For the past few years mobile has been a key topic of discussion.
When we talk about mobile we often talk about the gap between consumption and spend. We know that 84% of Australians have a smartphone, and mobile now accounts for 46% of time spent on devices, but advertiser investment is not keeping up.
We often put this disconnect down to a few reasons. One of the most common barriers we hear is the proliferation of poor creative. Advertising, even great advertising, is a disruptive experience and bad advertising just isn’t tolerated, and is often ignored.
Bad advertising on a mobile is amplified when we know that these devices are extremely personal and users have an emotional connection to them.
Putting a bad mobile ad in front of a user on their personal device seems like an insult to the user and a missed opportunity for advertisers. The great thing is that by recognising the personal and emotional nature of mobile, we know how to make mobile creative better.
If the path is personal and emotional then the mechanism should be immersive. Marketers need to produce creative that hooks people with an emotive stimulus or interesting proposition, and keep them engaged with an immersive environment.
The move away from standard creative formats and 2D executions has started slowly, but it will take off as the shift towards the small screen primary vehicle for engagement accelerates.
Mobile is becoming a filmic experience, and increasingly one that is bounded in virtual and augmented reality. The big platforms are in a race to be the first mover in this new world. Recently, a matter of hours after Snapchat unveiled its live 3-D animation feature, Facebook introduced its own augmented reality technology.
The hastening of augmented reality by both Facebook and Snapchat, is hastening an expectation that all mobile creative has to be brilliant in order to win the attention of audiences. That expectation is true and it is the future.
Static banners and horizontal videos are no longer the optimal advertising vehicles to carry a message. However, a mobile 3D rich media unit that expands to fill the screen, includes vertical video and offers multiple points of engagement with a product, is a far better experience for the user and a more impactful canvas for the brand.
These types of units also act as a tool to explore the product features in a way that 2D formats simply don’t. High impact features like this give the user a reason to spend more time with the brand and further encourage online or in store purchases.
This will be the new expectation of any advertiser hoping to drive sales using the small screen, especially when 31% of Australians make purchases on their mobile daily and weekly. As this percentage grows, 3D, interactive and virtual executions will change mobile faster than anything we have seen in recent years.
Advertisers know that the user attention span is fleeting. We are also beginning to understand that the individual needs of specific users need to be addressed when advertising is served. These needs are the reason why concepts like dynamic messaging and contextual creative have emerged.
Creative that changes or updates based on user data points like real-time consumption, sentiment, location, browsing history and purchase behaviour ensures that a more relevant ad is placed in front of a user. This results in the user deriving more value from the ad and clicking to convert, while the brand obtains a valuable customer and sells more products.
The advertising industry needs to continue to innovate ways to keep consumers engaged across screens.
A study in the US revealed more than 60% of the population can’t remember the last ad that they saw. Knowing this, we need to make sure we give advertisers the opportunity to offer life-like experiences on mobile and ensure branded mobile content is as compelling as publisher-created media.
There are still changes to come before mobile advertising reaches full maturity. If brands and advertisers want to attract and retain consumers in a fragmented media ecosystem, they need to look beyond static tactical executions and adopt a mobile strategy that considers specific ad formats for specific objectives.
The emotional involvement consumers have with their mobile devices is bar none and by empowering campaigns with rich media and informing high impact advertisements with real-time and relevant data, brands encourage engagement and interaction with their target audiences. And in a world where consumer attention spans average eight seconds, brands need to invest in creating memorable experiences.
By Amobee head of mobile Tricia Fallows