Mobile understanding & brand safety improving but still a concern to UK media agencies finds IAB study
Over a quarter (27 per cent) of UK media agencies admit that they lack an understanding over mobile privacy and a fifth (22 per cent) have said that they are also yet to understand brand safety through mobile platforms as well, according to a European study carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).
The research, undertaken by IAB UK, German digital organisation BVDW, IAB Europe, IAB France, IAB Italy and IAB Spain, which aimed to understand the knowledge surrounding mobile advertising within the media sector, was completed by employees of 154 media agencies across Europe.
The latest study saw a rise in the number of respondents in the UK who claimed that strategists were driving a shift within media agencies towards mobile, increasing from 41 per cent in 2013 to 53 per cent, as mobile continued to become more mainstream, while 23 per cent in the UK also said they had witnessed an increase in mobile advertising knowledge as well.
Commenting of the results, Digitas LBi mobile strategist, Rafe Blandford told The Drum that mobile privacy had become one of the largest areas of concern for consumers within the digital landscape.
“This is an inevitable consequence of the sensitive information that our devices hold and the ever increasing array of tasks for which they are responsible. The fast pace of mobile means regulatory frameworks can lag behind reality; e.g. how should the EU Cookie law be implemented with regard to web views in apps?, This makes it difficult to define what full compliance is. Moreover, many mobile apps and services contain a de-facto trade-off between privacy and value; i.e. the more you give up, the more you get, which is not always well understood by consumers. Explaining these implicit privacy contracts to consumers is important if we are to protect brand reputations and fulfil the full promise of mobile context.”
However, almost half of respondents (49 per cent) also stated that they had begun to see more mobile bieng introduced within client proposals - an increase from 38 per cent in 2013. It was also discovered that brand safety, mobile programmatic and mobile privacy were the most concerning areas for media agencies, due to their low level of understanding.
Over two-thirds of media agency respondents (71 per cent) from across Europe said that they saw mobile ‘unlocking’ new budgets, however that budget was being taken from other areas such as online, TV, radio and print.
Most of UK respondents (90 per cent) said that being unable to track cross-screen campaigns was a barrier towards mobile growth, while over half (59 per cent) also said that they felt the most exciting opportunity within mobile was location-based targeting.
“Tracking user identity and behaviour across devices remain a formidable challenge, especially in those situations where a reliable customer-derived unique identifier is not available,” stated Blandford. “It is therefore no surprise to see the inability to track cross-screen as a barrier to growth. While there are a number of promising methodologies, technology on its own will not be enough. Improved consumer understanding of privacy choices and the inherent compromises there-in will also necessary if we are to arrive at a solution that will satisfy all parties.”
Mike Reynolds, senior mobile executive for the IAB, stated his pleasure at seeing that the level of mobile understanding had increased over the past six years and added that “confidence in the channel has also increased.”
According to the survey, integration will be very important this year, with over three quarters (78 per cent) of UK media agency employees having said that they expected mobile to be integrated into their wider agencies during the coming months.
The report was conducted online for the IAB by YouGov between 12 November and 8 December 2014. It involved 154 media agency employees, including 85 from UK, 14 from Spain, 20 from Italy, 24 from Germany and 11 from France.