Today at London's famous Sketch restaurant we unveiled preliminary findings from Part II of our global research project. By now you are all familiar with the global network data we released on Sept. 8th, but there is a Part II to our effort which includes a consumer survey via the mobile phone conducted among over 13,000 consumers in 14 countries so far. Analysts (Informa, Enders, SCC Insights, comScore), agencies (OMD, Starcom, Bliss, Somo, Lucidity) and journalists (Financial Times, Reuter's, Bloomberg, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Marketing, Screen Digest, IF Communications) all joined us for lunch and breakfast to review this comprehensive feedback from consumers. While the group discussed numerous aspects of the research, two really stood out as having serious implications for the industry moving forward:
Mobile advertising must do more to consider the immediate, convenient nature of the device. Making a call, purchasing, or searching are all more important and engaging to consumers than engaging with content. While the latter may make sense for the fixed web, simply posting your web ads into a phone misses the point entirely. We have hard data to show it directly from consumers. Yes, it's more work, but we cannot pretend mobile is "just like PC" any longer. Consumer are telling us it's not.
The Number One benefit of mobile advertising according to consumers is to "help them learn something new". We asked about entertaining them, saving time, saving money, free content, finding something nearby, etc. All of these benefits, while important, were secondary to the top of the funnel benefit of learning something new. This point was further illustrated by the response to our major auto brand research where a campaign around the launch of a new car outperformed a major travel, entertainment, and consumer electronic brand.
A special thanks to the analysts, agencies, and journalists in London, New York, and San Francisco who have taken the time to discuss our global research project. Up next - Singapore and Africa!
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