In his article on Facebook and the growth of mobile ads, Farhad Manjoo of the Wall Street Journal talks about the somewhat unexpected success of mobile ads over the past year and the growing tolerance that consumers (including himself) have for them. From where I sit, now on my third ad tech startup, I agree with Farhad’s assessment given the profound lifestyle changes that mobile has introduced to society and the willingness of ad tech vendors and social networks to innovate based on that shift.
Mobile phones have quickly become our most trusted device and the remote controls to our daily lives. The average user engages about 200 times a day with their mobile device of choice, spending an average of two hours and 21 minutes a day on them. Seemingly overnight, surfing the Web and watching videos on a computer or TV is old school – replaced by smartphones and tablets. The fact that Facebook was able to anticipate the receptiveness of delivering ads to this growing demographic of mobile users is a testament to their vision and the intimate relationships they have with their network of users.
So, what’s next? While Facebook experiments with video, we’re seeing growing demand among the brands we work with at RadiumOne for location-based advertising. For many, they see this as a way to bridge the gap between mobile and desktop advertising. Mobile offers advertisers touchpoints with consumers at times, places and contexts where other media have never been effective: commuting, at the gym, running through an airport or in the aisle of a store. Geo-location information provides valuable data about consumer behavior that can help drive both online and in-store purchases. When merged with desktop and mobile information this creates an unprecedented opportunity to deliver highly targeted and personalized ads to consumers organically throughout their day as they are launching apps, checking in and shopping at retailers of choice. With the advent of this technology, brands who continue force-feeding ads to unreceptive audiences will be missing the opportunity hat mobile and geo-location brings to the table.
Just imagine being able to deliver location-specific ads to a consumer who is one block away from a Neiman Marcus store after they visited the online Neiman Marcus store just last week. This powerful form of retargeting will provide sales promotions to the people who have already indicated interest in a brand online.
Along those lines, I’m also excited about the prospect of services like Apple iBeacon because it allows brick-and-mortar retailers to get in on the act by sending personalized mobile offers to people who walk through their doors. Like a personal shopper, iBeacon gives smaller boutique retailers a leg up by guiding shoppers through the store to the items they would like to purchase. If retailers are able to harness their online advertising data and merge it effectively with iBeacon, we have a definite game-changer that can then create information to improve online display advertising in a cumulative feedback loop. For their part, Google Glass and other wearable inventions that analyze consumers' movements are definitely a sign of what's to come.
Over the course of my 15-years in the industry, I’ve never been more bullish and optimistic on the prospects that lie ahead. In fact, if I were to wager a bet, I’d say the growth of mobile will trump current analyst estimates of 19% to account for 30% of all digital spend in 2014. Once we fully understand how amazingly we can target with accuracy on mobile - everyone will start to see the real value.
