Mobile media fastest growing sector in 2011

Forget about 2012 being the year of mobile. Figures show that we’ve already lived through the year of mobile, in 2011, as mobile advertising and marketing was the fastest growing industry sector, according to research by PQ media. This is followed by an increase in revenue of 28.7% at an annual growth rate from 2006-2011, which is predicted to rise to 30.8% in 2012. While adoption of mobile marketing may have been slow by companies up until 2011, last year we saw this really begin to change, evidenced not only by an increase in brands producing mobile apps, but complete mobile marketing and advertising campaigns. What may be worrying some companies however, is the need to adapt to mobile marketing quickly. Much quicker than when they were forced to adapt to social.

Fastest growing sector

An interesting stat revealed in the survey was that mobile is by far the fastest growing communications industry in history. This is evidenced by the fact that when it reached the $1 billion revenue mark in 2008, it was the fastest industry to do so, beating the internet which took 16 years to reach the same level. We can see this easily being down to the sheer growth and penetration of internet technology. While the internet was an emerging industry in itself, completely changing things up and experiencing rapid growth, mobile internet is born within this ; an example of a communication method built from within the internet, as opposed to adapting to fit to the changes brought about by it.

This is also accompanied by the prediction that mobile media will reach $100 billion in revenue by 2015, again faster than any other communications sector in history.

Where to spend your money

Now that the industry figures are proving the phenomenal growth of mobile, brands will start heavily investing in this area. When you’re building out a mobile ad strategy, remember that it’s about doing advertising a bit differently, just as it was with social media. While it took us a long time to figure out how to do this smartly, really taking advantage of the data available, we can now apply this learning to mobile advertising. And why should you spend your money on mobile advertising? Not only because the industry is growing, but because there is increased responsiveness to this form of advertising. In Q4 2011, exposure to mobile ads increased by 411%, compared to the same period in 2010.