Theys says the needed metrics are under development.
Screen Digest’s report looks specifically at rich media advertising delivered to mobile phones within particular types of mobile content, specifically TV, video on demand, user-generated content and games. The ads can take a variety of forms, depending on the medium, from simple display ads to TV spots to pre-rolls and post-rolls.
The researchers found that ad spending on global mobile TV will account for a huge proportion of the total spending. In fact, by 2012, global mobile TV ad spending will have grown to $2.44 billion, a big chunk of the $2.79 billion total.
Ad spending on the other forms of mobile content will be limited in comparison. For instance, the next-largest area will be mobile video-on-demand advertising, which will reach $336 million by 2012, up from $70 million in 2008.
In the U.S., ad spending on mobile media will rise to $721 million by 2012, up from $89 million this year. As on the global scene, mobile media ad spending in the U.S. will be strongest on mobile TV. It will climb to $631.1 million in 2012, up from $62.5 million in 2008.
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Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended April 27, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, Microsoft and AOL Media Network for the sixth straight week.
NexTag remained the No. 1 advertiser for the second straight week with 6.42 million impressions, just ahead of Experian Group Limited’s 6.35 million. With 31.7 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MySpace at 4.3 million.
Sessions per person per week were even to the previous week at 16, and domains visited per person were even at 39. PC time per person was down 1 percent compared with the previous week, to 17 hours and 20 minutes.
|
Top 25 parent companies
Through April 27 |
|
#
|
Parent
|
Unique Audience (000)
|
Reach %
|
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
|
|
1
|
Google
|
93,180
|
65.5
|
0:35:30
|
|
2
|
Microsoft
|
88,750
|
62.4
|
0:45:46
|
|
3
|
Yahoo!
|
79,800
|
56.1
|
1:04:44
|
|
4
|
Time Warner
|
66,740
|
46.9
|
1:19:43
|
|
5
|
News Corp. Online
|
44,348
|
31.2
|
0:43:18
|
|
6
|
eBay
|
34,545
|
24.3
|
0:52:33
|
|
7
|
InterActiveCorp
|
28,282
|
19.9
|
0:11:29
|
|
8
|
Apple Computer
|
26,004
|
18.3
|
0:29:59
|
|
9
|
Wikimedia Foundation
|
25,475
|
17.9
|
0:09:27
|
|
10
|
Amazon
|
24,869
|
17.5
|
0:16:06
|
|
11
|
Walt Disney Internet Group
|
22,601
|
15.9
|
0:23:54
|
|
12
|
New York Times Company
|
21,319
|
15.0
|
0:10:41
|
|
13
|
Landmark Communications
|
21,118
|
14.9
|
0:12:50
|
|
14
|
AT&T Inc.
|
17,372
|
12.2
|
0:20:41
|
|
15
|
RealNetworks, Inc.
|
16,250
|
11.4
|
0:14:28
|
|
16
|
E.W. Scripps Company
|
13,240
|
9.3
|
0:06:03
|
|
17
|
Verizon Communications
|
12,640
|
8.9
|
0:16:29
|
|
18
|
CraigsList
|
12,542
|
8.8
|
0:35:12
|
|
19
|
Comcast Corp.
|
12,421
|
8.7
|
0:29:22
|
|
20
|
Facebook
|
11,732
|
8.3
|
0:43:40
|
|
21
|
CNET Networks
|
11,649
|
8.2
|
0:05:03
|
|
22
|
CBS Corporation
|
11,574
|
8.1
|
0:17:43
|
|
23
|
United Online
|
11,335
|
8.0
|
0:30:45
|
|
24
|
Viacom Digital
|
11,104
|
7.8
|
0:21:36
|
|
25
|
Bank of America
|
10,937
|
7.7
|
0:26:30
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online
|
|
Top 25 brands
Through April 27 |
|
|
Parent
|
Unique Audience (000)
|
Reach %
|
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
|
|
1 |
Google
|
85,692
|
60.3
|
0:26:36
|
|
2 |
Yahoo!
|
78,862
|
55.5
|
1:05:05
|
|
3 |
MSN/Windows Live
|
63,698
|
44.8
|
0:46:52
|
|
4 |
Microsoft
|
57,624
|
40.5
|
0:17:44
|
|
5 |
AOL Media Network
|
53,919
|
37.9
|
1:28:28
|
|
6 |
Fox Interactive Media
|
38,420
|
27.0
|
0:46:13
|
|
7 |
YouTube
|
33,870
|
23.8
|
0:25:18
|
|
8 |
eBay
|
28,122
|
19.8
|
0:57:17
|
|
9 |
Apple
|
26,004
|
18.3
|
0:29:59
|
|
10 |
Wikipedia
|
