Dynamic Logic, a Millward Brown research company, has released the aggregate results of mobile branding research studies that appear to show that mobile campaigns can raise brand awareness, brand preference and purchase intent.
The company has completed over 30 AdIndex for Mobile research studies in the US and the UK to measure the branding effects of mobile advertising campaigns across a number of industry sectors, including alcohol, automotive, consumer electronics, FMCG, entertainment, financial services, retail, telecommunications, and travel. The campaigns included display ads on mobile Internet sites, and downloadable mobile applications.
Comparing people exposed to the mobile campaigns to those not exposed, the initial performance averages from 21 studies suggest that mobile advertising can be an effective medium for raising top and bottom funnel brand metrics. An average increase of 23.9 percentage points in Mobile Ad Awareness shows that these campaigns generally cut through and grab users attention. Average increases in Brand Favourability and Purchase Intent of 5.4 and 4.7 percentage points, respectively, support the ability of mobile advertising to change consumers attitudes towards a brand and to drive intent to purchase.
One reason for these positive increases, the company says, may be the newness of the medium. People may be intrigued by advertising they see on their mobile phone, which is displayed on a smaller screen and in a less cluttered environment than the Internet, so they may tend to pay more attention to it. More research and campaign analysis is needed to help marketers understand what will continue to work best on mobile devices, says Dynamic Logic.   
Planning a campaign around new media is challenging and research continues to become more important, says Caroline Jones, Director of Starcom MediaVest Plus. While this initial research is a great start, we need to continue to share our learnings from mobile marketing campaigns so these early averages can expand into a valuable benchmarking resource going forward.
Angela Whitelaw, Dynamic Logics Director of Client Services, says that while the results are only based on a small number of campaigns, and so should be used as directional increases, the company realises that its important for its clients to begin comparing their mobile campaigns effectiveness to an industry average
As we measure more campaigns, we will continue to build these averages into a normative database that can be used to help marketers understand whats working and whats not on mobile, says Whitelaw. Ultimately, wed like to have norms that can be used for mobile campaigns in the same way our MarketNorms database is used for online performance benchmarking and planning.