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Nov. 4, 2008

Late yesterday, Limbo and GfK released their latest joint Mobile Advertising Report and it reveals that, for the third-quarter, mobile advertising awareness grew 33.2 percent in the last 6 months.

Meanwhile, cell phone usage grew at about 5.9 percent, suggesting an increased allocation of advertising dollars to mobile formats through the first nine months of 2008.

The biggest notable difference is the continuation of growth that they’re seeing, said Rob Lawson, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Limbo. In the third quarter of this year, about 39.1 percent of mobile phone users (104 million people) remembered advertising of some format on their phone.

“Once you’re past 100 million, it’s a milestone for the industry,” Lawson said.

In terms of the profile of who’s seeing the ads, it’s becoming more reflective of the population over time, Lawson said. Although mobile penetration is highest for younger age groups, approximately 51.9 percent of those who recalled seeing mobile ads were aged 34 to 65, and 28.1 percent were 49 and older. Only 42.9 percent were under the ago of 34.

Beyond all that, what type of ads are they seeing? Well the most commonly recalled ads are those seen in text messages. The mobile Internet ad awareness is about 50 percent that of text messaging ads, although it is still growing slightly faster.

The above numbers are impressive, when you consider that in times of a tight economy such as we've witnessed globally in the past six weeks, ads switch from a branding focus to response-based media, so TV ads might go down but direct mail still goes up.

The survey didn't measure ad spend, but what consumers actually see. “It will be interesting to note if mobile is part of the direct group or branding group,” Lawson said. “I think this year's fourth quarter and 2009's first quarter will tell us a lot if the growth has slowed or if in fact it accelerated,” he said.

Lawson added that it’s his guess that most brands use mobile media to drive people into a store or get them to take an action rather than change their impression of a brand. Mobile typically is seen as a direct route to consumers.

A slight majority, or 58 percent of those recalling mobile ads are actually male. That may reflect the types of ad campaigns that are created. Budgets for mobile ads are generally smaller, and it’s a less advanced medium, so it’s a tough call right now.

The Limbo-GfK Technology Mobile Advertising Report is produced quarterly and based on a survey of 1,000 representative American adults and 1,000 U.K. adults interviewed by phone in a period of forty-five days.

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Source: Limbo and GfK Inc.