Mobile Video Advertising: Best Practices

With $1.5 billion in projected mobile ad spending for 2012, advertisers need to stay on top of mobile video or risk being lost in the tide. Mediapost.com has 5 “best practices” for maximizing advertising.

1. Take the multitaskers to task. Almost no one sits and watches a video on their smart phone with 100% of their attention. They usually have the TV on or their computer running another website. According to Yahoo, 49% of consumers multitask while streaming mobile video. Advertisers need to consider all “consumer touchpoints” within their branding. For example cap mobile videos at 15 seconds to increase engagement.
2. Bandwidth Issues. InsightExpress has noted that mobile video campaigns can increase brand awareness by 4x. Therefore, marketers should deliver a consistent, high-quality brand experience by delivering mobile video ads compatible with a user’s bandwidth limitations. 3G and 4G ads should run at a lower bandwidth while wi-fi delivered videos can be richer in quality.
3. Engage, don’t enrage. People often feel a personal connection to their mobile device. When a video ad unit has too many intrusive bells and whistles it can really upset the consumer. Video should be auto-muted when delivered to a mobile device and engagements should be user initiated so as to create an experience that is user-controlled.
4. Location. Location. Location. When possible hyper-localized content should be delivered to a mobile device. Customized call-to-action overlays and videos relevant to the consumers’ location are optimal and social networking “share” buttons a plus and drive conversions.
5. Plan your data for data plans. Mobile carriers are limiting data plans due to the increase market space of smartphones. Delivering data-heavy videos that eat up the consumers allotted bytes slows down the connection speed and worsens the quality. Is the pre-roll necessary every time a consumer accesses a video via their mobile? Tailoring it to the device and connection speed builds loyalty.

Smart phones require smart marketing. Intelligent use of bandwidth, connection speed, video formats and the like can reduce cost and increase ROI.