Is personalization essential to unlocking mobile marketing profits? A recent report from Accenture — titled The Brave New World Of Mobile Commerce and based on a survey conducted by Lightspeed Research — sheds new light on global mobile advertising attitudes.
Specifically, the survey of 1,100 users ages 18+ in Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. found that 65 percent of respondents in Asia and 32 percent of respondents in the U.S. and Europe would “welcome receiving personalized mobile phone ads when within a few steps of the promoted product or service.”
We want what we want
A similar split (59 percent in Asia and 32 percent) would “welcome receiving phone ads based on past purchases.” Connect the dots, and we have yet another data point that supports a much larger trend: a willingness to receive relevant mobile advertising.
Commerce and theft
Ironically, the focus of our fear may be shifting from the message (communication) to the transaction. While a significant percentage of respondents said they would like to be able to pay for goods and services using their mobile phones, the vast majority (73 percent) revealed they had significant privacy and identity theft concerns. Against this backdrop, companies now have responsibility to be transparent about how people’s purchase and payment data is collected and maintained.
Vanilla Plus expert opinion piece
Meantime, I am pleased that an in-depth analysis of the requirement for personalization over at Vanilla Plus continues to chalk up interest and downloads. In fact, the editors report in an email just last week that the Expert Opinion piece I co-authored with Matt Anderson, head of Product Marketing at Amdocs Interactive, has consistently been “top of the tree with regard to unique visitors” with nearly 900 downloads — and counting (!)
Matt and I outline the opportunities for personalized mobile marketing and targeted advertising. We conclude that mobile operators have a center role to play if they choose to do so. “First, it allows them to capitalize on the growing mobile advertising market by selling ad inventory on their portals and delivering ads via their messaging networks. Second, it enables them to sell more premium content and apps on their storefronts and capitalize on off-portal commerce by enabling personalized ads, recommendations and searches.”
The article continues with an analysis of a study in relevance in mobile advertising that measures of the effectiveness of personalized ads conducted by Amdocs Interactive. Vendor spin aside, the findings show that people will click on advertising that matches their interests and demographics.
My take:
Not rocket science really. People want what they want and they want marketers to get to the point. In a world where our measure of relevance is ourselves (recommendations and advice from our peers or just people like us, for example), it makes sense that we are not so interested in listening to messages we feel are not in tune with our lifestyles or life stages.
I invite you to download the article by clicking the icon below and share your feedback.
Disclaimer: Amdocs interactive is an MSG client and supporter.