Innovation & User Experience The Future of Mobile Advertising
2020 has been a tough year for advertisers: the pandemic brought with it mass shutdowns of retailers, restaurants, and sporting events, which in turn forced brands to cut spending and find new ways to reach consumers. Now with COVID cases surging and another round of lockdown order being issued, advertisers are likely to face greater challenges. Thankfully, a few advertising mediums have remained profitable this year, with mobile advertising holding steady despite the impact of the pandemic.
Mobile was already growing in popularity as a method for reaching large audiences and promoting brands, but with the average level of engagement for mobile ads having risen by about 15% during the pandemic, it’s value has been made much more apparent. However, the increased reliance on mobile ads has also highlighted some of the format’s biggest problems: the space has become extremely saturated and competitive, from in-app advertisements to social media content. Additionally, users have become fatigued by repetitive and obvious marketing ploys, especially when they are disruptive and irrelevant to their interests.
Advertisers are working to address these issues though: many are experimenting with format changes to create a more streamlined and customer-friendly experience. Mobile advertising is all about ease of access and user control, making it easy for customers to take action if they want to, while also giving them the option to opt-out. This level of control is important, because while mobile users tend to appreciate unique and engaging content, especially if it’s personalized and reflects their interests, they also want to decide for themselves what appears on their screen. Making it difficult to do that will result in negative friction that will hurt a brand’s reputation in the long run.
We’re also seeing more creativity coming into play, with brands branching out into more unorthodox ways to reach mobile audiences. For instance, in an effort to create less disruptive ads for mobile games, some companies are replacing video ads with background audio adverts. Others are leveraging new and cutting edge technologies, including ads that leverage VR or AR technology. Along with improvements to targeting and user interface, advertisers are going out of their way to play with formats to make them more effective.
Yet the biggest innovation we’re seeing with mobile advertising is that it’s not restricted by any one device or media format. For one, mobile advertising is expanding into the social commerce space, with Amazon testing out “live shopping” streams where influencers promote various products. Mobile is also conquering television, with connected TV and addressable TV becoming far more popular in the past year. We’ve reached a point where “mobile advertising” is no longer a single category within the larger advertising industry: it’s a cornerstone of modern advertising on the whole. So long as advertisers are willing to innovate and improve upon what’s already there, they’ll be able to overcome the format’s more prominent flaws and achieve even greater success.
