We asked industry leaders for their reaction to last week’s report from Gartner announcing that Worldwide Mobile Advertising Revenue is to Reach $11.4 Billion in 2013. Here’s what they had to say:
“There’s a lot here that I agree with, particularly how search will grow and drive mobile revenue over the short term and how the supply/demand imbalance in display is somewhat like the early days of the PC web (dominated by early adopting DR advertisers). Two things to add: 1.) There needs to be as much/more focus on mobile display ad format innovation to drive growth as targeting. Current solutions such as the 300×250 do not provide marketers with the opportunity to be viewed and stand out. 2.) Ultimately what will drive a lot of this revenue growth will be cross screen campaigns. Reaching consumers in this manner is both a challenge and opportunity for marketers and requires providers that can make it happen easily and seamlessly.” Eric Franchi, Co-Founder, Undertone.
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“The brand component of Gartner’s predictions on mobile advertising growth will be the most interesting to watch. Mobile inventory scale is no longer in doubt, but mobile campaign effectiveness is. For brands to succeed on smart phones and tablets, immersive experiences that add value for consumers must become the norm, and not the exception.”– Ari Jacoby, CEO of Solve Media.
“With this new report, it’s clear that user acquisition costs will remain relatively low when compared to PC web channels. We estimate that mobile user acquisition costs are still one fifth of what they are on the PC. The addition of new devices in the market has made the smartphone ubiquitous. For high end consumers, mobile devices are clearly the first screen for shopping, news, communications and entertainment. Now is a great time to increase mobile user acquisition spending, as we believe Gartner’s findings on mobile ad unit price softening are purely transitory, and costs will go up significantly next year.” – Gregory Kennedy, Vice President, Marketing, TapSense,
“The Gartner report makes it clear that companies should be spending more on mobile advertising campaigns. Consumers are turning to their mobile devices before turning on the television or browsing the PC web—to ignore this highly engaging channel would be foolish. We have already seen numbers double over the past year and expect this to continue over the next four years. The organizations who don’t invest in mobile advertising will not only be missing out on an essential channel for engaging and communicating with consumers, but also risk being seen as old-fashioned or out-of-touch by the increasing mobile-first generation.” – Shrikant Latkar, VP Global Marketing, InMobi.
“Mobile paywall or content subscriptions will likely out-yield mobile advertising even more than it does on desktop.” — MediaPass CEO Matthew Mitchell.
“Run just about any app and you get a collection of ads for other apps, a mish-mash of low-quality remnant advertising, and the occasional targeted ad from a major brand advertiser. That’s hardly a recipe for success. But the inventory may well start shrinking (or at least growing more slowly) as more and more app developers move away from advertising and find ways make more money through premium add-ons or premium ad-free versions of their app.” — Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail.
“In 2013, there will be a major switch to CPA (cost-per-action) or performance based mobile advertising that will require major improvements in user tracking as more and more brands are demanding an in-app purchase model, where advertisers only pay for actual results rather than clicks. In addition, the mobile advertising industry will be driven by technology; specifically technology that will help advertisers adopt new targeting techniques to ensure that ads are reaching the right people, which will eventually ensure the advertisers’ ROI. Also, relevant, targeted ads will change the end user perception since they will only be receiving ads that are targeted or personalized for them.” – Sephi Shapira, CEO of MassiveImpact.
“The online advertising industry’s raison d’etre has always been ‘accountability’. I believe that the strong growth for worldwide mobile advertising according to Gartner – from $11.4 billion in 2013 to $24.5 billion in 2016 – is being driven by the greater accountability in mobile marketing today based on our ability to measure mobile marketing campaigns, whether they’re in-app or online. When a mobile advertiser / agency knows that network X delivers double the ROI of network W, and can optimize the campaign accordingly across networks / publishers, then more and more ad money will go mobile. That’s what is happening in 2013.” – Oren Kaniel, CEO & co-founder, AppsFlyer.
“Given that Briabe has now been in the industry for 8 years, we are of course are thrilled that advertisers are now truly awakening to the power of the mobile to reach consumers like no other media platform can and drive business results. Even more exciting than the current numbers is the overall potential of the mobile channel. Mobile is unlike any other media in that clients must now think about how they execute it across all other media. This will continue to drive mobile deeper into their marketing/advertising plans.” – James Briggs, CEO, Briabe Mobile.