October 24, 2014 (Fri): BuzzCity has released its latest quarterly report on the mobile internet. The report includes a spotlight on the mobile users’ attitudes on advertising. 5,100 respondents across 25 countries were surveyed between 11th September and 2nd Oct 2014.
Despite a quarterly softening of mobile advertising, the report notes a 24% Y-on-Y growth of mobile advertising compared to 2013. In Malaysia, mobile advertising on the network grew by some 20% as international mobile value added players intensified promotional efforts.
Attitudes towards Advertising
The report also highlighted the outcome of a study on the mobile surfers’ attitudes towards advertising. Unsurprisingly, the study notes the influential role digital media now has on consumers. Among traditional media, TV appears to have retained its position as an influencing media on par with the Internet, mobile and online videos among a quarter of mobile surfers.
Among the findings are the mobile surfers’ mixed feelings towards advertising – just as many have positive (65%) views of advertising as they do negative (54%). But, despite their ambivalence, 79% of mobile surfers claim to use advertising to make purchasing decisions. Nearly 1 in 4 (21%) use advertising for purchasing decisions daily, nearly 1 in 5 use advertising to make purchases weekly and a quarter overall (27%) feel advertising is informative.
“The mixed feelings mobile users have towards advertising indicates their high expectations as connected consumers,” said BuzzCity’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Dr KF Lai. “If there is a threat to mobile advertising it will be advertisers’ indifference to the consumers’ wants. Advertisers can no longer afford to work digital channels as independent media but as an integrated digital approach across devices.”
The findings reveal that consumers have high expectations of advertising and feel that they see the same ad too often ( 38%) and that there are too many ads (38%). 19% feel that the ads they see are not relevant.
The report recommends that advertisers should not stop at just measuring performance but also develop engagement metrics relevant to their service. Advertisers must look beyond banner advertising to other rich media and video formats to deliver their message.
