Analyst speak: The mobile news audience will be highly receptive to ad campaigns
Share
Trevor Vagg, director, Kantar Media
Over recent years we’ve seen the number of British adults who regularly use the internet via a mobile device increase dramatically. It has risen from 2.8m in 2008 to 4.3m in 2009, and then doubled to 8.6m in 2010, according to Kantar Media’s latest Internet Monitor. Add this to the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCooper’s mobile internet advertising figures (32% increase to £37.6m in 2009) and it makes for a very strong case that mobile is now a viable medium in itself.
Social networking is a key driver of people making more use of mobile internet. Half of mobile internet users claim to have used their mobile for social networking in the past six months. However, news content follows closely with four in ten accessing it via their mobile.
Most of those who access news content via mobile are men (69%) and aged 20-44 years (with the majority aged 25-34). Social grade is evenly split, with 35% AB, 33% C1 and 32% C2DE. Those who visit news sites via mobile devices are more likely than the average internet user to keep up to date with developments in technology, to prefer surfing the internet to watching TV, and to find online video ads more entertaining than other online advertising. They’re also less likely to read printed newspapers and magazines.
Media owners will also be pleased to see a greater willingness to pay for news among the mobile audience - 18% agreed that if a newspaper’s website was no longer free, they would agree to pay for this content, compared with 9% of those who look at news online.
Digging a little deeper, using TGI Net, there’s further evidence that the mobile news audience mirrors a classic early-adopter profile. For instance, they’re more likely to buy new products first and influence others on choice. They’re ambitious, motivated and take risks. They’re decision-makers and trendsetters.
Mobile news provides a means of reaching this valuable target group, and this understanding of the audience will help publishers and brands when selecting which categories might be most effectively advertised on mobile news channels. The growth rate means this profile is likely to broaden quickly, which will open up advertising on mobile news sites to a wide range of brands.
