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Who wants mobile ads? Parents, apparently

Who wants mobile ads? Parents, apparently

By New York Times | Updated: 5 June 2012 02:25 IST

Highlights

A new mobile marketing survey from Harris Interactive says that the demographic group most interested in receiving mobile advertising is mobile owners with children. This group is interested in receiving opt-in alerts from brands, says the study, and the

A new mobile marketing survey from Harris Interactive says that the demographic group most interested in receiving mobile advertising is mobile owners with children. This group is interested in receiving opt-in alerts from brands, says the study, and the adults in households with children are also generally more "promotionally active" than others, meaning more likely to take part in marketing promotions like couponing, discounts and daily deals.

Those with children under 6-years old were the most receptive to this form of advertising, with 35% in favor of opt-in alerts that arrived via their mobile phone.

Those interested in opt-in alerts about new products, sales or promotions from their favorite merchants, stores or restaurants also included parents with slightly older children, those aged 6-12. In that group, 32% showed interest in this type of mobile marketing.

Meanwhile, 25% of those without children were interested. However, even if "only" a quarter of mobile users sans kids are interested in alerts, that's still an attractive number to those building services using this sort of technology, we would think.

Also of note, those with young children are the most active online coupon users (e.g. Groupon, etc.), with 36% showing interest. That's double the interest of those without children (18%).

Not surprisingly, if somewhat stereotypically, this group of engaged savers is comprised of more women than men. Twenty eight per cent of women between 35 and 54 stated interest in mobile marketing initiatives, compared with only 22% of men.

The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive in May with over 2,000 US adult participants. Like many studies of this nature, it was commissioned by a company with an interest in the area, in this case, Placecast, makers of various real-time and location-based technologies for mobile alerting and ads.

According to Placecast's CEO, Alistair Goodman, these findings point to the potential for marketing to people with kids via mobile devices. "Mobile Moms and Dads may not have the time to open an app and search for information, but they see the value and ease of receiving text alerts," he says.

This survey is only one part of the research conducted by Harris Interactive that's attempting to identify trends in mobile marketing. More research is now available on Placecast's blog, where the company examines overall consumer receptivity to mobile marketing initiatives.

Here, for example, the study's findings state that one-third of Americans who have currently signed up for mobile marketing alerts indicate that such services impact their decision to go into stores, and 27% report that mobile programs have impacted their decision to buy products in physical retail locations.

Another figure that jumped out at us from this additional research was the limited impact of "check-in" services like Foursquare and Gowalla, findings that back up Forrester's recent research that essentially called the services "hype" (for now).

Placecast (via Harris' research) found that only 7% of men and 3% of women showed interest in these types of location-based social networks. In comparison, 40% were avid users of text messaging. "With check-in services only available on smart phones (which comprise roughly 21% of all mobile phones in the US), reach for marketers through these platforms is still a question," notes the Placecast blog post.

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Further reading: Internet, Mobile, advertising, parents

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Who wants mobile ads? Parents, apparently

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