Sometime last week, i was ranting on the inevitable increase of mobile advertising and why the future lies in the 4 inches of LCD infront of you. Yet, despite being fantastic news for most mobile advertisers who are, as i banter, licking their chops, I can’t help but question: Who the hell is watching Mobile TV and in turn, viewing the ads?
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that mobile TV is as popular in Australia as VB (i don’t care how they market it, but crap taste is still crap taste!!) and while the iPhone and the increase in bandwidth speed have to a certain degree improved people’s online mobile access, when online, most people are spending time updating facebook and tweeting about how the guy next to them on the train is manically shaking his leg. How are you going to market to that?
So what needs to be done? For one, we need to copy the Japanese/Korean model of mobile addiction!
Last year, when i had a culturally void but AWESOME time in Tokyo, i can’t help but notice how most Japanese people avoided eye contact…because their eyes are glued to the LCD screen infront of them! Get this, the average Japanese spends 1 hr a day on mobile TV.
In the land of the rising sun and 2 storey TV screens, there are, as of July 09, 109 million mobile phone subscribers (sourced from Telecommmunications Carrier Show) and of those:
- 85% of mobile phone subscribers use online services
- 96% on 3G or above
Popular gaming/social/mobile network sites such as Mobage-Town, Mixi and Gree have a combined 50 million subscribers. What this means is whole lotta cheeseburgers! Infact, when we break this down to mobile expenditure, mobile e-commerce in Japan is valued at $US1.15billion in 2008, a 45/40/15 breakdown in spending between commercial/services/transactions. Talk about a mobile advertiser’s wet dream!
So what brought about this proliferation?
- Broad coverage of the 3G network
- Flat rate data plans
- Operators have more control than the GSM networks
- High travelling population that spends long time on trains
Whilst the move to 3G and the increase coverage of the 3G networks are facets dramatically improved in Australia, there needs be a drastic improvement in the cost of surfing mobility and as important, the volume and quality of content online.
One key aspect worth exploring is the dominance of free quality content available on Japanese networks (72% of all ebooks are free). This presents a perfect model for brands/service to create their own free online branded content, made exclusive only to mobile and monetised through mini ad breaks of affliated products. This works on the appeal of the consumer who is in a win win situation. Free exclusive content sponsored by relevant products that feature in the ad break!
