95% of digital marketing budgets now include mobile

The survey, conducted amongst a panel of over 100 senior-level UK agency representatives, investigated their knowledge and understanding of mobile advertising, as well as general attitudes towards the medium.  

The research also revealed that currently some 95% of digital budgets include spend on mobile, with only 5% of UK marketers not yet investing in the medium.

Familiarity and understanding of mobile increases

The results show that familiarity of many areas of mobile activity has grown significantly over the past 12 months, requiring respondents to ‘score’ their knowledge and understanding of the mobile medium.

This has increased significantly over a 12-month period, with 42% of those surveyed rating themselves 6 out of 10 or above, rising from just 24% in 2008.

Awareness and understanding of areas such as MMS, voice and video shortcodes has grown, with just 20% of marketers having no experience in this area in 2009 compared to 66% in 2008. 

Knowledge of mobile search is on the rise, with the amount of marketers with no experience of the discipline declining from 57% to 29% over the last 12 months.  Similarly familiarity of ads in and around mobile gaming has increased from 62% having no experience in 2008 yet only 35% had no experience in 2009.

Mobile specialism grows

The research also found that compared to 2008, the majority of employees responsible for planning a mobile campaign within the agencies surveyed are mobile specialists, with the number of dedicated mobile experts increasing year-on-year. 

In 2008, around 37% of those responsible for planning mobile campaigns within agencies were dedicated specialists with this figure rising to just over half (52%) in 2009.

Bigger mobile budgets

Agencies that took part in the survey were also asked what percentage of their digital spend is for mobile, and the results reveal that some 95% of respondents included mobile in their overall digital budget. 

Within this, 30% spent between 0 and 1%, 46% spent between 1 and 5%, 13% spent between 6 and 10% with a further 6% spending more than 11%.

Looking to the future, some 40% of agency respondents predicted they would be spending between 1 and 5% of their digital budgets on mobile in 2011. 

A further 29% believed they would be spending between 6 – 10% and 13% stated they would be spending between 11 and 20% and just 1% of agencies stated that they will not be allocating any budget to mobile in the next 2 years.

Mobile to see the biggest growth

73% of those surveyed agreed that mobile will be the fastest growing media for the next 5 years, with a further 73% also believing that most media agencies will have a mobile specialist by 2010. 

In terms of using the medium to communicate with specific audiences, some 55% of respondents agreed that in the future mobile will be the primary medium for communicating with 12 – 24 age group.

Jon Mew, head of mobile for the Internet Advertising Bureau said: “With the industry putting education at the very top of its agenda and driving growth more than ever this year, mobile advertising is less of a choice for brands, more of a necessity if they want to reach today’s consumer.  It’s extremely encouraging to see that agencies in the UK are adapting to the changing landscape allocating bigger budgets to mobile and hiring more specialists to plan mobile campaigns. 

The IAB, alongside its expert members, will be continuing its efforts to put mobile at the forefront of the marketer’s agenda, familiarising them with the tools available and raising levels of understanding even further.”

www.iabuk.net

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