August 25, 2008
The Power of the 4th Screen Downunder
By Cameron Wall *, Technical Director, G-nius Mobile Intelligence Pty Ltd
Finally the 4th screen is in the hand of almost every Australian over the age of 12 years. It is a screen that is viewed by more people then cinema, TV and the Internet put together each day - and it’s very personal.
In a recent US survey 63% of people said they would give up their wallet before their mobile phone if mugged. The mobile phone is the fastest growing tech device known to man with 6 million new services coming ‘on-air’ each month in India alone.
If an advertising agent had of said to one of their client brands several years ago that they were going to build a device that each consumer would carry with them, was always switched on, could communicate two-way and measure what products they liked, they would have been laughed out of the meeting.
The Australian mobile ecosystem is one of the most advanced in the world with 3G penetration reaching near 50% of subscribers compared to the US market where they are just opening 3G networks and China which is planning them. Therefore mobile advertising in Australia is very advanced in contrast to the world market due to market size, high GDP, advanced networks and marketing players, and of course an innovative subscriber market.
It took the traditional Internet 10 years to get where mobile Internet went in two years but the mobile industry is suffering from the same mistakes. Many carriers are operating a closed walled garden approach, similar to AOL in the mid 90’s when the web was a closed portal environment.
Carriers are, as were publishers in the 90’s, worried about losing revenue per user on traditional voice and messaging, which is saturated in the current market. How does a carrier reap revenue from an open Internet environment on the 4th screen? Most carriers in Australia do not still advertise their mobile Internet rates to the public, 1Mb of data on the 4th screen is about .5c today.
There are two main mobile advertising delivery methods in play today, ‘push’ and ‘pull’. Push is likened to the way most Email marketing is carried out where content is pushed out to a list of mobile numbers in a sometime scattergun approach, where pull is where the handset subscriber reacts to a call-to-action. Push requires the user to be opted-in and should be able to opt-out at anytime.
There are many mobile technologies in the market today such as SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, Mobile Internet, Content Beaming, WiFi etc. It is very important that brands and advertising agencies understand the technology and the carrier business models before trying to integrate their creative around them.
Mobile Advertising Guidelines have been carefully put together by industry bodies both locally and overseas and should always be consulted.
The largest demographic for mobile advertising is the ‘Tween’ market )12-29 year olds). They are mainly Gen Y and have been bought up with technology and know how to use it, interrogate it and break it. The Tween’s have quite a high disposable income due to living at home and typically early adopters of new technology.
Software is already in use that allows phone users to take a photo of a logo to get an instant discount. Pizza Hut and a range of premier brands in Asia are enjoying this level of interaction with their target markets.
The 4th screen is being taken very seriously by advertisers and content owners worldwide, with over 3 billion mobile phone users compared with 1.4 billion television, 350 million fixed broadband and 137,000 cinemas.
It is important to point out that mobile advertising at this point in time should not be seen as a new media on its own. Mobile can work with all traditional media and mobile should be an overlay not separate spend.
Mobile advertising is here and is about to explode. It will be seen as non-intrusive by most as it has the power to be both personal and relevant. And for advertisers eager for targeted channels that can also deliver response data, this is gold.
* Cameron Wall is the director of a number of mobile media companies. He has spent 20 years in ICT and established Australia’s first Internet café.
Cameron Wall – © Copyright 2008
