It's trending now

There is no doubt that the marketing landscape has changed rapidly over the last few years and is continuing to evolve at a rapid pace.  The constant emergence of new technology is resulting in continually changing media consumption.  

According to a recent report from flurry, people are spending more and more of their time on smartphones and web than ever before.  Interestingly, in the U.S. TV still accounts for 40% of time spent on media.  Where Print and Radio were once the other dominant channels, Mobile and Web have taken their place.  Mobile and Web combined account for 45% of media consumption.  Print and Radio together now only account for 15%.

These statistics highlight that it is obvious that advertisers are overspending on print and TV and are drastically underspending on mobile and web.  Mobile accounts for 23% of U.S. media consumption yet attracts only 1% of spend.  Whilst there is a much larger spend on web, proportion of spend is still below consumption levels.

According to Josh Boaz on iMedia Connection “The mobile space encompasses all users who view the internet either through their mobile smartphone device or through a tablet.“  According to eMarketer, trends show that tablets and smartphones will soon be more prevalent than traditional computers.

Research from Local corporation and the e-tailing group in March 2012 looked at attitudes toward researching purchase on tablets in the US.  Half of all respondents agreed that a tablet is an ideal tool to research products before marking final purchases.  Half of all respondents also agreed that they currently us a tablet to research products prior to a store visit.   These statistics confirm that tablets and smartphones should certainly be considered as part of our marketing planning.  At a minimum, brands should be creating mobile friendly sites to ensure customers are able to access their sites when researching purchases.

Interestingly, U.S. research from Rosetta, shows that the preferred device varies according to the activity the user is trying to partake.  Smartphones or Tablets are not yet the dominant channel for shopping for new products and services.  It seems that the PC/Desktop/Laptop is still the preferred device for online shopping with 39% of people selecting this device.  This is likely to be due to the size of the screen and possibly also due to the fact that many sites have not yet been designed for shopping on mobile devices.

According to flurry, mobile is likely to be lagging so far behind in terms of advertising spend due to the channel having emerged so quickly.  Mobile technology and systems are not yet as sophisticated as web based systems in catering for advertisers.  It seems that we have not yet worked out how to effectively advertise to consumers through this channel.  Tracking conversion is also still difficult to assess in comparison to web tools.

Looking towards the future, it is only likely that web and mobile advertising will continue to grow whilst spend within traditional media channels continues to decline back to become more in line with consumption.  The growth in mobile seems to be whee the biggest transformation is and will continue to take place.  With the speed at which media consumption is changing who knows what will come next?

References

Boaz, J, 2012, What I learned from Mobile Marketing Day 2012, iMedia Connection, viewed on 1 May 2012, http://www.cmo.com/mobile/what-i-learned-mobile-marketing-day-2012

Chaffey, D, Ellis-Chadwick, F, Mayer, R, Johnston, K, 2009, Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation, and Practice, Pearson Education, England.

eMarketer Digital Intelligence, 2012, What I learned from Mobile Marketing Day 2012, iMedia Connection, viewed on 1 May 2012, http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009000

Fargo, P, 2012, Upper Middle Class, Females Key to Bridging Mobile Ad Spending Gap, Flurry Blog, viewed on 1 May 2012, http://blog.flurry.com/bid/82171/Upper-Middle-Class-Females-Key-to-Bridging-Mobile-Ad-Spending-Gap