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Mobile IAB Ad Spend

Industry reaction to IAB report showing spike in mobile ad spend: M&C Saatchi Mobile, Profero, Rocket Fuel, TubeMogul, Ebuzzing, Millennial Media, Adfonic, InMobi

By Angela Haggerty, Reporter

M&C Saatchi Mobile

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Mobile article

October 8, 2013 | 7 min read

After the Internet Advertising Bureau's latest report revealed a 127 per cent increase in mobile ad spend in the first half of 2013 to £429.2m, The Drum contacted some industry figures to find out their views.

James Hilton, CEO M&C Saatchi Mobile

While I am delighted to see the increase of mobile spend being in triple digits I am certainly not surprised. Advertising on mobile devices offers brands opportunities which cannot be replicated on any other channel and with the wider adoption of programmatic buying utilising first party data I am confident that this growth figure will remain for many years to come. Every month we are witnessing new and engaging formats for brands to draw consumers in via their mobile and this coupled with the insatiable appetite for mobile content by the UK consumer will ensure mobile marketing continues to exceed brands’ expectations in terms of engagement and performance.

Chris Gough, head of media strategy, Profero Performance

Digging behind the headline figures, we can observe the start of a mature mobile advertising market. We are certainly starting to see some real alignment between the consumer journey and the shopper experience. This is reflected in the increase in search spend but also in the rise of the FMCGs in the mobile display space. These consumer brands are rapidly starting to recognise the importance of mobile in an omni-channel world. The next phase of development needs agencies to better integrate mobile with other channels while creating experiences more aligned to the user and device. More advertiser spend will then follow.

Dominic Trigg, VP and managing director, Europe at Rocket Fuel

With more people accessing the internet via mobile devices than desktop, the only surprise is that advertisers haven’t spent more on mobile advertising sooner. However, it has taken brands and publishers time to understand the full potential of mobile and achieve good performance via mobile devices. A good example of this is location-based services. Its early attempts were all about targeting users based on their current location. Now, it’s possible to be much more sophisticated with location data, using it to build a far more comprehensive and valuable portrait of users based on their historic patterns of travel, shopping and so forth. This shows how the improvement in mobile marketing techniques is driving the rapid growth in ad spend.

Nick Reid, UK Managing Director at TubeMogul

We’ve seen a quantum shift in how users are consuming content and attention has moved over to mobiles and tablets – we know that video has been a driving force accounting for their changing habits. Research that we’ve carried out recently has found, for example, that people like watching video on mobile phones at night in bed and using their tablets during normal TV viewing hours as either their primary or second screen. The IAB’s half-yearly mobile ad spend figures are a great illustration of how brands are utilising technology to adapt their spend to meet consumers’ evolving consumption habits across a variety of new platforms.

Paul Coggins, VP of Mobile at Ebuzzing

Clearly, the stand out figure for me is the massive percentage increase in mobile video from £1.7m in 2012 to £23m in 2013. Despite starting at a very low base, this is still a monumental increase that we believe will only continue to accelerate over the coming months, let alone years. The shift in media consumption from static's ( TV's/desktops) to mobile devices (smartphones/tablets) is occurring at breakneck speed. Adspend, which traditionally is a little more conservative than consumer behaviour, is only just beginning to catch up. The coming months will see increased innovation in mobile video formats, a better understanding of how consumers are engaging with advertising on those devices and an even higher increase in mobile video ad spend in 2014.

Gavin Stirrat, EMEA managing director, Millennial Media

The IAB’s Digital Adspend report clearly shows that as awareness and understanding grows, brands are no longer asking 'why?’ but 'how?’ when it comes to determining their mobile strategy. Such strong growth reported by the IAB, particularly in mobile video and display advertising for consumer goods, is not only extremely positive but it also demonstrates just how key it is as a medium for engaging with consumers as part of the purchase decision-making process. At Millennial Media, we enjoy working closely with the IAB to help shape the future growth of the mobile advertising industry. Results like those announced yesterday demonstrate how successful this has been. Where we see the next phase of growth is in new measurement solutions, which demonstrate the impact mobile advertising is having on real-world metrics that matter most to brands – whether that be brand uplift, foot traffic, or increased revenue. When brands can easily evaluate the effectiveness of mobile campaigns on these metrics, then I believe we'll see even further dramatic growth in the industry.

Victor Malachard, CEO and co-founder, Adfonic

There were a lot of very positive numbers released yesterday for the digital media industry and in particular the mobile advertising sector. For me, some of the most significant numbers lay behind the headline growth figures as we saw consumer goods companies become the largest spending vertical on mobile advertising, representing 27 per cent of all spend and moving ahead of entertainment for the first time. This is hugely significant for mobile as it demonstrates the ability of the channel to cater to brand campaigns and not just to promote intangible goods. It was also interesting to see mobile display wrestle share of overall spend away from search to reach 35 per cent of the total, which brings mobile in line with the overall split in digital. I was also encouraged to see a real spurt in the use of mobile video ads, which shows the medium still has a lot more potential on the creative front and this certainly chimes with what our agency and brand customers are beginning to think about.

Shrikant Latkar, vice president of marketing, InMobi

Insights into the continual growth of mobile ad spend as found in the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Digital Adspend report demonstrate the vast opportunities available to brands who take advantage of it. Mobile has quickly become the principal choice for consumers in accessing information and consuming media and because of this they have become more accustomed to adverts on their mobiles. The user has become key in targeting the right individual at the right time and in the right place and will be central in driving the mobile advertising industry forward.We expect this figure to increase significantly over the next couple of years as brands continue to unlock the potential of mobile advertising and, along with advances in technology, pursue rich, sophisticated and more engaging experiences that will ultimately benefit the end user.
Mobile IAB Ad Spend

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