Nearly four in 10 (38%) US mobile phone owners, and 59% of iPhone owners recall seeing advertising on their phones in Q109, according to a new research report from Brightkite and GfK Technology.
The report, based on a representative sample of 1,000 American adults interviewed by telephone, found that advertising awareness has grown 10% quarter on quarter.
The Q1 Mobile Advertising Report, found that among smartphone users, including those who use the iPhone, the number-one ad format is mobile web advertising, while for regular mobile users, it is SMS.
The most striking finding, Brightkite said, is the increased breadth of mobile ad formats that consumers, and iPhone owners in particular, are noticing.
,p>Nearly one-fourth (23%) of smartphone users recall seeing SMS advertising, while 20% see ads in mobile social networks and 15% see ads in mobile TV/video. This means that in just three months, the number of smartphone users seeing ads inside a location-based network has almost tripled to 15%.
The report also found that, in addition to being more aware of mobile advertising, cell phone users are quickly adopting a much broader set of mobile services:
- 14% now use one or more location-based services (peaking at 38% of iPhone users).
- 10% use a mobile social network (33% of iPhone users).
- The fastest growing application for iPhone users is games, which experiences a 21% growth quarter over quarter. Brightkite stated that 50% of iPhone owners are now playing games on their phone.
Jonathon Linner, Brightkite’s CEO, said: “Over the last few years, we’ve tracked the growth of mobile advertising, and this has been fuelled by text messaging and mobile internet formats. Now we are seeing consumers adopting a much broader set of mobile applications and services and this is exposing them to new ad formats.
“It’s fascinating to see that iPhone users are almost as likely to see ads in a mobile social network as they are in a text message. This was unthinkable 12 months ago.”
Magna’s recent US mobile advertising forecast predicted growth of 36% this year, rising from $169 million in 2008 to $229 million during the course of 2009 (see US mobile advertising to grow by 36%).
Earlier this month, a study by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed that UK mobile adspend was up 99.2% year on year in 2008, hitting £28.6 million (see IAB: UK mobile adspend hits £28.6m in 2008).
