New UK research has revealed a marked increase in the consumer recall of mobile advertising during the first quarter of 2009, with SMS seeing the biggest increase of all the most common channels.
The survey, carried out by GfK Technology in conjunction with Limbo, reveals that consumer recall of mobile advertising has jumped to 55% in the first quarter of 2009 to date, up from 43% from the previous quarter (Oct-Dec 2008) and also up from 51% in the period April-June 2008.
The biggest growth is in SMS, web and radio advertising. Of these, SMS is the biggest riser – continuing to fulfil its potential as a key channel – making up 45% of the mobile advertising recalled by consumers in quarter one 2009. This represents a 9% increase in recall of advertising, compared to Q4 2008 (36%).
Network operators (13%) continue to be the best recalled of the various mobile advertisers; followed by music related advertising – specifically music downloads (11%). Other areas in which mobile advertising is most commonly recalled are financial services (8%), adult (7%), gambling (7%) and dating (7%).
Colin Strong, head of mobile communications research at GfK Technology, said: “These figures show a strong continued growth in the category, with advertisers continuing to embrace the amazing potential of mobile for very targeted marketing.
“The nature of the advertising recalled indicates that this is still early days, but more and more blue chip brands are experimenting in this area. SMS is often ignored when analysts look at mobile but it continues to be the most significant channel; with mobile web continuing to show significant growth.”
At the end of January a report from In-Stat published revealed that mobile users are sending more than two trillion SMS messages per day globally as of the end of 2008 (see Text messaging remains most profitable mobile data service).
Towards the end of last year, meanwhile, the IAB predicted that mobile advertising would become a mainstay of UK marketing plans over the next two years despite a current disconnect between usage and understanding of the medium (see Mobile Advertising To Become UK Marketing Mainstay).
The IAB’s Mobile Council surveyed 115 agencies, media planners, creatives and advertisers and found that 62% of respondents foresee mobile spend will grow over the next two years, with the medium becoming a standard feature of budgets by 2010.
