DATA POINTS: ARPU’s Higher Than Reported; PC Mapping Outpaces Mobile; Companies Like Mobile Ad ROI; Interest In Green Handsets To Grow PLUS Measurable Mobile Advertising Success
ARPU FIGURES DON’T GIVE AN ACCURATE PICTURE OF INDIVIDUAL SPENDING, says a new report from Wireless Intelligence, because of the proliferation of multiple connections per user. For instance, in North America, the reported penetration rate is 92 percent, but when you take out multiple connections with the same user, the real rate is just 71 percent. Consequently, spending per user is $64 per month, rather than the reported $51. In Western Europe, the per user figure is €33 per month, while the per connection rate is €23. Source
The bottom line: The ARPU metric has been under fire for some time, not least because it only looks at revenues, and says nothing about profitability. Consumers having multiple connections is a trend that will proliferate, as more users get 3G dongles, e-book readers and other types of connected devices. This trend could accelerate the move towards another key metric in the industry.
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MOBILE MAPPING GROWING, BUT PC SITES STILL RULE, according to ABI Research. The firm says that internet mapping sites will get 440 million monthly visitors next year. ABI has also noted that while big names like Google, Mapquest, Sohu and Baidu currently dominate the mapping space, more and more players, such as navigation vendors like TomTom and NAVTEQ, and even mobile companies like Nokia, are launching their own navigation sites. Source
The bottom line: Expect mobile use to fuel the next stage of growth in mapping services, as more and more devices get GPS functionality, making maps so much easier to use, and mobile mapping applications improve. PC mapping isn’t going anywhere, but mapping on the mobile makes much more sense in many scenarios. This calls into question the need for standalone GPS units – which is why GPS vendors are pushing hard into the mobile space.
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COMPANIES ARE HAPPIER WITH THEIR ROI FROM MOBILE ADS THAN FROM TRADITIONAL MEDIA ADS, says a new report from the Aberdeen Group. Nearly two thirds of top-performing companies, such as Coke and Best Buy, said they’re satisfied with the average return on investment they’re seeing from mobile marketing, compared to just 40 percent satisfaction with traditional media ad ROI. This helps explain why 62 percent of those companies are increasing their mobile marketing budgets. Source
The bottom line: Mobile marketing has a couple of really big benefits going for it: it can be relatively inexpensive, but more importantly, it gets results. By building interactive campaigns that seek to do more than just hit consumers with a broadcast message, mobile marketers can deliver strong results, and track those results more accurately than with traditional media ads.
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THE GREEN FASCINATION WON’T EXCLUDE MOBILE, according to Juniper Research. The company says that by 2014, global shipment of environmentally sustainable mobile devices will reach 485 million per year by 2014 in a best-case scenario. Even with more tepid interest, Juniper says sales will hit 105 million that year. Source
The bottom line: Will this growth really be powered by consumer demand, or will it simply be the effect of sustainability making its way deeper and deeper into all types of consumer products and electronics? Either way, it’s certainly a welcome trend.
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MOBILE MARKETING FORUM EUROPE SHOWCASES SURPRISING STATS and results to write home about. Peggy is working on a more in-depth analysis of the milestones and best practice major brands (including Lufthansa, BMW, Nike, Coca Cola and P&G) shared during this important event. In the meantime, here is a rundown of the facts and figures that speak volumes about the increasing use and effectiveness of mobile in brand campaigns.
- Nike spent 30 percent of their marketing budget for the phenomenally successful Human race campaign on mobile.
- Coke reported a 7.4 percent increase in brand equity after the rollout of a mobile campaign. It also counted 500,000 downloads of a branded app with no media spend, demonstrating the tremendous viral value of mobile campaigns.
- BMW revealed about half of 500,000 views of a video to promote its Z4 model car were on mobile.
- P&G noted a whopping 80 percent increase in brand recognition among individuals who had interacted with the brand via a mobile game. It also recorded an incredible 80 percent savings by using mobile (instead of traditional channels) to promote and manage a free product sample giveaway campaign in Thailand.
- Lufthansa, which has fully integrated mobile in the passenger check-in process, reported 11 percent of total check-in is performed by people on their mobile phones.
The bottom line: Peggy will have her take on Monday, but from my vantage point these are impressive proof points that underline the central position of mobile in the marketing mix.
Tags: Baidu, Best Buy, BMW, Coke, Google, GPS, Lufthansa, Mapquest, mobile analytics, Mobile mapping, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Marketing, NAVTEQ, Nike, Nokia, P&G, Sohu, TomTom
