Mobile advertising to reach $1.3 billion this year

The market for mobile advertising will pass the $1 billion mark for the first time ever this year, according to figures from Juniper Research.

The analyst company expects the market for mobile advertising to reach $1.3 billion by year end, with the market set to grow by an average of 42% per year, to reach $7.6 billion by 2013.

The mobile advertising market will comprise a number of different forms of advertising, including SMS, MMS, in-content download advertising, On-portal advertising, mobile internet advertising, idle screen advertising, and mobile TV and video advertising.

SMS advertising currently has the largest proportion of the mobile market, with around $335 million in 2008, although Juniper expects this to rise to $2.5 billion in 2013.

Idle screen advertising, where the mobile handset displays adverts while not in use, normally in return for a premium service or rebate for the user, is also expected to gain in popularity. Revenues for idle screen are currently around $7 million, but will reach $500 million in five years. The growth in mobile advertising will be driven by a number of factors, according to the report from Juniper. The personal nature of the mobile phone means that advertisers can target their advertising to a much more focused group, and also have a much greater degree of certainty that the message is seen by the intended user.

More focused advertising will also encourage a greater level of ‘opt-in' advertising services, while frequency capping will prevent a user from receiving the same adverts too often. This coupled with almost instant measurement of whether mobile advertising has been viewed will mean much better value for money for advertisers.

Technology developments in handsets and in 3G communications technology are also allowing much richer content than was previously possible, and the expected growth of mobile social networking will also create a bigger audience for mobile adverts.

Dr Windsor Holden, author of the Juniper whitepaper on mobile advertising said: "While adspend in the mobile environment is still extremely limited when compared to the budgets allocated to media such as magazines, television, cinema and the Internet, the opportunities it offers -personalized advertising with very high response rates, delivered to a device which is always in close proximity to the individual - will make it an increasingly attractive proposition for leading brands."