40 per cent of consumers reach for their mobile when they see an interesting ad, while 27 per cent select mobile as their first choice of media when they want to access content. These are two of the findings from a study carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) mobile department. The IAB says the findings show that advertisers are missing an opportunity to use mobile media to optimise their advertising.

The research found that there are an average of 18 mobile usage occasions per day, with mobile internet being the dominant method of access, giving brands numerous opportunities to reach out to consumers.

Mobile is totally engrained into consumers lives. 66 per cent of those questions said they “can’t live without their mobile”, while 58 per cent said their mobile device makes their lives “more organised”. But the research also highlighted the fact that the majority of consumers (69 per cent) are now accessing online content on their phone via their mobile browser – as opposed to links, shortcodes or apps – and so the need for brands to ensure their website is fully optimized for mobile is higher than ever. Some respondents said that “a bad mobile internet experience negatively reflects directly on the brand”.

The research also found that the 70 per cent of consumers multi-task mobile with other media, with joint mobile media and TV usage leading this trend. This is particularly prevalent in the evening, where 53 per cent of respondents using mobile media from 9pm-midnight were also watching TV at the same time.
Consumers’ interaction also changes as the day progresses with news, finance, weather and travel being top of the agenda in the period between 6am and 9am. Between 3pm and 6pm, entertainment, shopping and maps are what users are looking for via their mobiles. Then from 6pm, entertainment, music, sports and games kick in.

“In doing this research, we wanted to understand better the place of mobile in the media day – highlighting just how important mobile media is to today’s consumer,” says IAB’s mobile manager, Alex Kozloff. “The implications of this consumer behaviour for advertisers is huge – mobile is a hygiene factor that every brand should be thinking about to make sure the customer experience is a positive one.”

The study was carried out in partnership with research agency Connect Insight. The research was undertaken at the end of 2010, where 500 mobile media users (mobile users who browse the mobile internet, use applications or download content) were asked to fill in a ‘Media Diary’ for seven days, detailing their mobile media use by day-part. To back up this quantitative data, the IAB held six online focus groups, where users representing a range of demographics and handset types were questioned about why they use mobile media and the place it has in their ‘media day’.

David Murphy writes:

The latest piece of research from the IAB should serve as a wake-up call to brands who are still burying their head in the sand where mobile is concerned. What’s interesting is that it shows mobile’s place in the whole customer  journey, or at least the bit of it from when the brand attracts their interest.

The research flags up the fact that a lot of people now reach for their mobile when they see an ad. So the first point is to make it easy for them to respond via mobile, either with a clear phone number, shortcode or URL. But the URL is not much use if it takes you to the full-fat website, no matter how smart your phone is. So, as the IAB points out, if you’re going to mobilise the response mechanism, you have to mobilise the destination too.

I remember Ogilvy’s Scott Seaborn saying to me at the back end of 2009 that his mantra for 2010 was going to be: “Build a mobile website”. He would be saying it to every client and potential client he met, he told me.  And I remember thinking: “Good luck with that one.” But clearly, the efforts of Seaborn and his peers to convince a sceptical marketing community (and earn a few quid in the process) are clearly bearing fruit.

There’s a long way to go, but the retail community is falling in line, companies in the travel industry are also getting to grips with what mobile can do for them, and it seems inevitable that in time, any brand that wouldn’t currently dream of operating without a full-fat website would feel the same way about the mobile-optimised version. In the meantime, stats like today’s from the IAB can only help further the cause.