It’s no secret that members of the mobile marketing community have big expectations for the future of their industry.
Chief among the passengers on the optimism bandwagon is Dale Carr, CEO of Leadbolt, a mobile ad monetization company. According to Carr, mobile ad dollars may very well reach $6 billion by 2012 with Android dominating the mobile ad marketplace.
As mobile ad sales soar in the coming year, Carr believes that both mobile and tablet ad delivery will continue to grow at an accelerated pace. Carr predicts 5 – 10% of next year’s buys will pull from online budgets and shift towards mobile.
“There are now more mobile devices being shipped than computers, and as mobile technology advances and becomes more sophisticated, consumers will prioritize handheld and tablets above laptops and netbooks. Equally sophisticated ad delivery methods encompassing these devices are hence becoming critical considerations for media buyers looking to enhance return on their digital ad spend,” Carr said. “With 2011 mobile ad revenues expected to double from 2010 to over $3.3 million, we’re going to continue to see advertisers and publishers shift more attention to these platforms aiming to reach the always-on-the-go consumer.”
Carr also projects that accessing mobile based content will become more of a monetization opportunity given that application stores on Apple and Android are already serving 20 billion downloads.
Carr concludes, however, that the growth of mobile spend will not be at massive expense to online ad markets.
“With only $3.3 billion in revenues for this year alone, mobile represents less than 5% of online revenues. There will certainly be a move as brand marketers look to allocate more dollars to mobile but only by 5-10%. Until companies truly understand the unheralded opportunities on mobile, no dramatic spend shift will occur from online to mobile. We will continue to see great revenues in online advertising with mobile being complimentary rather than competitive, contributing to an overall greater digital ad spend across the media,” he says.