Deconstructing the In-App Bidding Landscape

By Peggy Anne Salz

One of the top trends in mobile monetization over recent years is a concept that comes with many different names. In-app bidding, also known as mobile header bidding, parallel bidding, or unified auctions, is a model that continues to gain momentum in the mobile advertising ecosystem, albeit at a slower pace than its desktop counterpart. There are a myriad of in-app bidding products available in the market today and PubNative, now part of Verve Group, has compared 17 of them side-by-side while also detailing the history behind the technology.

New Chapter Launches To Helps Marketers Grasp Opportunities In Germany, #5 Biggest Mobile Ad Spend Market Worldwide

To meet the need of brands and marketers for education and guidance, a requirement that is growing almost as quickly as the opportunities for growth in the German market are multiplying,  the MMA Germany has launched with experts and expertise from founding member companies including: adsquare, Coca-Cola, Google, SAP XM, Smaato, Telefónica Deutschland and Unilever.

Timing is everything–and the launch of the MMA Germany, on the heels of dmexco (the leading international trade show and conference for the digital economy that this year attracted a 50,700 visitors to its doors in Cologne) clearly underlines Germany’s leading position and potential as a powerhouse market for mobile marketing and advertising.

What Do Clients Want From Mobile? And What Should Agencies Give Them?

Tom Farrell, Director of Marketing, Swrve

Let’s skip the usual preamble and assume we are all aware that mobile is now not just “a” method to speak to consumers, it is “the” method.

Take a walk down any given high street or spend five minutes in a train carriage and you’ll soon notice that anyone under 35 isn’t even going to see conventional display advertising because their faces have apparently been glued to their smartphone screens (yes, I do have a teenage daughter since you ask).

Smarties™ Co-Chair, Rodrigo Sobral, shares his views on the Importance of the Event

Rodrigo Sobral, Integrated VP Executive Creative Director, R/GA

The 11^th Annual Smarties™ Awards program is just around the corner. It will showcase the best of the best in mobile marketing from the UK, EMEA and globally, recognising teams and talents that have created new benchmarks and engaged consumers in a way that is only possible through mobile. This year’s jury panel includes an impressive list of over a dozen brand marketers and agency leaders in mobile marketing from Fortune 500 companies. Included on the list is industry guru and R/GA London’s Integrated VP Executive Creative Director, Rodrigo Sobral. As co-chair, Rodrigo has discussed the theme of the awards, lessons learnt from the Smarties™ and shared his personal views on the future of mobile marketing during a Q&A session.

Smart Mobile Cross Marketing Effectiveness (SMoX) Study Findings

Greg Stuart, Global CEO Mobile Marketing Association

The MMA Announces Results From First-Ever Cross Marketing Effectiveness Research (SMoX) Conducted for Mobile, Based on In-Market Campaigns from Coca-Cola, Walmart, and MasterCard

Study Reveals Optimised Mobile Spend to be in the Double Digits of Total Marketing Mix

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released the findings from its Smart Mobile Cross Marketing Effectiveness (SMoX) study. Conducted in combination with Marketing Evolution and InsightExpress, the study assessed the economic value of mobile compared to traditional marketing channels by closely examining real, in-market campaigns from Coca-Cola, Walmart, and MasterCard. According to the study, the optimal spend for mobile (based on total campaign spend) is in the double digits—far more than most marketers are currently allocating.

Results from the SMoX research confirm that marketers would significantly increase their overall campaign ROI, without increasing budget, by simply adjusting mobile spend upwards. The study also showed that mobile is a strong driver of campaign performance across the entire purchase funnel. From upper funnel metrics like awareness and image, to purchase intent and actual behavior (foot traffic or sales), the empirical evidence proves that mobile has a fervent contribution to campaign results, justifying a double-digit allocation of the entire media budget (not just digital) to mobile.

As the first comprehensive study of its kind, SMoX is expected to trigger a turning point in the mobile industry in the same way similar research drove Internet advertising in the early 2000’s. Brands that participated in those studies increased their online ad spend by 30x on average, based on the insights. Additionally, the impact to the growth of the industry, measured as a direct result of the research, was 2.2x.

“The market has acknowledged there is a deep chasm between what brands are currently spending on mobile and consumer behaviour, but now there is real, indisputable proof on the value of mobile to a brand’s business goals,” said Greg Stuart, CEO, MMA. “I believe mobile presents the greatest transformation of marketing in our generation. With empirical data, SMoX now demonstrates the competitive opportunity for those marketers who figure out how to leverage the power of mobile effectively and optimise their spending with the most impactful allocations in their marketing mix, finally keeping pace with consumers.”

Key findings include:

The Coca-Cola Company: Gold Peak Tea Campaign

• In Spring 2014, Gold Peak Tea brand was looking to build brand awareness and drive increased sales using a mix of TV, print, online, and mobile to drive messaging.
• After evaluating how effective the campaign was and how each of the various media performed, the study found that mobile drove 25 percent of top-of-mind awareness, 9 percent of “home brewed taste” image conversions, and 6 percent of sales with 5 percent of budget.

Walmart: Back-to-School Campaign

• For its annual Back-to-School campaign in the summer of 2014, Walmart was focused on driving grocery intent to shop among mothers of school-aged children.
• The study found that mobile impacted more consumers per dollar spent than both broadcast and cable TV. Mobile drove 14 percent of change in overall shopping intent, despite accounting for only 7 percent of spend.

MasterCard: Travel Card Campaign

• In Q4 2014, MasterCard launched its Travel campaign to increase association of the card within the travel sector and to drive awareness of its Concierge app.
• The SMoX study investigated the impact of mobile in the above KPIs, quantifying the value of mobile display and video as they relate to the “nester” and “empty nester” target groups. In this case, mobile worked almost twice as hard compared to the campaign average, in terms of the number of people it converted on image per dollar spent.

In conclusion, the study found that reallocating to mobile (8-16 percent of the total marketing mix, on average) would drive incremental impact for each of the campaigns, making existing budgets work harder.

In addition the study revealed the most effective ways for brands to implement various mobile tactics (including video, native, location) in order to leverage mobile to its full potential.

• Mobile video and native all performed significantly better than display.
• Different ad formats had different types of impact.
• Location targeting (retargeting and proximity) significantly improved the performance of display advertising, driving important KPI’s, including actual foot traffic.

The full SMoX report, including deeper insights and additional guidance on how marketers can use this information for their own businesses, will be available for download by attendees of the MMA’s London Forum on June 8^th.

 

Written by:

Greg Stuart,

Global CEO Mobile Marketing Association

MMA EMEA Announces New Appointments to UK Board of Directors

The MMA is pleased to announce the appointment of new industry leaders to the MMA UK Board of Directors, as well as renewals of a number of members for another term. The new board members will serve a one-year term beginning immediately.

The growing number of marketers and agencies on the UK board aligns directly with the MMA’s recently announced marketer first and innovation-focused mission. We are focused on building mobile knowledge, know-how, inspiration and confidence throughout our membership and across the UK and EMEA region. View full  press release 

The new and re-elected UK board members include:

• Stephen Upstone, Founder & CEO, LoopMe (Chair)
• Claire Valoti, Head of Agency Relations UK, Facebook (Vice Chair)
• Adrian McDonald, VP International Bus Dev & Strategy, Widespace
• Alex Klose, Head of Marketing, IMImobile
• Britta Anderson, Senior Manager Digital Marketing EU, Coca-Cola Enterprises
• Chris Minas, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Nimbletank
• George Dixon, Head of Mobile, Mediacom
• James Collier, Managing Director EMEA, AdTruth
• James Temple, VP, MD Executive Creative Director, R/GA London
• Jide Sobo, Head of Mobile, MEC
• Matt Brocklehurst, Product Marketing, Mobile Advertising, Google
• Mick Rigby, CEO, Yodel Mobile
• Nigel Clarkson, Commercial Director, Weve
• Pratick Thakrar, Managing Director, Inspired Mobile
• Paul O’Grady, Senior Communications Planning Manager, Unilever
• Simon Birkenhead, CEO, Axonix
• Victor Malachard, CEO and Co-Founder, byyd Tech (Adfonic)

I’d like to thank all our board members in advance and look forward to working together to further the MMA mission and deliver increased member value.

For further information please contact:

Sally Harvey 

Director of Membership Strategy, EMEA MMA