With smart phone usage rising steadily both in the U.S. and worldwide there's been a lot of buzz about mobile video lately. Whether they're viewing graphics, playing games, watching movies or short snippets of shows, cell phone users are gravitating to a medium that most marketers have yet to tap.
According to Nielsen's Three Screen Report for the first quarter of 2009, the 13.4 million Americans (up 52 percent from 2008) who watch videos on their phones view an average of 3-1/2 hours of mobile video every month. The research firm says the growth stems from increased mobile content and the rise of the mobile web as a viewing option.
"Smart phones and data plans are more affordable than ever," says Catrina Sheridan, vice president of products and marketing at dotMobi, a U.K.-based mobile Internet services firm, "and consumers are developing a familiarity and comfort with mobile content via their handsets. These factors make mobile video very attractive for marketers."
Here are six key trends that are unfolding right now in the mobile video world that you don't want to miss:
1 - iPhone users are leading the charge: Equipped with a YouTube app right on its welcome screen, the iPhone put mobile video on the map when it made its debut in 2008. With its original model now priced at $99, expect the iPhone to boost the number of mobile video users even further. "By the holiday season we expect to see a lot more consumers being able to view videos on their cell phones," says Eyal Yechezkell, CEO at New York-based Predicto Mobile, which touts itself as the largest "paid" mobile community.
2 - Mobile video isn't "one size fits all": Not all phone models support the same video format, nor does all video appear "correctly" on the hundreds of different smart phones available on the market today. "Be sure the footage you shoot is supported by the audience you're going after," advises Sheridan. "You don't want to create content for an iPhone audience in a format that the phone can't play." (Test your content before publishing it by going to.
3 - Apps are gaining traction: Highly unique, with focused functionality, apps for iPhone, Palm and Blackberry users are revolutionizing the mobile experience. Just three days after its app store celebrated its one-year anniversary in July, Apple's 65,000-strong app store hit the 1.5 billion download mark. Verizon Wireless and Sony Ericsson both threw their hats into the ring this year, with Verizon launching a carrier-branded store later this year and Sony Ericsson adding mobile apps to its PlayNow content offering.
4 - Marketers demand more accountability: High on San Francisco-based online advertising firm 1020 Placecast's list of "interactive advertising trends to watch right now" is the use of new, improved metrics to measure ad performance. The company points to "view-through," a method for gauging the impact of an ad that a consumer sees but does not click on, as a particularly useful tool for users of mobile video. View-through records a consumer's exposure to a specific display ad, and then measures when that consumer returns to the advertiser's site during a later session. Placecast says the tool is popular among marketers who want a more accurate measurement of their mobile video efforts.
5 - The medium plays well with others: Mobile video goes hand-in-hand with YouTube by allowing consumers to view user-generated content "on the go." It also adapts well in the growing online social networking arena, where users share video content in a viral fashion. "Combine all of these elements," says Sheridan, "and the end result is a huge, democratic marketing system that's applicable for companies of all sizes."
6 - Handset makers are answering the call: Whereas smartphones with data capabilities were once the domain of executives and the well-off, they are now commonplace among all consumers. "Anyone using a newer phone these days can 'consume' any type of media, including ringtones, graphics and videos," says Yechezkell. "As more and more of these sophisticated devices are purchased and used, marketers should be looking at how to promote their products via mobile video and/or the mobile Web."
With consumers checking their mobile phones the minute they wake up in the morning, before they go to bed and every few minutes during the day, Yechezkell says mobile video is a medium that no marketer can afford to miss out on. To maximize their investments in this arena, he says "test, test, test...and then test again" before putting any content out there for consumers to view.
"Use different types of ads to see how your audience reacts, and then adjust accordingly," Yechezkell says. "Make your call to action very clear (using a 'click here' button, for example), test out different banner sizes and inventories to find the right niche for your product in the mobile world."
Author of over 175 published articles, Tim Hawthorne is Founder, Chairman and Executive Creative Director of Hawthorne Direct, a full service DRTV and New Media ad agency founded in 1986. Since then Hawthorne has produced or managed over 800 Direct Response TV campaigns for clients such as Apple, Braun, Discover Card, Time-Life, Nissan, Lawn Boy, Nikon, Oreck, Bose, and Heifer International. Tim is a co-founder of the Electronic Retailing Association, has delivered over 100 speeches worldwide and is the author of the definitive DRTV book, The Complete Guide to Infomercial Marketing. A cum laude graduate of Harvard, Tim was honored with the prestigious "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) in 2006.