iPhone could spur mobile ad growth
By Paul McIntyre | theage.com.au | 22 July
The mobile advertising market is set to expand by 300 per cent this year and next although it will remain a tiny pocket of less than $30 million because of an advertising sector which remains cautious about the emerging medium.
According to a report yesterday by Frost & Sullivan, mobile advertising revenues last year totalled just $2.5 million and sustained growth would occur only if mobile-operator data charges continued to decline and advertisers overcame uncertainty about how to use the medium.
Some digital advertising agencies believe the arrival of Apple's iPhone will inject more activity into the market, a point backed by a report by the research firm Frost & Sullivan. The report said Australia now had 6 million 3G handset subscribers and the figure would increase significantly over the next two years as mobile operators phased out their non-3G services.
Frost & Sullivan said this development, along with success by early advertisers which have used the medium and a blue chip list of companies which now offered marketers next generation mobile ad packages, was building momentum for the mobile market. Advertisers which had adopted mobile advertising were likely to increase their spend, said Darryl Nelson, of Frost & Sullivan. These were organisations which typically had large advertising budgets.
Last year Frost & Sullivan said Vodafone was the clear market leader for mobile display and search advertising with a market share of about 40 per cent.
First published by TheAge.com.au on July 22 2008
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