Aegis Media Pacific CEO Luke Littlefield has said advertisers must embrace digital, with 70% of Australians expected to be connected to the internet via a smartphone by 2013.
Littlefield told this week's Advertisers and Marketers Summit mobile will become a $46 million-dollar-a-year business by 2015, up from $10 million presently. He said the industry needs to "think more broadly" about how to tap into digital's growing social presence.
"Mobility is driving rapid changes in the way people consume media," Littlefield said.
"[Social media] is the next wave, in fact it's the current wave, and as a component of digital media its revolution is an excellent example of where digital media is going and the pace digital media is moving at."
Littlefield said Facebook and Twitter had been the main driver of the digital revolution. He pointed to Facebook’s social network game Farmville as the best example of how social media had impacted consumer engagement.
"Australia alone has one million Farmville players and 28% of those are women over 35. These users play an average of 30 minutes per day … This is a highly engaged consumer audience and potentially a very strong opportunity for advertisers and as a marketing communications channel.
"In the US there are 30 million virtual farms on Farmville alone, but only two million actual farms across the entire country," he said.
Australia is now one of 20 nations that has more mobile phones than people. It's estimated there are 26 million active mobile phones across the nation, which is a theoretical penetration rate of 116%. Of this, the smartphone penetration rate is 50%.
Globally China, India and the US also have more mobile phones than people. It's estimated the world has five billion mobiles currently active and within four years smartphone technology will be available anywhere around the world.
As a result iPhone app downloads have exploded to 14 billion over the last 12 months compared to one billion in the previous period.
Our consumption of media has evolved too.
Australians consume on average 50 hours a week of media. While most still prefer TV as their main source many have begun “multi-platforming” – meaning they surf the net at exactly the same time.
Littlefield said while consumption time hadn’t changed, the method had and now marketers and advertisers need to find ways to integrate new platforms into their strategic planning.
"Commercial success will be more than just about reach and frequency, more than eyeballs and ROI. It will be about data, content, e-commerce and customers.
"It's now about consumers and not audiences and advertisers and marketers either need to get on the bus or get left behind."
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