“Mobile advertising sometimes feels like that old cliché about the weather: everyone complains about it but no one ever does anything about it,” begins Joe Laszlo in a recent story posted at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) website.
Laszlo, who is Senior Director of the IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, thinks there are many roads to rejiggering mobile ads so that they work — for both consumers and marketers.
After the IAB Mobile Center recently partnered with Meredith Xcelerated Markeing (MXM), to tap into Meredith’s “Real Women Talking” community on some questions about what they like as well as dislike about mobile ads, Laszlo felt he’d learned a few things.
For starters, women liked to be listened to — no shocker there!
“It’s incredibly important to listen to consumers,” Laszlo says. “While sometimes that conversation feels very one-note (“I hate all ads everywhere”) most people do realize that ads are why they get so many of their digital content and services for free, and so would rather see good ads than bad ones.”
Balance, it appears, is everything.
“The results speak to striking a balance—perhaps one that the mobile industry hasn’t quite mastered yet—between being too obtrusive and being too ignorable, and being relevant without being creepy,” writes Laszlo. “We found that context is critical – from placement to creative messaging. The best mobile advertising is relevant placement, simple creative and engages on her terms. That is, a successful mobile ad must fit into the context of a busy, mobile life.”
Mobile advertising makes it too easy to miss the target.
“Women in Meredith’s Real Women Talking” community told us that “I often miss the ads when they pop up on my phone” (too unobtrusive), but also that “Ads that take up the whole screen [are] really bad and would leave me with a negative impression of the company” (too obtrusive).”
This, says Laszlo, suggests a need for a better banner—something bigger than a 320×50 but smaller than a 300×250. It also, he notes, underscores the untapped potential of in-feed ads, which are hard to overlook even though they scroll with the content.
Laszlo came up with Five Core Principles, based on the conversations with women and the mobile ad samples they shared. To check them out, click here.