Trends in advertising (The 3rd Screen)

What is the 3rd screen? Probably the device you hold more near and dear than any other...your smartphone. Do you think that your precious, super personal phone is immune to marketers and advertising? Think again.

Average response rate to an online advertising campaign, 3%.
Average response rate to mobile campaigns..................... 13%

How can there be such a dramatic difference?

I chalk it up to being because people do really believe that their cellphones are the most personal item they own. People have a genuine love for their cellphones that they don't have for their personal computers. They like using their cellphones as much as possible, even if it means purchasing branded applications.

The most common mobile advertising is SMS advertising. Since I changed from a 'basic' phone to a smartphone I haven't gotten anymore of these, but I remember getting rather intrusive and random SMS advertising messages from time to time before the switch.

You better get used to it too. Estimates predict 5 billion in mobile advertising dollars to be spent in America by 2011. That's a lot of 2 inch messages. But messages and video aren't the only way to build your brand image. iphone sells an average of 1 million dollars worth of branded applications a day!

Trends in advertising (post 5)

Broadband killed the television store.

That's mine, don't use it... So with websites like hulu where you can stream almost any television show on earth, television seems to be becoming old news. Many of the television networks have full episodes available on their websites. It seems that this is even putting PVR's to rest. If you have a laptop with an internet connection, you can watch the show whenever you want, where ever you want. I was thinking the other day that the only reason I ever watch TV is because of the big picture on my 46" screen. That's it!

If you notice on the websites that stream television programs, you have no ch0ice but to watch the advertisments. They have effectively solved the PVR problem of fast forwarding the commercials. The convenience of watching the show at your leisure on your computer is enough that people don't mind watching the advertisments! Amazing isn't it?

Trends in advertising (post 4)

Brand Utility. Sum it up by saying something useful to you brought to you by a certain brand. This can be an extremely effective and powerful marketing tool. Imagine your daughter goes to teach English in Japan and the only way you can keep in contact with her is through Skype. Wouldn't you have a positive brand image of Skype? Of course you would. The iphone, or any smartphone for that matter, is a perfect opportunity for companies to use brand utility. Google maps seems to be owning the GPS and maping aspect of cellphones. Mapquest had a great opportunity to capitalize here, but seems to have missed the boat.