GSMA Publishes a Mobile Media Metrics programme

If mobile marketing is to move forward and represent a real alternative to traditional media, then metrics are the key to it's success. The lack of transparency and consistency in mobile marketing has led GSMA to publish their own programme of Mobile Media Metrics.

GSMA, which is a global association, has chosen UK as basis for their research because UK's digital usage is significantly higher than many other countries.

It signals a progress at a time when media agencies, buyers and marketers are all looking to justify the use of mobile marketing and to document campaign out-comes, in order to deliver better mobile advertising campaigns.

In general industry professionals agrees that measurement is the way forward and that we will see more mobile marketing auditing services in the future.

Guy Philippson, CEO of the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) was quoted: 'Mobile Media Metrics represents a huge step forward for the industry. Once media planners start using the research to justify mobile advertising on schedules, we can expect to see the medium grow with well targeted, cross-network campaigns.'.

The data collected by GSMA is in line with European regulations and an ongoing auditing will provide a real benefit to marketers. However some observers have warned that it may cause an upheaval of privacy campaigns in response.

Summary of the key findings:

User Behaviour
The study looked at Facebook.com and concluded that the site's mobile users spend less total time browsing (24 minutes per day) than PC users (27.5 minutes).

However these 'shorter visits' are more frequent. Facebook is accessed 3.3 times per day by mobile users compared to 2.3 visits per day by PC users.

Top sites visited

The study measuring and comparing a total of 167,648 mobile Internet sites:

Top 10 Mobile Sites Top 10 PC Internet Sites 1 Mobile Operator Sites Google Sites
2 Google Sites Microsoft Sites
3 Facebook.com Yahoo! Sites
4 Yahoo! Sites Facebook.com
5 BBC Sites EBay
6 Apple Inc. Sites BBC Sites
7 Microsoft Sites AOL (inc. Bebo)
8 Sony Online (inc. Sony Ericsson) Amazon Sites
9 Nokia Ask Network
10 AOL (inc. Bebo) Wikimedia Foundation Sites
Source: GSMA Mobile Media Metrics; comScore Media Metrix (PC data)

Demographics It not surprising that the mobile audience is younger than the internet audience, a majority of 48% users are in the 18-34 age group.

What is perhaps more interesting is that 63% of users are men, whereas the internet represent an much more equal gender split at 53% males.

Day part
The prime time is between 7-10am, representing 22% of total browsing time. It points toward the mobile as a early morning media, and this is substantially different to internet usage, where only 11% of minutes are spent during this time.

The Mobile Media Metrics is a step towards sophisticated and integrated mobile marketing and advertising. Although it is clear that the stats are very useful, the real question is if GMSA will succeed in becoming the central body that is set up to collect, deliver, or audit mobile data?

Other organisations offering useful data: The Mobile Data Association
Netsize Guide
Mobile Marketing Association
Institute of Sales Promotion

Article Links
UK mobile phone firms to sell data about customer activity
Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM) Association