Mobile - Katz Marketing Solutions | Radio Advertising | Media Agency

The upheaval that the Internet has brought about in newspapers, magazines and othermedia is well documented. Publishers have complained about online ads being worthdimes, not dollars. But mobile‘s profit potential so far has been even more limitedIf banner ads – whose effectiveness even on roomy computer screens is in question – donot translate on mobile screens, how do you even sell an ad?A complicating factor is that there is no such thing as a single mobile experience: Tabletuse and smartphone use are wildly different. A study by AOL and ad agency BBDO lastyear found that over half of ―mobile‖ activity actually happens at home. While on-the-goactivities such as navigating with Google Maps epitomize mobile use, ―mobile‖ can justas easily mean curling up with a tablet to read a magazine article.―That is two entirely different need states,‖ said Franke Rodriguez, president of adagency Anomaly Toronto. ―Most brands and marketers are more focused on the on-thegobecause they‘re trying to make their brands useful … and meet people at the point ofneed.‖The problem is particularly keen for publishers, which have watched Web traffic frommobile devices skyrocket. USA Today was among the first newspapers to see its mobiletraffic surpass online traffic from PCs. This week, the chief digital officer at Gannett Co.Inc., which owns USA Today and a host of newspapers, told an industry journal thatmobile advertising is ―our biggest challenge.‖―The sole issue that we should all be thinking about is how we are going to monetize aswe move into mobile,‖ David Payne said.One way content producers can make ads more relevant is by using location-based andother data to better target consumers.―The real magic bullet will be when somebody can really connect location-basedexperience with serving up ads,‖ said Karel Wegert, the vice-president of digital solutionsat ad-buying company Media Experts.Loyalty companies are betting they will be best positioned to make that work. Becausethey already have a relationship with customers, they can ask for permission to send anoffer when they detect a frequent shopper passing near one of their stores, for example.―Everybody has a price for their data,‖ said Asif Khan, founder and president of theLocation Based Marketing Association in Toronto.―If you can provide something that is relevant to somebody,you can use their locationinformation. They won‘t mind.‖9