Can you achieve brand engagement on mobiles?

Can you build brand awareness and engagement on your mobile? If this sounds like a familiar question, that's because it is exactly the debate the marketing industry had around online advertising just over a decade ago. We've clearly resolved the online branding and engagement argument and how. So take the premise of online brand engagement and turn it up to 11 and you'll begin to understand the potential of mobile brand engagement. Just as online advertising began with a cost-per-click model, mobile advertising has established its rapidly growing global footprint on this volume model. And while it's certainly an important part of the picture, the real potential lies in what brands can do with the most personal medium available to advertisers. InMobi's recent global media consumption survey showed the average mobile web user in Australia consumes 6.5 hours of media daily and mobile devices represent 26% of this time (a greater proportion than TV). It's a trend that will only continue as smartphone adoption continues to reach critical mass, connection speeds improve, and publishers begin to offer more mobile content. And as smartphone and tablet penetration increases, the platform for rich media experiences really opens up. Last month the Mobile Marketing Association of which InMobi is Australia's founding member released its global guidelines setting standards for ad units to streamline the buying and selling process. Billions of ad impression were analysed to devise six standard units which form the Mobile Universal Ad Package v.2.0. Rich media allows consumers to customise their own experience with a brand. And beyond that, they also have the ability to share from rich ads and extend the consumer journey and value exchange between consumer and brand experience though social media. With rich media campaigns, consumers can interact on an intensely personal level anything from changing the colour of a car to viewing a film trailer or playing games. It evident that our devices are also becoming increasingly transactional. According to our research, 74% of consumers plan to conduct mobile commerce in the next 12 months, a 15% increase from where we are today. Taking into consideration the amount of online research consumers conduct prior to making a purchase, it makes perfect sense to be engaging with them and exposing them to brand messaging and exchanging value with them at this level. Huge potential exists for deeper engagement with consumers through rich media ads in this growing, very personal media consumption platform. In this time of growth, it is as much about education as it is smart decisions from marketers to take consumers to new exciting places with their brands.