What Kind Of Mobile Ads Do Consumers Want?

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

Mobile advertisements that are tailored to comsumers’ ‘tastes and interests’ far out-perform other offers that are based on time, lifestyle or location, according to a study released last week by Upstream, London.

In a continuation of its North American Consumer Attitudes to Mobile Marketing research, undertaken by Luth Research, San Diego, more than 2,000 American adults were surveyed. It found that feature phone users ranked personalized offers at 59% over those focused on timing (18%), lifestyle (16%) or location (8%). Smartphone users responded in similar fashion, with 60% preferring personalized offers over promotions based on timing (17%), lifestyle (10%) or location (14%).

“Comparing the importance of personalization versus location in receiving mobile ads is especially interesting, given the hype around location-based players such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Facebook Places or even Google+ with its Latitude check-ins,” says Assaf Baciu, senior vice-president, product management, Upstream. “While location remains an important factor in delivering mobile ads, tailoring interactions via mobile to consumers’ ‘tastes and interests’ clearly presents much greater potential for driving higher response and conversion rates.”

Regarding other consumer ad preferences, the research indicated that smartphone users are strongly interested in viewing ads for content for their mobile device, followed by movies/entertainment, including tickets; offers from their mobile service provider; and consumer goods. Feature phone users indicated that they wanted offers from their mobile service provider as a top choice, followed by movies/entertainment, including tickets; content for their mobile device and consumer goods, which were tied; and offers from retail stores.

Survey respondents also indicated which mobile phone advertising channel is most likely to lead to a follow-up action. Smartphone users indicated that mobile coupons were their top ‘channel of influence’, followed closely by an opt-in text alert or message; an email received on a mobile phone; an ad on a mobile website; and an ad that appears during an internet search of a product or service.


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