A high percentage of mobile phone users in the UK, US and India say they are receiving advertising messages through their mobile phones, according to the latest Mobile Advertising Report (MAR) from GfK.
The research shows that 85% of mobile users in India, 51% in the UK, and 37% in the US said they receive advertising messages through their mobiles.
Text messaging remains the most common advertising format in all three countries with 74% of respondents recalling advertising in India, compared to 48% in the UK and 22% in the US.
Mobile Internet advertising was most common in the UK, with 16% of respondents recalling advertising compared with 8% of those in the US and 4% of those in India.
Radio also showed a striking variation, with nearly 40% of those in India recalling advertisements through radio on their mobile phones compared to only 9% in the UK and 3% in the US. This may be partly due to the high percentage of people in India who listen to the radio using their mobile (67% of those interviewed).
The report also shows that younger male groups typically view mobile internet advertising the most. The brands recalled in advertising via this channel were mainly mobile carriers, handset manufacturers, media brands and digital entertainment companies.
Point Topic published research in July which found that just 6% of the general adult population in the UK, equivalent to 2.9 million users, said they had used mobile internet in the past month (see Under 3m People In UK Use Mobile Internet).
Colin Strong, head of Mobile Communications Research at GfK Technology, said: “These findings indicate the degree to which the mobile phone is used as a marketing channel, with enhanced handsets and flat rate data tariffs increasingly common, it is only a matter of time before mobile internet advertising starts to rival the penetration of SMS or text message marketing.”
A report carried out by Dynamic Logic found that almost nine out of ten (88%) UK mobile phone users are happy to receive pre-roll mobile ads in return for free content (see Mobile Users Happy To Receive Ads For Free Content).
The study found that overall response to pre-roll ads on mobile phones was very positive, particularly amongst a young male audience, considered to be ‘early adopters’.
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