The total spend on mobile advertising increased from USD 1.2 billion in 2011 to 36.6 billion in 2016 (IAB-PWC Report 2017) – that’s monstrous year-on-year growth. These should be ground-breaking statistics for any other industry, but not for mobile advertising. There is still a significant disparity between the enormous amount of media consumption on mobile and the total media spending.
What is the reason for this disparity? The misunderstanding lies between the traditional advertising approach and the nature of the mobile experience.
Over the years, the entire advertising industry has evolved around adapting the most traditional ad format i.e. billboards, and progressively making it smaller – from billboards on the most important city squares to newspapers, magazines, television screens, desktops, and now finally mobile. At every stage of the evolution, the advertising industry has only managed to make the billboards smaller which has debatably worked for the medium. However, when it came to mobile the billboard theory falls apart due to the mere size of the screen.
If advertisers let go of their clinginess to billboard ads, smartphones provide us a unique opportunity to personalize the message for the user and create a unique one-on-one dialogue.
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