Display advertising in mobile marketing to fall: Study

As more and more mobile consumers across Asia Pacific are using multi-screening and video watching, marketers expect an eventual shift away from display advertising towards innovative content, says a report.
A mobile marketing in Asia survey conducted by Warc in association with the Mobile Marketing Association found that while 70 per cent of marketers currently use display advertising, only 44 per cent plan to use it in five years' time.
Content, in contrast, is set to speed ahead during this period and take the pole position, with adoption rising from 33 per cent today to an expected 49 per cent in 2020.

"This corresponds with the marketers' perception of video's rising significance in mobile platforms," it noted.
The study found watching video was now considered by 51 per of respondents as an important mobile consumer behaviour, up 15 percentage points compared to 2014 and 23 percentage points from 2013.
Multi-screening was seen as the most significant consumer trend with 68 per cent indicating its importance.

Conducted between March, 2012 and May, 2015, the study involved 287 respondents from 17 countries in Asia Pacific.
"The ongoing challenge now is that today's consumers
expect much more of their mobile content and experience. So in order to keep up, marketers need to hone their skills further and innovate strategically," Warc Asia Pacific Managing Director Edward Pank said.

While more attention is being paid to consumer-focused issues, the biggest barrier to the growth of mobile marketing in Asia-Pacific remains the skills gap and lack of understanding within the industry, as was identified by 40 per cent of the respondents.
"Although this proportion is slightly lower than last year (45 per cent), the consistency indicates a sustained struggle to deploy the appropriate advanced capabilities to engage consumers through mobile in such a fast-moving landscape.
This is despite the fact that the number of marketers assigning over 10 per cent of their budgets to mobile has risen from one in five (20 per cent) in 2013 to one in three (34 per cent) now," the study said.