Analyst Angle: Smartphone owners – a ready and willing audience

Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from RCR Wireless News’ March Special Edition, “The Perfect Storm – A Focus on Mobile Messaging, Marketing, Content and Apps.” The 80-page special edition is available here.
Years ago, when smartphones were introduced to the market, they were promoted as devices to help the busy, on-the-go, business consumer. It was a tool primarily made available to access one’s e-mail, calendar and contacts when away from the desk or travelling. Today, that is far from the case. Today, they are integrated into the daily lives of all types of consumers, and Compete is tracking that changing behavior. Compete’s “Smartphone Intelligence” is a quarterly survey that questions device owners about their present smartphone usage, as well as their attitudes towards future initiatives. The data shared here is from the survey fielded in January and February 2010, and focuses on consumer’s attitudes and behaviors around mobile marketing.
The good news for brands trying to market through the mobile device starts with the amount of time people are spending on their devices throughout the day. To make things better, the time spent is primarily for reasons of personal productivity and entertainment. In fact, when asked how much time is spent on personal use (with the remaining being on business) 74% of smartphone owners indicated they are using their device primarily for personal reasons. However, we wanted to further break out use, so we asked smartphone owners how much time is spent on their smartphone at various times of the day.
It is clear that smartphones are being used at nearly all points of the day, from the morning train ride into the city, to the waiting room at the doctor’s office, to texting with friends at night while trying to understand that week’s episode of “Lost.” With the device never being more than an arm’s reach away, brands and advertisers are taking notice and using this mobile medium to relay all types of information.
This data supports the theory that mobile advertising provides marketers with ubiquitous access to consumers whether they are at home, shopping, standing in line, working, etc. This is something that other advertising mediums just do not have the ability to provide. Particularly interesting is that 69% (more than 2 of 3) of smartphone owners use their device while shopping. In-market consumers are armed with a wealth of information while making purchasing decisions, and retailers and brands are starting to take notice.
Over the past several months, we have seen companies implementing a broad array of mobile advertising initiatives. These initiatives have ranged from placing ads within downloadable applications, pushing an SMS or e-mail message to the smartphone based on personal or location-based criteria, or even placing barcodes in offline materials that are able to be scanned via a smartphone or other camera-enabled device. Barcode scanning is a unique way to enhance an otherwise everyday and ordinary experience. For example, recently I was having dinner at with some friends and they showed me a new cookbook they had recently purchased. Within minutes, I had used my iPhone to scan the UPC code, been redirected to Amazon.com, read some reviews, and purchased the book! Today, when flipping through the magazine Golf Digest, my reading experience was enhanced by scanning integrated barcodes with my phone – this launched videos for product demos, lessons and destination information – making reading a traditional print magazine a multi-media experience, as well as giving me some ideas for a future golf vacation! With this in mind, we took a look at what smartphone consumers remember seeing in the market over the past six months.
While about half (49%) of smartphone owners do not recall having received, seen or read about a mobile marketing campaign in the past 6 months, many (51%) have and the types or campaigns they have been exposed to vary by user. Likely due to the recent campaigns around the devastating Haiti earthquake and the far-reaching relief efforts, ads requesting an SMS donation are the most recognizable to smartphone owners. But this just tells a piece of the story. With mobile marketing efforts in their early stages, and only recognizable to some consumers, Compete wanted to know what kind of offers are enticing to consumers, because for those looking to get into the mobile marketing and advertising game, knowing what is tolerable and appealing to the consumer is key.
In the latest “Smartphone Intelligence” research, Compete asked smartphone owners how interested they were in receiving various types of mobile advertising.
We saw consumers were most interested in receiving grocery coupons (36%), scanable barcodes (29%), offers to save and pursue at leisure (26%), movie theater offers (26%), and ads via SMS when going by a retailer with a promotion/coupon (21%).
The fact that over one in five smartphone owners would be interested in these top five is very promising for the mobile marketing industry, considering that it is still in its early stages. Brands need to focus on engaging and driving behavior of these “early adopters” in order to help bring these concepts to mass market. So now that we understand a bit more around the “what,” we can dive into the how.”
Fifty-six percent of smartphone owners are open to receiving these messages on their smartphone. However, being able to control when they receive the ads is preferred – 41% want to receive mobile marketing messages when they request them or “on demand.” This signifies that consumers don’t want to be hassled or overwhelmed by the quantity of ads and messages that could potentially overwhelm the mobile experience. Brands need to ensure that they are sending relevant information to the consumer in order to drive mass adoption and acknowledgement of the mobile device as a viable advertising medium.