The effectiveness of mobile marketing and mobile advertising across myriad sectors, demographics, and locations is undeniable.
But not all countries and communities have warmed up to mobile marketing – and even social networking – as quickly as residents in other nations have.
Case in point: Canada. The beautiful nation atop the North American continent isn’t one of the driving forces behind the growth of the mobile marketing industry – at least not according to an executive from survey-based marketing firm Ipsos Canada.
Addressing his audience at the Canadian Marketing Association’s Digital Day 2011 conference recently in Toronto, Steve Levy, president of Ipsos Reid (East), says: “There’s a lot of activity in microblogging (Twitter) and social media space, but we just aren’t seeing public appetite to receive marketing information via these channels that mirrors the time and money spent on them.”
Mobile is “still in its infancy,” Levy admits, adding that only 30% of Canadians own a smartphone today. “If you don’t have a smartphone, you won’t see much of the advertising in the mobile space,” he said.
Taking a broader swipe at the industry at large, Levy said that hype more than reality continues to drive the mobile marketing craze.
“Some years back,” Levy observed, “it was said that 2007 would be the year of mobile marketing. That didn’t happen. And today 2011 is still not the year of mobile marketing.”
And while Levy was less-than optimistic about about mobile marketing today. He did, however, admit that online audiences are ripe for marketing and advertising messages.
“Eighty percent of Canadians are online,” Levy says. “From a consumer perspective it is already an accepted form of receiving marketing messages.”
The market is there. Canada boasts the 4th highest smartphone penetration in the world at 36%, behind the UK, Spain and Italy but ahead of the U.S. (Comscore, June 2011). It's up to marketers to look for engaging, relevant and creative ways to communicate and acceptance should grow more rapidly. If we bank on web banner-like ads then adoption will likely be slower.
As long as mobile ads go to mobile friendly websites, with concise, targeted info, there is a lot of potential.
Let's hope people don't get turned off by companies that send customers to their generic website home page. If you send mobile users to your non-mobile home page, please stop. You will ruin it for everyone else.
I was looking for some stats on how Canada is coming along with mobile ad serving. Looks like yes it is slow as opposed to the US, but from what i have seen in other stats them embracing even desktop use was significantly delayed also. Exciting things to come regardless, even if they lag a bit.
This whole scene will change dramatically with iPads and iPhones maturing in their usage.
Same topic 12-24 months from now will have quite a different outlook.
Eric
Hi, this article clearly indicates that the more important thing about mobile marketing, is that the receptor of the text message and the content and right message go to right person their is always is high chance of conversion in the form client or visitor respective to your business. Thanks for sharing