Thought it worth posting some thoughts along with my favorite new stat from Comscore. Here’s the top of the release, followed by my comments.
ComScore: Mobile Internet Becoming a Daily Activity For Many
Number of people accessing news and information on their mobile device more than doubles in a year.
Reston, VA. March 16, 2009 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported that the number of people using their mobile device to access news and information on the Internet more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009. Among the audience of 63.2 million people who accessed news and information on their mobile devices in January 2009, 22.4 million (35 percent) did so daily; more than double the size of the audience last year.
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2752
With U.S. mobile web penetration now at 63.2 million people or ~25% of the total mobile subscriber base, it is a great time for many brands to actively explore mobile web display advertising. Not only is the audience growing, frequency of use is also rising quickly. This is largely due to smartphone growth, as smartphone users typically over-index for use across all mobile data activities.
Explosive audience growth and rapid increase in choice of quality mobile content from major publishers is putting downward pressure on mobile CPMs. This creates favorable conditions for buying mobile media. The environment is uncluttered and it’s easy to own a commanding share of voice in the channel. For many campaigns, mobile web microsites and banners are inexpensive and quick to launch. Most compelling, CTRs are typically much higher compared to wired web banners. As a result, well-targeted mobile campaigns can often result in lower cost per lead when compared with wired web.