The mobile industry has been talking about the mobile market potential for years and mobile advertising has become a hot topic in the SEM world. In the past, the U.S. mobile market had been largely out of reach. Today, forecasters suggest that we are on the verge of a market transformation and that U.S. mobile advertising represents a promising future market opportunity.
There have been many common themes that support the success of U.S. mobile advertising: top-line search growth is slowing and companies must explore other advertising markets to promote top-line growth; Google, currently the largest search engine, has tested and launched Google Mobile Ads; Apple’s iPhone represents a transformative device that has increased the awareness of mobile capabilities and more and more manufacturers will now enter the market with similar devices to compete.
However, these positive forecasts have been up for much debate. At the Mobile Advertising & Marketing USA event in San Francisco last month, speakers were asked if 2008 would be the year that mobile advertising really takes off in the U.S. The speakers agreed that there’s still too much work and education to be done before mobile advertising takes off. Agency executives blamed the slow progress of the U.S. mobile market on carrier constraints, the massive amounts of devices that require individual coding and basic lack of knowledge by companies on the benefits of mobile advertising. The speakers predicted that mobile advertising in the U.S. will see more traction in 2009 or 2010.
Although the mobile market may take another year to explode, there is much focus being given to it. Advertisers are beginning to explore their options and are looking to mobile advertising as a new channel to directly target consumers. The first movers in mobile advertising will not only benefit from lower CPCs due to a less saturated market space, they will also gain an advantage to learning what works and what doesn’t before their competitors jump on board.
While the verdict is still out on whether or not 2008 will be the “Year of the Mobile Ad,” one thing we can say for sure is: fasten your seatbelts; 2008 is looking to be a long and exciting ride.
