Mobile Ads Fail To Strike A Welcoming Chord

With budgets of millions, mobile advertisement was supposed to become the fastest growing ad vehicle in the US. However, somewhere along the way, it seems to have derailed. A survey by Nielsen reveals that Americans were the least likely to be influenced by ads on their mobiles, that could induce them to buy a service or a product.

The research by Nielsen has further revealed that smart phone users in Europe, were more likely than their American counterparts, to make an online purchase, based on ads they’d seen on their mobiles, giving rise to the assumption that the advertisers haven’t packaged their ads right, for US consumer tastes and consumption.

Inspite of the worst economic recession, that the US has faced, surveys show that the mobile industry continues to grow and prosper at a healthy rate. The vast majority of the US populace are mobile phone users.  Given this statistic it was logically presumed that ads on mobiles would generate considerable interest and subsequent buying.

However, only 20 percent Americans made online purchases, swayed by mobile ads, whereas 34 percent German and 28 percent British of their counterparts were persuaded by the mobile ads to buy online.

What the ad agencies find even more bewildering is that users of high-end phones, like Smartphone and Tablet have given an absolute thumbs-down to mobile ads, with the former registering only 4percent and the latter 8percent, mobile ads induced buying.

The reasons being advocated by the companies for their failure to meet expectations are that probably Americans are exhausted and fed-up from the deluge of ads that flood them from every possible avenue. The second reason is that the ads are probably not packaged right and whilst they may be okay for other European countries, they are not for American users.

Research findings from YouGov show that “Smartphone users in the UK consider mobile advertising intrusive, and tend to ignore the ads they see on their phones,”

It seems that the ads must be made more viewer worthy, better targeted, made more pertinent, to reverse the decline in value and effectiveness. The findings further  indicate that marketers and media planners have not got to grips with what mobile advertising can do and that they need to ” harness the higher level of personal engagement that mobile users have with their handsets to provide them with something truly unique, relevant and interesting.”