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October Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™
Since March 2009, Millennial Media has provided monthly insights for brand advertisers in our Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™. This month our partner, Mobclix, provided a special apps section with trends across Apple, RIM and Android. We also included a first view into the top mobile operating systems on our network.
Highlights from SMART:
- The U.S. Mobile Web: Grew to 1.1% to 64.8M users, according to Nielsen.
- Special Mobile App Snapshot Section, Provided by Mobclix: Apple surpassed Android and RIM in the number of monthly downloads. Android apps out-performed both Apple and RIM in the Game category. RIM topped the average app time at eight minutes.
- Engagement: Average user session time was 4:46 (min:sec) and average page views were 106, down from 109.
- New OS Report: The iPhone operating system was the top OS on our ad network, followed closely by RIM. Apple; however, was bumped back into the second spot behind Samsung, as the top manufacturer on our network. Feature phones represented 64% of impressions versus smartphones, which accounted for 36% of impressions on our network.
Reach:
The U.S. Mobile Web grew to 64.8M users. Millennial Media’s unique audience reach increased to 51.7M users, an industry-leading reach of 79.88% of U.S. Mobile internet users.
Special Section – Mobile App Snapshot – provided by Mobclix:
Apple dominated the number of total apps year-to-date through November 1, for a total of 115,000 combined apps in the Games, Entertainment, Books and Utility categories, according to Mobclix. Apple also led Android and RIM with the number of monthly downloads, with 100M apps per month. Android and RIM followed with 20M and 300K respectively. Average in-app CTR’s varied by app category — Android out-performed both Apple and RIM in the Game app category. RIM topped the average app time with eight minutes.
Engagement & Targeting:
Advertisers continued to see value in making their brand’s presence consistently available to their audience, with Traffic to Site representing 46% of the mobile campaign destinations. The two largest increases in the Campaign Targeting Mix were the Custom Subnet and Demographic targeting methods, indicating a potential trend towards refined targeting as an advertising goal in Q4. A new addition to our monthly SMART, the Application Download category, represented 29% of the Campaign Destination Mix in October.
Device & NEW Smartphone OS Highlights:
In October, we introduced a view into the U.S. Smartphone OS Mix. The iPhone OS was the largest OS in our network with a 33% share of impressions, followed closely by the number two, RIM OS, with 31%. These operating systems grant users access to custom branded applications. According to comScore’s U.S. Mobile Advisor report for September 2009, “The total number of app users in the U.S. has increased 42% year over year or has grown to 47M users from 33M users one year ago.” iPhone/iPod impressions alone increased in October by 4%, a consecutive monthly increase beginning in July.
The OS Mix contains a representative view of the device diversity available on Millennial Media’s network. Smartphones accounted for 36% of impressions on our network versus feature phones, which had 64% of impressions. Our network data is in line with Nielsen’s Q3 2009 report which indicated that smartphones will have “50% of the market by the middle of 2011.”
In the device lineup, Samsung regained its lead as the top device manufacturer, making up 23.48% of the impression share in October, moving Apple back to the number two spot with a slight decrease, representing 21.71% of impression share in October.
Click here to view the full SMART http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/and feel free to sign up for auto delivery of these monthly Scorecards. If you have any questions or suggestions for future SMARTs, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.
Millennial Media Introduces First Rich Media on BlackBerry
Marriott International’s upper moderate SpringHill Suites brand, an existing advertising partner with Millennial Media, is the first to leverage our first-to-market BlackBerry rich media ad. Millennial Media is an important mobile advertising partner to OEMs and platform companies. Given our in-depth knowledge of RIM’s devices and platforms, coupled with RIM’s increasingly advanced features, we are able to bring this capability to market on behalf of advertisers.
As a brand that places high values on design and technology, SpringHill Suites by Marriott has been on the forefront in utilizing Millennial Media’s broad reach to target all handsets including the iPhone, iTouch, and Palm Pre to show case Rich Media expandables. With the introduction of the BlackBerry expandable ads, SpringHill Suites will be the first to expand their outreach with Rich Media to a range of RIM devices, reaching a wider target audience of business and leisure travelers who look for style and inspiration in their stay. With a focus on utility, the expandables offer easy access to brand essentials for busy professionals and travelers on-the-go.
Millennial Media has been a long-standing advocate of diversity in handset offerings, as demonstrated in our SMART report (http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/) which showcases our reach by both carrier and handset. Due to this philosophy, we are able to offer our network an industry-leading reach of nearly 80% of the mobile Internet according to Nielsen in September 2009. By continuing to offer new RIM solutions, such as BlackBerry rich media ads, Millennial Media is able to increase our reach and widen device targeting to a new base of professionals that were previously not available through the iPhone, iTouch, and Palm Pre. As RIM continues to add additional touch screen devices to the market, this will be an increasingly valuable device to target audiences for advertisers.
SpringHill Suites by Marriott is an all-suite, select-service hotel brand that appeals to both business and leisure travelers. Launched in November 1998, the brand currently has over 250 locations in the United States and Canada with more than 144 pipeline hotels. Take a tour of the new SpringHill Suites design at www.spacetoinspire.com
Millennial Media Secures $16 Million in Funding / Welcomes Pat Kerins to Board of Directors
Today we announced the closing of our Series C round of financing. The round was $16MM in growth capital, led by new investor, NEA. Our existing investors, Columbia Capital, Charles River Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners also invested in the round of financing. This capital is the second of two big deals in the industry in less than one week, and is a great indication of how vast the market for mobile media networks will be.
Millennial Media is proud to welcome Pat Kerins to our Board of Directors. NEA has a fantastic track record and is among the best firms in the business. We have known Pat for some time and know he will add a lot of value to what we do every day.
Although we had a path to profitability without this funding, we decided to accelerate our growth and to widen the leadership gap between what we do and what others do. As we have grown into the leading mobile media network, we have brought many products, solutions, and innovations to the market and we look to keep delivering for our customers. Over the years our customers have rewarded us for our relentless focus on the advertiser, pursuing and sticking to one business, and for the high level of service we provide. We now have the capital to drive our leadership independently for the long term.
As we look to the future, we are extremely focused on continuing to strive to be smart, client focused, and innovative. More and more brands are moving dollars into the space and we continue to amass the largest audience to serve them with targeted audiences at scale. Our publisher and developer network receives the benefit of strong monetization and the scale of campaigns as well.
Look for some great programs and more insightful research from Millennial Media as we take this journey together, and we will continue to strive to be the best in the industry.
In partnership – Paul
Hopenhagen Goes Mobile to Drive Awareness for Climate Change
Hopenhagen is a global marketing and communications initiative created by Ogilvy & Mather on behalf of the International Advertising Association. The mission is simple—drive support for climate change at December’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Through the support of the IAA and a coalition of the world’s leading advertising, marketing and media agencies, Hopenhagen will become an empowering platform, giving voice to global citizens in the climate change dialogue and helping voice their opinions to the leaders from 192 countries attending the conference. The outcome of the new international global climate treaty has garnered public concern due to the U.S.’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol in 2005.
The Hopenhagen campaign urges citizens of the world to visit the Hopenhagen.org website, sign a petition demanding their leaders support climate change, and share their messages of hope through social media applications. As a campaign using social media to connect the people of the world with their leaders, mobile is an important element of this outreach.
“We chose Millennial Media for their unique ability to target both a wide ranging audience and to target young adults and healthy living specifically. Their vast array of mobile tools and solutions, including their PSP inventory, attracted us to them. We are certain Millennial Media will expand the Hopenhagen movement and empower grassroots movements,” said Seth Farbman, Managing Director of OgilvyEarth, Ogilvy & Mather’s global sustainability effort.
According to Nielsen, there are more than 63M mobile web users in the U.S. These sixty-three million people use their mobile devices to find information, browse social media sites, download applications, play games, and more. Advertisers who want to reach a consumer, in a personal and uncluttered environment, choose to reach out via mobile. Ogilvy selected Millennial Media to deliver the mobile portion of their campaign, attracted to a mobile ad network that reaches about 80% of these 63M users. Through December 7th, Millennial Media will help Ogilvy drive awareness for the Hopenhagen petition.
“We are honored Ogilvy & Mather has chosen us to support the mobile component of the Hopenhagen campaign. Both companies have a strong background in supporting their communities. This project allows Ogilvy and Millennial Media to combine our strengths for a great cause,” said Erin (Mack) McKelvey, Vice President of Marketing, Millennial Media. “Cause-based mobile advertising is on the rise, similar to brand advertising, it drives significant campaign awareness and consumer engagement.”
What happened today is tremendous. Google’s perspective has always been that mobile is just the internet. Today Google validated what many companies to include Millennial have thought for years – that mobile is a different market with a huge potential for advertising; possibly a bigger opportunity than online media.
As the clear leader in mobile brand advertising, we are happy to see a player like Google bring economies of scale to the performance advertising space in mobile.
Millennial Media has generated our substantial lead in the market by focusing on the advertiser, delivering results, and has been rewarded with the largest reach of any media company large or small. Reaching 80% of the US mobile audience, we look forward to working alongside the Google/AdMob pairing to fully realize the vast potential of the mobile advertising market. Congratulations to Google and to AdMob.
Clearing some myths about buying mobile advertising
Once you learn how to drive a car, you can pretty much drive any car. Although locating the wipers or the cruise control can be a temporary challenge, it is generally an easy task to arrive at your end destination. Buying a mobile ad can seem complex with all the buzzwords, devices and types of advertising such as SMS versus display. But if you look beyond the shiny gadgets and keep your eye on the end destination, you can achieve simple and highly effective mobile media execution.
According to Nielsen, 21 percent of households nationwide have gone completely wireless. It is becoming increasingly important for advertisers to integrate interactive marketing media into their mix. In my recent article featured on Mobile Marketer, I address head-on the myths concerning the seemingly daunting process of creating and buying for mobile for every advertiser nationwide. In Clearing some myths about buying mobile advertising, I discuss the four easy steps to making mobile easy. Explore them here: http://bit.ly/rRxwE
60% of Non-Mobile Marketers Plan to Buy Mobile Advertising in 2010
Millennial Media, the largest and fastest growing mobile advertising network in the U.S., and DM2PRO.com, a knowledge base for digital media and marketing professionals, collaborated in an exploration of attitudes and spending plans of leading agencies and brands to help us offer benchmarks.
As the mobile advertising industry continues to evolve, this data provides a critical view on where the industry is, and is not, exceeding advertiser’s expectations. The survey also explores the critical reasons why advertisers are planning to buy mobile in the future.
With 60% of non-mobile marketers planning to employ mobile advertising in 2010, the increase in mobile spend is among the leading highlights:
- Mobile spending is expected to increase next year, with 31% of agency respondents stating that they will invest between $100K and $249K.
- More than 15% of respondents plan to invest more than $1M.
- More than ½ of Q4 mobile campaigns will represent between 1% and 10% of their clients’ total spending, but, for a few, that number will be a whopping 40%-50%.
- Nearly 75% of the 100 leading agency respondents stated that they have developed mobile campaigns for themselves or a client.
Mobile advertising performance meets expectations and remains valuable. Among those who have executed mobile campaigns:
- 78% of respondents said the medium met their campaign goals, and an additional 9% said mobile performed “beyond [their] wildest expectations.”
- For 89% of agencies, the mobile facet of a campaign is just one portion of a multi-platform buy.
- Nearly a third (30%) of agency respondents said mobile has become an “indispensable” part of their media mix. Another 67% ranked mobile as “somewhat valuable” and only 2% said it was not valuable in their overall media mix.
Approximately 80% of mobile campaigns employed a mobile ad network of some kind, and about half of those have a single favorite provider.
More than 80% of agencies who have participated in mobile campaigns have hired or developed internal resources to support them. Nearly 90% stated they are typically the ones to suggest that a client employ mobile as part of their campaign strategy. Still, it often involves multiple partners to expertly execute on the promise of mobile media. Partners include: technology, metrics, mobile ad network, and app developer resources, among others.
Parts of this blog post are paraphrased or taken directly from DM2PRO – “State of the Industry: Mobile Survey” – September 21, 2009.
To download the report, click here: http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/buymobile/
Staying On Target
It’s exciting for me to see the progress that Millennial Media, and the industry as a whole, has made. Mobile advertising has matured rapidly over the past year. Evangelism has given way to demonstrated performance. Q4 is really heating up as mobile-specific products and solutions are delivering high engagement rates to customers. While numerous reports enter the space to capture this engagement, we should begin to question how we measure effectiveness.
MediaPost recently covered the keynote addresses and discussions at Forrester Research’s annual Consumer Forum in Chicago. The article, found at http://bit.ly/4DWQtY, states that consumers are focused on their needs, not on channels. The article states marketers must “construct data-rich profiles of customers” and “personalize responses to their needs.” It goes on to state the importance of broad reach in “real-time across all possible devices — from smartphones and other mobile data devices.” With our rapid growth rate we have found this to be true – focusing on the relevancy of the message and leveraging real-time targeting solutions drives high engagement rates overall.
Our brand clients look to us to drive meaningful engagements with their customer base. More than ever, effectiveness is delivering a relevant message to the right audience. Campaigns that employ Behavioral Advertising to target a client’s intended audience see increased engagement rates of 200% to 500%. Leveraging mobile specific targeting solutions remain an extremely attractive solution to drive engagement. Rich Media engagement rates tend to be 2.5x higher for campaigns delivered to users on WiFi connections. Conversion rates for travel focused campaigns were 2 -3x higher when targeted to users in Airports and Hotels. Benchmarks that weed out channel exclusivity and focus on consumer relevancy, targeting, and behavior are the greatest determinants of success.
As we continue to move forward at a momentous pace, it may be time to go back to the basics. The old adage “The customer is king” rings true here. Instead of focusing on what category someone fits into: CPG, or entertainment, or finance, etc, advertising agencies and networks should leverage broad reach and their award winning creative teams to create on-target messages any vertical cannot refuse.
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