Speaking Sensis

Thomas Arthur, Sensis GM, Digital Marketing Services talks about the changing face of digital display advertising and how mobile advertising is now making its presence felt.

WA:    Hi Thomas. Before we talk mobiles, I wanted to focus on the digital display market if I could. Where do you think it’s headed?

TA:    Thanks Wayne. The digital display ad market continues to grow strongly, despite the downturn. Just as importantly, the fundamentals that underpin that financial growth are really healthy. Usage of our online network grew by 13% to 9.6m unique users¹. It’s the largest online display advertising network in Australia and it includes Sensis sites, Telstra sites and a growing portfolio of third party sites like Village, Weatherzone, IGA Worldwide, Swellnet and Bub Hub.

And customer growth has been strong. Marketers really see the importance of digital media now. Growth has been particularly strong in the new areas: in-game, video and, of course mobile, which has really hit the mainstream.

So I think digital display has got a really strong future. I personally think there is a lot of headroom for growth over the coming few years.

WA:    What do you mean by mobiles hitting the mainstream?

TA:    Let me give you a couple of stats. Usage of Sensis’ mobile sites – like Yellow Pages® Mobile, Whereis® Mobile, Sensis® Mobile and Citysearch® Mobile doubled in the last 12 months². And the number of campaigns we executed for mobile advertisers also doubled. Clearly, both mobile usage and advertising are growing at a rate of knots.

Later this week, we’ll be releasing the 14th Sensis® eBusiness Report. Based on some of the preliminary numbers I’ve seen, it looks like there’ll be an exciting mobile story in there.

WA:    So what’s the attraction of mobile marketing?

TA:    It’s an entirely new proposition for both the audience and marketers.

Network speed is now fast enough to view video and other forms of rich media, and the simple charging mechanisms mean that even paid content can be accessed easily.

And, through their mobiles, consumers can access the Internet from just about anywhere. If usage growth is anything to go by, consumers really value that.

Proximity is a powerful advantage for advertisers as well. Mobiles are the first personal medium we’ve ever had. You don’t need to be in front of a TV or a billboard. Mobile advertising reaches people wherever they are.

This gets really powerful when you start to consider the possibilities of location-based advertising. You can stream ads that are contextual to where a person is located at that moment. You might send a coupon for a store when an opted-in buyer is just around the corner. Or a video of a house for sale when they’re nearby during inspection times.

As a result, the mobile audience is really active. People who view display advertising on mobiles are ten to twenty times more likely to take further action, like contacting you or downloading content, than online. So that makes mobiles a real conversion engine for marketers – far more so than just about any other channel.

But there’s more to mobile advertising than display. Mobiles are also proving a boon for local search users – people searching for nearby businesses and places. It’s easy for them to track what’s around them and navigate their way there.

WA:    What about targeting? Are you able to target consumers more effectively through mobiles?

TA:    Absolutely. In fact, one of the real benefits of being a Telstra subsidiary is that we can utilise Telstra mobile segmentation data to really personalise the content we stream. This is a real plus for both users and advertisers, because it ensures more relevant advertising.

WA:    How has the emergence of smart phones impacted mobile marketing?

TA:    Oh, it’s been huge. Smart phone users have already shown themselves to be heavy adopters of online content. Already, well over 10% of all Sensis’ mobile traffic is coming from iPhones.

WA:    So what will be the big things in mobile advertising in the coming year?

TA:    A few things spring to mind. We expect consumer usage and advertiser activity to continue growing strongly. Location-based advertising, which I’ve already mentioned, will really grow, as will video advertising now that we have the bandwidth to enable it.

We’ll see a lot more integration between online and mobile. This will be an important step because mobiles can deliver acquisition capabilities much better than online. So mobile adds acquisition to the brand building strengths of online.

Mobile payments will become more widespread.

And, underpinning all of this, we should see real progress on common mobile advertising standards through the work Sensis and others in the industry are doing together.

WA:    That’s great Thomas. Thanks a lot.

1: Roy Morgan, Single Source Australia. Average monthly unique users, MediaSmart network. March qtr 2009 vs 2008
2: Omniture: Average monthly visits, May to June 2009 vs 2008.