Mobile has become our permanent appendage, so why haven't advertisers caught up?

There are more than seven billion people in the world and an estimated five billion of them own mobile phones – more than who own a toothbrush (three and a half billion).

Much of Western Europe and East Asia has smartphone population penetration rates in excess of 80 per cent and in developing countries the phone, rather than the PC, laptop or tablet, is often their first online device.

In fact, mobile attribution and analytics company Kochava predicts that, for most brand advertisers, at least 50 per cent is coming through mobile devices. “It is a tethered device for 90 per cent of the day – almost always within arms reach,” says Garrett MacDonald, executive vice-president of sales. “A mobile is tethered to a person, a PC to a plug.”

Henric Ehrenblad, founder of mobile ad-serving firm Widespace, predicts that mobile will account for 70 per cent of media consumption by 2020.

Little wonder then that mobile marketing is at the top of many a marketing director’s agenda.

As mobile startup Quikkly’s founder and chief operating officer Ken Johnstone notes: “Mobile is the most seismic shift in consumer behaviour in a century. Phones are a permanent appendage to our bodies and millennials in particular have never know anything else.”

Combine the behavioural change with other technical advances in big data, information, personalisation, location and relevance and the industry can expect a perfect storm brewing, he says. “Our everyday behaviours are immensely valuable to brands and marketers – and becoming more so.”

Medialets, the WPP-owned adserving and measuring business, agrees. Chief executive officer Richy Glassberg says: “At Medialets, we believe that mobile is the future. We live in a world where people consume media across three, four or even five devices – most of which are mobile.”

There could, he predicts, be nearly five billion connected devices in use by the end of this year, making it even more challenging for marketers to reach this increasingly mobile, multi-device audience in addition to the desktop audience.

Yet advertising on this most personal of devices is still lagging behind consumer adoption. Why? It is, say the experts, a combination of a question of return on investment, a fear of fraudulent clicks and measures, lack of attribution and any number of other metrics which firms such as theirs are addressing. Furthermore, unlike desk-based browsing, there are no cookies and mobile, as it increases in stature, is not just one channel – but many.

It is also a matter of the initial excitement not providing the immediate uplift that advertisers first expected, says Ehrenblad, looking back at WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), which consumers took to at some level but advertisers never really knew how to engage with.

True of much incoming tech infrastructure, he says, whereby early excitement is far too high and yet long-term expectation is pitched too low. “Mobile is going to be even bigger than we thought,” he predicts, though accurate and trusted measurement and attribution are the challenge for players in this space.

It is companies such as his, Medialets, Kochava and Quikkly, who are leading the charge to prove the value of such measurement and attribution in order that advertisers catch up with the consumer reality.

Says MacDonald: “Advertisers follow eyeballs. If consumers are on mobile then advertisers need to follow. Right now most brand advertisers are only spending five to 10 per cent of budgets on mobile advertising, but the reality is that most content is being consumed on mobile devices. There’s a lag – the eyeballs are ready but advertisers don’t know how to reach those audiences. Our goal is to help them do that – and we let them stitch mobile to other channels in a far more effective manner.”

So, while mobile is set to take centre stage, it should do so as part of an unsiloed, cross-platform strategy.

“As the use and number of consumer devices continues to increase, it is imperative that marketers are able to implement cross-platform advertising strategies,” says Glassford. “But it will be impossible to do so without mastering mobile first.”

In mobile, he says, brands and advertisers must account not only for the unique challenges and requirements of tracking media effectiveness in mobile web, but also in apps, which have their own set of challenges and requirements.

As consumers spend more time in apps, more mobile ads are served there, but significant amounts of brand marketer activities – such as signing up for a credit card or purchase – still happen on mobile web. In other words, marketers need to be able to evaluate both environments – ideally at the same time. Yet brands must beware relying on desktop ad servers for mobile that are not comprehensive enough to measure or attribute accurately.

Moreover, Quikkly’s Johnstone warns that advertisers must use new and upcoming tech in a responsible way. While brands can target consumers in a more contextual and genuinely useful way, he cautions the risk of backlash. “Some beacon implementations, for example, are incredibly intrusive and spammy,“ he says. “If I know what I want, make it as easy as possible for me to get to it instantly.”

Opportunities abound for advertisers in the mobile space with new metrics and models that marketers can believe in. Yet, as ever, it seems they must balance those opportunities against quantifiable return on investment and consumer apathy.

Join us for The Drum’s Mobile Breakfast in London on 7 October where, along with sponsors Medialets, Kochava, Quikkly and Widespace, we will be exploring best practices for marketing to mobile consumers. Contact daniel.morris@thedrum.com for more information.

This feature was first published in The Drum's 16 September issue.