The GSMA and a task force comprising
Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange,
T-Mobile International and 3, today unveiled the results of a
feasibility study examining mobile audience metrics that will enable
media and advertising agencies, brands and publishers to deliver better
mobile advertising campaigns. The study, part of the GSMA's Mobile
Media Metrics programme, has created a measurement process for mobile
browsing that respects the privacy of mobile users and provides rich
planning information for the media and advertising communities.
"Access to transparent measurement is essential in establishing mobile
as a legitimate advertising medium. This programme will help take the
guesswork out of mobile for brands, publishers and agencies," said Rob
Conway, CEO and Board Member of the GSMA. "For the first time, the
advertising community has access to real, aggregated mobile audience
data, which offers insight into the most popular sites, ranked by
number of visitors, page impressions, time and duration of visits. This
will enable better planning of marketing campaigns, and in turn, will
accelerate sales of mobile advertising inventory."
Top Sites
The results of the study, based on a sample of anonymised data from UK
mobile operators, reveal that operator sites continue to command the
largest audiences, with 68% of UK mobile users visiting operator
portals. Google is the top off-portal destination and Facebook is the
top mobile site by time spent browsing, with other social networking
sites featuring strongly. In addition to the top sites, a total of
167,648 mobile Internet sites have been measured during the feasibility
study.
Top Mobile Sites vs. Top Internet Sites, December 2008 UK Mobile Phone Users (sample of UK Operators) and UK Internet Users*
|
|
Top 10 Mobile Sites
|
Top 10 PC Internet Sites
|
|
1
|
Mobile Operator Sites
|
Google Sites
|
|
2
|
Google Sites
|
Microsoft Sites
|
|
3
|
Facebook.com
|
Yahoo! Sites
|
|
4
|
Yahoo! Sites
|
Facebook.com
|
|
5
|
BBC Sites
|
EBay
|
|
6
|
Apple Inc. Sites
|
BBC Sites
|
|
7
|
Microsoft Sites
|
AOL (inc. Bebo)
|
|
8
|
Sony Online (inc. Sony Ericsson)
|
Amazon Sites
|
|
9
|
Nokia
|
Ask Network
|
|
10
|
AOL (inc. Bebo)
|
Wikimedia Foundation Sites
|
Source: GSMA Mobile Media Metrics; comScore Media Metrix (PC data)
User Behaviour
The output of the GSMA's Mobile Media Metrics programme will allow
brands, publishers and agencies access to rich, aggregated user
behaviour data, enabling comparison with other media.
For example,
mobile users accessing Facebook spend an average of 24 minutes per day
on the site, similar to the 27.5 minutes spent by PC users. Mobile
users on Facebook averaged 3.3 visits per day versus 2.3 visits per day
by PC users.
Mobile is used consistently throughout the whole day, but the early
morning (7-10am) is the key day part for mobile, accounting for 22% of
total mobile minutes browsed, compared with only 11% of total minutes
browsed by PC Internet users in the same day part. Mobile can therefore
act as an extension to media such as the Internet and TV, while it
reinforces other early morning media, such as radio and newspapers.
Demographics
The real value comes in the combination of aggregated site popularity
and user behaviour data with independently collected demographic
information, which enables more effective targeting of campaigns.
Mobile is confirmed as a strong youth medium with 48 per cent of users
between 18-34 years old, compared to 40 per cent for the fixed Internet
and 29 per cent for the TV audience (
source: BMRB's TGI). Mobile is
also
more skewed towards men, who represent 63 per cent of total users
compared with 53 per cent for the fixed Internet.
"The mobile phone has the potential to offer relevant, personalised
advertising on a level that has largely been unattainable until now,"
said Conway. "
This potential can only be achieved if mobile is part of
a sophisticated, integrated approach to advertising. The rich data
delivered through this programme will enable advertisers to create
truly comprehensive, cross-platform media plan and campaigns."
In the feasibility study, the
GSMA worked with comScore as its
measurement partner and ABC Electronic its media audit partner, as well
as key industry stakeholders including JICWEBS and its member
associations. The next phase of the programme will see the
commercial
launch of an audited mobile measurement service, expected in the second
half of 2009. The
GSMA will establish three further working groups, one
each for advertisers, media and advertising agencies, and publishers.
These working groups will confirm the measurement and reporting needs
of the media industry, gather support for the
proposed measures as a
'common currency' for mobile audience measurement, and establish how
best to integrate this valuable information into existing cross-media
business processes and tools.
Source: GSMA Mobile Media Metrics by PR Service (
press@gsm.org)
