Mobile advertising is one of the most popular ways of digital advertising. With the escalating usage of mobile phones, especially smart phones, more and more advertisers target potential customers via the mobile phone. While one may probably bring negative impacts to the customers, another one can effectively attract customers in a more ‘hidden’ and positive way, thus increasing the probability for customers to purchase the products or services the advertisers trying to sell.

Before the introduction of smart phone, most mobile advertising are done by sending text messages or dialing to customers directly. However, this may receive negative response from the customers. According to H. Bauer and co, sending text messages containing advertising messages will give customers a sense of irritation due to the personal, intimate nature of mobile phone. (Bauer & et al, 2004)

Since the pervasive usage of smart phones, applications in different categories are introduced to the daily life of you and me. Communication applications such as Whatsapp! Messenger, Facebook messengers, Skype; and game applications such as Angry Bird, Doodle Jump and Temple Run earn tens of millions of rate of downloading in application stores. From downloading to start using them it may only take a second or two of the users, which is a highly convenient way. However, apart from benefits to the users, developers as well as advertisers can also earn merits from the application. According to Yakov Bart, Andrew T. Stephen and Miklos Sarvary, Mobile Display Advertising (MDA) is the most common type of mobile advertising, which is done by displaying virtual banners on either mobile web page or in mobile applications (Bart & et al, 2014) The FIFA 15, an extremely popular football game in both the game consoles and the mobile phone interface, is a good example for advertisers to instill their product images into customers’ mind. When the animated figures in the football match wear certain brands of football kits or shoes, customers have higher opportunities to buy the products of sportswear. Besides, there are also banners promoting the football products. When users playing the game virtual banners will be shown and the aim of advertising can then be reached.

Apart from the format, it is also important for advertisers to consider the location of users. According to Xinwei Wang and co, when consumers are close to the merchant, a LMP with high discount level is more effective than a LMP that promotes a product matching consumers’ consumption needs. (Wang & et al, 2014)

There are different ways of mobile advertising, and due to the advancement of technology more and more advertisers promote their products and services in the mobile applications. Due to its high pace of growth in terms of mobile advertising, more research should be done to try to have a grip of customers’ intention in order to reach higher profits.

References

Bart, Y., Stephen, A. T., & Sarvary, M. (2014). Which products are best suited to mobile advertising? A field study of mobile display advertising effects on consumer attitudes and intentions. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(3), 270-285.

Bauer, H. H., Barnes, S. J., Reichardt, T., & Neumann, M. M. (2005). Driving consumer acceptance of mobile marketing: A theoretical framework and empirical study. Journal of electronic commerce research, 6(3), 181-192.

Wang, X., Wu, D., & Teo, H. H. (2014). Right Message at Right Place: Investigating the Effectiveness of Location-based Mobile Advertising on Consumers’ Redemption Responses.

Founded in 2005, Youtube, a video-sharing website, is one of the most popular websites in the world-wide web. (Gill & et al, 2007)Millions of video clips are uploaded from its users around the globe, with a wide range of content, from personal statement, pranks, football match highlights to fashion shows, etc. Users can share their videos with their friends via social network such as Facebook and Twitter, and this can effectively increase the rate of view. (Burgess & et al, 2013)Apart from ordinary users, advertisers also notice that by promoting their products and services via Youtube, they can earn a much higher rate of view and thus increase the profit. Many big brands in various sectors of business make video clips to promote their products.

1. ADIDAS

Adidas, a German sportswear compamy, formed partnership with YouTube creators KICKTV to set up a real time content on the 2014 World Cup for their YouTube channel. It came out as a huge success since the number of subscribers to Adidas’ YouTube channel tripled and the channel obtained 15 million visits to the brand website. During the World Cup viewers watched a combined 25,000 hours of episodes of The Dugout on Adidas’s YouTube channel.

2. H&M with David Beckham

Before the 2014 Super Bowl Final kicked off, fans of David Beckham are given the opportunity to buy a wide range of underwear, manufactured by H&M, directly from their TV in a new interactive advertisement. H&M, clothes retailer from Sweden, gave viewers the opportunity to select from different versions of the star performing impressive stunts. Beckham tries to get to safety in his signature briefs in those ads. Voting began before the kick-off of the final and promoted nine pieces from the ex-footballer’s Spring range. The ad was followed by a Twitter campaign, and fans are able to get to choose whether he bares all in the ad or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLKxTSqCVUo

3. Head and shoulders

To mark Valentines Day 2014, Head & Shoulders, a shampoo brand, teamed up with Saatchi & Saatchi in the Philippines to hold a hidden camera viral event, featuring young men on a blind date with a lady, who was played by a hired actress, and she had really bad dandruff. The campaign drew over 500,000 YouTube views. Agency Saatchi & Saatchi made the advertisement for the Procter and Gamble brand, and is encouraging people to share it with the Twitter hashtag #FlakerDate.

As most netizens are younger people, or even teenagers, it is a good way to attract potential customers by making advertisement via social networks or video-sharing websites, which can increase the opportunity for products to reach their target audience, and therefore increase the probability for their products/services to be bought. (Montgomery& et al, 2009)

References

Burgess, J., & Green, J. (2013). YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. John Wiley & Sons.

Gill, P., Arlitt, M., Li, Z., & Mahanti, A. (2007, October). Youtube traffic characterization: a view from the edge. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCOMM conference on Internet measurement (pp. 15-28). ACM.

Montgomery, K. C., & Chester, J. (2009). Interactive food and beverage marketing: targeting adolescents in the digital age. Journal of Adolescent Health, 45(3), S18-S29.