It is no secret amongst those holding media jobs in the mobile advertising industry that consumer packaged good marketers have been slow to adopt the channel; however, new research by Millennial Media and comScore suggests that this assumption is yesterday’s news. Things are changing fast: CPG advertisers more than trebled their mobile spend in 2012.
Emerging trends among CPG marketers
If you are looking for media jobs in mobile advertising, it is as well to get wise to the dimensions of this new development. Mobile is being taken up by CPG at a faster rate than any other leading category. Amongst industry verticals, consumer goods ranked at number six, with spending soaring by 235%.
CPG advertisers are also much more likely to have awareness as a goal in their mobile campaigns – 46% of them had this goal, the study shows, as compared with just 14% of mobile advertisers in general. This is driving them to use video – their preferred awareness-building medium – very heavily. The study indicates that CPG advertisers are twice as likely to use mobile video as advertisers overall.
This is creating a phenomenon in itself. The growth of interest amongst CPG advertisers in digital video is propelling TV-style ratings for online viewership and leading them to switch increasingly from TV advertising to digital video advertising.
Location targeting features prominently amongst CPG advertisers – so much so that CPG is the fourth biggest vertical category to use location technology, despite the fact that overall it is only the sixth largest spender. Amongst the subcategories in CPG, beauty and beverage advertisers accounted for 69% of location targeting usage in the industry.
A gender disparity?
Another interesting trend for intrepid mobile advertising media jobs seekers is this: there is a gender difference in mobile usage. Men tend to use their phones to find deals, compare prices, check product availability or make online purchases, while women tend to text or call friends while in-store to communicate about or research products.
Finally, the in-store use of mobile phones is bigger than most mobile advertising aficionados might appreciate. Nearly half (47%) of men and 40% of women used their smartphones to track down coupons in store. 41% of women and 29% of men used their phones to find out about consumer-product details.