The month­ly Score­card for Mobile Adver­tis­ing reach and Tar­get­ing (S.M.A.R.T) Report from mobile adver­tis­ing com­pa­ny Mil­len­ni­al Media is becom­ing required read­ing for any­one with media jobs in mobile adver­tis­ing agen­cies; and the lat­est edi­tion, which cov­ers trends in 2012, shows that mobile ads placed around TV pro­gram­ming are soar­ing in pop­u­lar­i­ty amongst advertisers.

The report, which uses data from Mil­len­ni­al Media’s own cam­paigns and plat­forms, gives reg­u­lar snap­shots of the major trends in mobile adver­tis­ing – not just where mar­keters are putting their mobile adver­tis­ing dol­lars, but how con­sumers are respond­ing. And the lat­est shows TV pro­gram­ming to be far and away the most pop­u­lar enter­tain­ment cat­e­go­ry amongst brands deploy­ing mobile adver­tis­ing cam­paigns (oth­er enter­tain­ment cat­e­gories include motion pic­ture releas­es, videogam­ing, video stream­ing ser­vices, books and mag­a­zines, DVD releas­es, music, and con­certs, events and attractions).

The rise of enter­tain­ment in mobile adver­tis­ing 

Enter­tain­ment in Mil­len­ni­al Media’s third largest plat­form was pipped to the post by retail and con­sumer goods. And in 2012 it leapt by 91 per­cent on the pre­vi­ous year, with TV pro­gram­ming attract­ing 27 per­cent of the ad spend (books and mag­a­zines, the sec­ond most pop­u­lar entrain­ment cat­e­go­ry, cap­tured 17 percent).

Third place in enter­tain­ment went to motion pic­ture releas­es, at 16 per­cent, fol­lowed by videogam­ing (13 per­cent), DVD and Dig­i­tal Down­load releas­es (11 per­cent), and con­certs, events and attrac­tions (10 per­cent). Music and video stream­ing both attract­ed 2 percent.

Spec­tac­u­lar lit­tle nuggets tucked away in the report include the fact that movie adver­tis­ing views tend to peak on hol­i­days, with Christ­mas Day 2012 claim­ing a 360 per­cent increase – the biggest sin­gle day spike of the whole year. Novem­ber, how­ev­er, claimed more movie ad views over­all than Decem­ber (and man­aged to notch up a respectable sin­gle-day hike of 300 percent).

Goals and audi­ences 

Brand aware­ness emerged as the pri­ma­ry goal for the brands tar­get­ing enter­tain­ment con­tent on mobile (39 per­cent), while 34 per­cent were seek­ing greater site and mobile traf­fic and 17 per­cent were seek­ing atten­tion for prod­uct launches.

Enter­tain­ment adver­tis­ers tend­ed to use a mul­ti-plat­form approach in their mobile adver­tis­ing cam­paigns, incor­po­rat­ing social media, m‑commerce and video, while par­ents emerged as the chief tar­get audi­ence for engage­ment. Casu­al gamers and enter­tain­ment fans were the next most tar­get­ed audiences.

Mobile adver­tis­ing, it seems, is grow­ing in stature and sophistication