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Joy Liuzzo of InsightExpress
Mobile Advertising Continues Growth
For several years, mobile and online advertisers had a lover’s quarrel. Mobile proponents claimed “the year of mobile,” while online, broadcast and print industry folks kept knocking mobile as a teenage love affair with iPhones and other wireless toys.
Well, according to Joy Liuzzo with InsightExpress, a digital marketing and advertising firm, advertisers have seen the light and blessed the marriage of online and mobile. In fact, mobile and online go so well together, they should have married years ago.
In her third appearance on MobileBeyond and IM-Mobile, Joy, one of the most engaging experts in consumer mobile behavior and advertising research, reveals her thoughts about the growth of mobile and online in the past year.
Before getting into the stats, Joy updates listeners on her personal mobile inventory–iPad, MacBook Air, BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, etc. She claims she’s lowered the weight of her mobile gadgets from 17.6 pounds to under ten. (To make sure she maintains her mobile weight, MobileBeyond and IM-Mobile have arranged with the staff at InsightExpress to attach a wireless weight monitor and report her daily wireless gadgets to the media.)
Audio Interview with Joy Liuzzo
In this audio interview, Joy reviews her latest 2009-2010 report (InsightExpress Mobile Norms; click to download the PDF). The short summary discusses performance changes in mobile, the “closest cousin to online.” Some of Joy’s other comments and predictions:
- Due to improved online advertising effectiveness, mobile was only 3-4 times as effective as online in 2009-2010 vs. 4-5 times in the past.
- Significant differences between mobile and online: Ad awareness (23%/8%), message association (14%/4%) and purchase intent (11%/3%).
- Mobile users are highly engaged with ads due to device type, screen size, quality of creative and other factors.
- Smartphone penetration is now around 33% in the U.S. and will likely grow to 50%, but the carriers’ increased selection of mobile phones is changing the definition of “smartphone” vs “feature phone.” Carriers are flooding the market with “smarter” phones which, to consumers, are just “phones.”
- Most consumers want a better phone when purchasing but may not want a smartphone with sophisticated features that won’t be used.
- Especially due to growing carrier 4G networks, typical mobile consumers want a satisfactory mobile Internet experience–not necessarily a ton of mobile apps. Joy estimates that 40% of users prefer the mobile Web, 30% apps and 30% a mixture of both.
- Consumers use phones based on preferred features. Providers must respond to user demand. The typical mobile user doesn’t want 50 apps, office document software or PDF displays. The vast majority seek a solid phone with email, good call quality and a satisfying Web surfing experience. Most phone users are not “mobile intensives” as Joy discussed in her previous interview.
- The iPad and other pad computers were initially targeted for business users but have turned into personal entertainment devices. So much for mobile convergence, the buzz word only a few years ago, when nearly everyone thought we would eventually carry only one mobile device that does everything from frying eggs to handling Christmas card mail-outs. If anything, the iPad and similar devices have proven that consumers don’t want one device that does everything.
- Separate mobile devices provide advertisers with unique experiences to reach target audiences. For example, the Netflix/iPad movie viewer has a different experience than a consumer watching the same movie on a flat panel TV.
Listen to Joy’s audio interview as she describes her vision of advertising and consumer engagement.
InsightExpress
InsightExpress is a leading provider of high-quality, digital marketing research and plays a preeminent role in the measurement of advertising effectiveness across online, mobile and other media.
Through its patented technologies, proprietary solutions, world-class expertise and time-tested research principles, InsightExpress transforms the way advertisers, agencies, publishers and researchers optimize their marketing activities.
InsightExpress is headquartered in Stamford, CT, with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
Joy Liuzzo
As Senior Director of Marketing & Mobile Research at InsightExpress, Joy works closely with Product Development in the creation of all mobile research solutions, and oversees the company’s mobile position and all external partnerships and affiliations. She’s also on the Board of Directors of the Mobile Marketing Association’s North America division.
