Recruiting Fly

“Mobile Advertising and Marketing: Change Is in the Air,” a new report from eMarketer, found that mobile advertising is expected to rapidly increase during the next five years.

Even though the number of mobile users and mobile devices is growing, mobile advertising and marketing dollars are falling behind. However, the report predicts that mobile ad spending, including messaging-based formats, will reach $416 million this year, but that number will increase to $1.56 billion by 2013.

“As an emerging advertising channel, mobile will continue to see lofty growth rates through 2013,” Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, said. “Mobile will grow considerably more quickly than online ad spending as a whole, more in line with emerging online formats such as digital video.”

Although eMarketer has revised downward its projections for mobile advertising to account for the economic downturn, the overall long-term outlook for mobile is still optimistic. Other companies have predicted varying estimates for mobile ad spending.

Yankee Group predicts $184 million will be spent this year, while the Mobile Marketing Association predicts $1.7 billion will be spent this year. Experts say the difference in predictions reflects the immaturity of mobile advertising and marketing.

When it comes to spending share for various mobile formats, eMarketer predicts search will see an increase from $57.6 million, or 18 percent, in 2008 to $577.2 million, or 37 percent, in 2013. Display is expected to grow from 22 percent of the total to 35 percent, while SMS is predicted to decline from 60 percent of the total to 28 percent.

“Disparate hardware and software platforms, competing app stores, rival search engines and a large, fragmented universe of agencies and service providers make the mobile ecosystem more daunting than the desktop environment,” Elkin said. “But overcoming this complexity pays dividends.”

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The majority of mobile phone users are inseparable from their devices, taking their smartphones and traditional phones with them all the time.

This year, 91.4 percent of the U.S. population is a mobile phone subscriber. That number is expected to increase to 95.3 percent by 2011 and again to 96.7 percent by 2013, according to “Mobile Users and Usage: It’s Personal,” a new study by eMarketer.

“With mobile usage now pervasive, eMarketer believes that mobile will develop into a ubiquitous platform for messaging, social networking, entertainment and Web access,” eMarketer Senior Analyst Noah Elkin said.

The study found the mobile subscriber population is not uniform. According to ComScore, 53 percent of mobile phone subscribers are women, while 47 percent are men. However, there are more male subscribers in the 18 to 44-year-old age range. There also are variations in usage by age, income, ethnicity and device type.

Text messaging has surpassed voice calling as the most popular means of communication on mobile devices. Nielsen found that during Q1, the average American mobile phone subscriber sent or received 486 text messages per month, but only made 182 calls.

During that same time, those 13 to 17-years old sent and received more than three times as many texts on a monthly basis as those 18 to 24-years old, and more than 50 times as many texts as those 55 to 64-years old.

In addition to text messaging, mobile Internet usage also has been steadily increasing. eMarketer found this growth will continue during the next five years, with the number of mobile users accessing the Internet to rise from 73.7 million this year to 134.3 million in 2013.

The mobile Internet user population is about one-third the size of the population that uses wired Internet, and smartphones have helped to bridge the gap between mobile Web and desktops.

“Growing sophistication in users, devices and usage patterns will mean increased opportunities for marketers to connect with consumers, particularly among the growing population of smartphone users,” Elkin said. “Yet marketers must take seriously the highly personal relationship users have with their mobile devices, and respect the need for a value exchange.”

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