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Mobile TV ad spending projected to top $2.5 billion in 2013

By Joyce Chang

Spending on mobile TV advertising is expected to grow from $335 million this year to more than $2.5 billion in 2013, according to Tuesday’s report by Juniper Research. The report also says that while the majority of current mobile advertising is based on basic text message SMS campaigns, the “most lucrative” channels for mobile ads by 2010 will be through streaming and broadcast television services, such as within television shows on cell phones.

Mobile advertising is appealing because it can be very targeted to viewers and potentially inform advertisers of who exactly is seeing their ads, according to a mocoNews.net article. But this raises privacy issues and illuminates the continuing challenge of sharing demographic information of viewers while not overstepping privacy boundaries.

Also, while we’ve come to expect advertising in our daily lives and are exposed to 3,000 advertising messages a day, according to some estimates, many people view their cell phones as a seemingly sacred, very personal extension of themselves. But a Juniper Research analyst suggested that the greater potential for mobile advertising through television services exists because users are more accepting of and more accustomed to ads within videos than the text message advertising that predominates today.

But an issue that may hinder mobile advertising in general is an unfamiliarity and mistrust with mobile marketing on the user end, which you can read about in Amy’s related post.

General suggestions for making mobile advertising work have included the following:
• A sense of immediacy
• Interactivity
• High personalization
• Offering incentives for viewing the ads (such as free television shows in return for putting up with advertising in the middle of a TV show)

But before mobile TV advertising can fulfill its potential, there are still some issues that are limiting the growth of mobile television. Local television stations have been pushing for an open standard that would bypass cell phone companies and allow them to transmit their content directly to mobile phones, according to a recent mocoNews.net article that was reprinted in the Washington Post. While local broadcasters’ services would be free and sponsored by ads, operators such as Verizon Wireless are already offering paid subscription television services. Would cell phone providers allow this competing content on their devices?

Friday, April 18th, 2008 Filed under Advertising, Industry research |