Its Official – Mobile Advertising Works Harder Than Other Channels

Goldpeaktea correctThe Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released the findings from its first Smart Mobile Cross Marketing Effectiveness (SMoX) study. Conducted in combination with Marketing Evolution and InsightExpress, the study assessed the economic value of mobile compared to traditional marketing channels by examining in-market campaigns from Coca-Cola, Walmart, MasterCard and AT&T.

According to the study, the optimal spend for mobile is a double-digit per centage of the total campaign spend, far more than most marketers are currently allocating. The findings suggest that marketers would significantly increase their overall campaign ROI, without increasing budget, by simply adjusting mobile spend upwards.

“The market has acknowledged there is a deep chasm between what brands are currently spending on mobile and consumer behaviour, but now there is real, indisputable proof on the value of mobile to a brands business goals,” said MMA CEO,Greg Stuart. “I believe mobile presents the greatest transformation of marketing in our generation. With empirical data, SMoX now demonstrates the competitive opportunity for those marketers who figure out how to leverage the power of mobile effectively and optimize their spending with the most impactful allocations in their marketing mix, finally keeping pace with consumers.”

Read on for a summary of the campaigns involved in the study, and the results.

The Coca-Cola Company: Gold Peak Tea Campaign
In Spring 2014, Gold Peak Tea brand was looking to build brand awareness and drive increased sales using a mix of TV, print, online and mobile to drive messaging. They also wanted to better understand how mobile performed within the marketing mix.

After evaluating how effective the campaign was and how each of the various media performed, the study found that mobile drove 25 per cent of top-of-mind awareness, 9 per cent of “home brewed taste” image conversions, and 6 per cent of sales, with 5 per cent of the campaign budget.

Walmart: Back-to-School Campaign
For its annual Back-to-School campaign in the summer of 2014, Walmart was focused on driving grocery intent to shop among mothers of school-aged children. Using a mix of TV, FSI, online and mobile, the company wanted to uncover how to best use mobile, including the proper allocation and types of mobile advertising that were most efficient in driving their marketing goals.

The study found that mobile impacted more consumers per dollar spent than both broadcast and cable TV. Mobile drove 14 per cent of change in overall shopping intent, despite accounting for only 7 per cent of spend.

“Its clear that mobile is becoming an increasingly critical part of the marketing mix,” said Wanda Young, VP of Media and Digital Marketing, Walmart. “Its not only driving brand and campaign awareness, but also in-store foot traffic.”

MasterCard: Travel Card Campaign
In Q4 2014, MasterCard launched its Travel Card campaign to increase association of the card within the travel sector and to drive awareness of its Concierge app. Using a mix of TV, magazines/newspapers, digital and online (including social), the company hoped to promote its “Take One Day” pledge, inspiring people to take more vacations.

The SMoX study investigated the impact of mobile in the above KPIs, quantifying the value of mobile display and video as they relate to the “nester” and “empty nester” target groups. In this case, mobile worked almost twice as hard compared to the campaign average, in terms of the number of people it converted on image per dollar spent.

“SMoX represents a real breakthrough in the mobile marketing industry,” said Adam Broitman, VP of Global Digital Marketing, MasterCard. “Its the first thorough and comprehensive industry study that proves the true value of mobile.”

AT&T: Moto x Campaign
In late 2013, AT&T launched a marketing campaign for its customizable brand of Moto x smartphones. The companys key objective was to maximize awareness of the new Moto x device and to better understand the role of mobile within the campaign, which used TV, print, online and mobile.

The SMoX study examined the impact AT&Ts campaign had on its KPI of building brand awareness for the new device among the over 18-year-old demographic, for a six-week period from September to October. The data showed that mobile delivered twice the awareness per dollar spent, compared to TV and digital.

In conclusion, the study found that reallocating to mobile (8-16 per cent of the total marketing mix, on average) would drive incremental impact for each of the campaigns, making existing budgets work harder. For example, for AT&T, this would mean 12 per cent higher awareness for moto x. For Walmart, this would mean a potential 15 per cent increase in purchase intent for Back-to-School groceries.

In addition to determining mobiles overall impact on each campaign, the study revealed the most effective ways for brands to implement various mobile tactics (including audio, video, native, location and more) in order to leverage mobile to its full potential.

Mobile audio, video and native all performed significantly better than display and were well worth their price premium, presenting an opportunity for increased campaign performance. Different ad formats had different types of impact. The display ad banner was a good awareness builder and reminder, keeping a brand salient. Audio, video and native had a greater influence on brand perceptions and sales. Location targeting, including retargeting and proximity marketing, significantly improved the performance of display advertising, driving important KPIs, including actual foot traffic.

The full SMoX report is available for download by delegates attending the MMAs NY Forum currently taking place and the SMoX Roadshows in Chicago on 9 April and San Francisco on 29 April.

Methodology
The research applied Marketing Evolutions cross-media attribution modelling approach, which has been independently reviewed by the ARF through two separate official reviews. In brief, the methodology for SMoX starts with a complete detail on every dollar planned in the media mix.

The detailed media plan is connected to digital ad servers and all the leading syndicated databases for reach, frequency, and composition to calculate ad delivery down to the individual consumer level. A representative cross-section of consumers are sampled, so that a robust individual consumer data set can be analyzed.

In terms of mobile, the SMoX research studies included extensive technical integrations with media properties so that mobile ads could be delivered to consumers in the panel at the levels of frequency and exposure dictated by the research design. This technical integration allowed for in-market field experiments, and observational research to enable the collection of rich, individual-level data for all media, including mobile.

For each consumer, the dependent variables included sales (measured through data appends to sales databases or sales panels) as well as branding metrics (measured through survey), foot traffic, or other behavioural measurement such as downloads. To evaluate the impact of media as part of the SMoX methodology, Marketing Evolution runs logistic regression models that isolate the contribution of exposure to various media activities to sales (or any other KPI). The models also control for other factors, including behavioural characteristics and demographics of the individuals in the sample.