The iPhone is known for a lot of things – multi-touch controls, unrivaled web-surfing and a huge touchscreen display. Now, you we can add “mobile advertising superiority” to that list. A new study from research firm GfK NOP and Brightkite suggests that the iPhone is a more effective mobile advertising platform. Mobile phone users are significantly more likely to remember mobile advertisements viewed on the iPhone than those viewed on non-iPhone hardware.
The iPhone has already polarized the global mobile market into iPhone and non-iPhone camps, and it seems that Cupertino has managed to do the same to mobile advertising. In looking at advertisement recall rates across all types of mobile advertisements (mobile web, SMS, gaming, etc.), it’s clear that the iPhone stands on its own. In the mobile advertising world, it’s iPhone or bust.
For example, after viewing a web-based mobile advertisement, 28.4% of iPhone users recalled the ads, whereas only 10.7% of non-iPhone users remembered seeing the same ads. Advertisements through LBS (location-based services) applications yielded the largest discrepancy between iPhone users and, well, the rest of the mobile phone market – 15.4% of iPhone users recalled LBS ads, with 4.3% of non-iPhone users recalling the ads.
What accounts for the iPhone’s superiority in mobile advertising? The iPhone’s huge multi-touch display might play a part in the Apple handset’s mobile ad prowess, but that doesn’t account for higher recall rates in text- and radio-based ads. It could be that iPhone users are already more “tuned in” to their iPhone, due to the iPhone’s ability to serve up trove of data from multiple sources through intuitive applications, making for more receptive advertising “targets” – a compelling possibility, given that a third of all mobile ads are pulled down by smartphones. But, we’d have to study advertising recall rates on iPhone versus other smartphones to determine just how much the iPhone’s UI plays a role in advertising memorability. Or, it could just be that iPhone users are primed to buy the kind of gadgets and tech services offered through mobile ads.
Whatever the case, mobile advertisers may see the growing smartphone market as a potential boon. Some advertisers are already embracing the iPhone with interactive ads tailored specifically to Apple’s iPhone OS. The popularity of touchscreen smartphones may just drive mobile advertising into the next decade.
[Via: eMarketer]