D2C Annual Mobile Ad Trends Report
D2C releases their annual survey of usage trends in corporate mobile advertising in Japan = plenty of good intell. here: http://bit.ly/NFzgPh
The mobile ad business in Japan is massive, see the recent Ofcom Report on volumes and values [Eds]
2012 Survey of Usage Trends in Corporate Mobile Advertising
32.6% of BtoC Companies Placed Mobile Ads in Fiscal Year 2011 Smartphone Ads Up 14.4 Points from previous survey to 22.5%
Nikkei Digital Marketing, published by Nikkei Business Publications, Inc., and D2C Inc. have conducted a joint survey of usage trends in corporate mobile advertising for the 125 million mobile phones that have penetrated the Japanese domestic market (as of June 2012 study by TCA). The survey covered 4,328 Japanese listed and major unlisted companies through administration of a questionnaire in April and May 2012. Responses were received from 523 companies. The survey has now been conducted four times since its start in 2009. The response rate was 12.1%.
Survey of Usage Trends in Corporate Mobile Advertising: Six Key Points
– 21.1% of Companies Increase Digital Ads. 13.6% Increase Smartphone Ads
– 16.3% of All Companies and 32.6% of BtoC Companies Have Placed Mobile Ads
– “Ad Network” Ranks 15.1 Points Higher for Smartphones than Feature Phones as an Advertising Media
– Choice of Advertising Effectiveness Indicators for Smartphones Ads Shows Strong Demand
– Feature Phones Ads Decline to 7.1% While Almost Half (42.6%) of the BtoC Companies Look at Smartphone Ads
– 31.7% of BtoC Companies Have Their Own Smartphone Website and 20.7% Offer Their Own Apps
21.1% of Respondents Increase Digital Ads, 13.6% Increase Smartphone Ads
Fiscal year 2012 forecast total advertising expenses, the average among all responding companies, is 104.01, where the base value of 100 is the fiscal year 2011 value. This figure represents a 3.79 point increase from 100.22 in last year’s survey, and 22.4% of responding companies forecast an increase in fiscal year 2012 (Figure 1-1).
By type of media, digital advertising overall was seen as “increase” by 21.1% of respondents (compared with 23.0% last year). Among all media, PC advertising received the highest percent of “increase” responses at 19.8% (compared with 23.5% last year). Feature phone advertising was seen as increasing by 7.7% (last year: 9.8%), while the figure for smartphones was 13.6% (last year: 11.7%). Among mass media, the highest ratio of “increase” responses was for TV at 12.9% (last year: 10.4%) and the lowest was radio at 3.4% (compared with 2.6% last year).
The mass media with the highest ratio of “decrease” responses was newspapers at 16.4% (last year: 23.2%) while the lowest ratio was for radio at 7.6% (last year: 9.5%). In digital media (PC, feature phone, smartphone) all media showed lower ratios for “increase.” For companies forecasting a decrease, smartphones ranked lowest among all media with 3.0% selecting this response. See Figure 1-2.
16.3% of All Companies, 32.6% of BtoC Companies Have Placed Mobile Ads
13.2% Have Placed Feature Phone Ads and 10.9% Have Placed Smartphone Ads
For fiscal year 2011, 16.3% of all corporate respondents (previous survey: 17.2%) have placed mobile ads (either feature phone or smartphone ads). For BtoC companies, 32.6% have placed mobile ads, an increase of 1.8 points from 30.8% in the previous survey.
For feature phone advertising a small decreasing trend is evident with the value for all respondents going from 16.9% in the previous survey to 13.2% in the current one and the one for BtoC companies going from 29.9% to 27.8% (Figure 2-2).
In contrast, smartphone advertising showed an increasing trend in ad placements with the overall response going from 4.1% to 10.9% and BtoC companies going from 8.1% to 22.5%. The BtoC figure represents a particularly large increase of 14.4 points over the previous year’s survey (Figure 2-3).
“Ad Network” Ranks 15.1 Points Higher for Smartphones than Feature Phones
With respect to advertising media for feature phones and smartphones, the major responses for feature phones, in order, were general portal and search sites (58.0%), mobile carriers’ official sites (27.5%), ad network (21.7%), and SNS sites (21.7%). For smartphones, the major responses were general portal and search sites (50.9%), ad network (36.8%), mobile carriers’ official sites (22.8%), and SNS sites (21.1%).
Compared to feature phones, which had a higher ratio of companies placing ads, the smartphone advertising media with the highest value for companies placing ads was “ad network,” whose figure was 15.1 points higher for smartphones than feature phones (Figure 3-1).
Choice of Advertising Effectiveness Indicators for Smartphones Ads Shows Strong Demand
In response to questions concerning advertising effectiveness indicators, among companies placing feature phone and smartphone advertising, feature phone advertisers cited number of clicks: 47.8%, CPA (cost per action): 44.9%, CTR (click-through ratio): 42.0%; for smartphones, the figures were number of clicks: 47.4%, CPA: 47.4%, and impression (imp) of published advertising: 47.4%. For companies with both feature phone and smartphone advertising, the trend is that many companies use number of clicks as an indicator.
On the other hand, smartphones had higher values than feature phones for impressions on the ad-posting site (imp): 47.4%, unique users (UU) on the ad-posting site: 24.6%, page views (PV) on the ad-posting site: 22.8%, and cost per page view: 22.8%. This result points to a strong trend in smartphone advertising towards company demand for media power and media value. (Figure 4-1)
Feature Phones Ads Decline to 7.1% While Almost Half (42.6%) of the BtoC Companies Look at Smartphone Ads
Companies not placing advertising but responding “intend to use” for feature phones were 7.1% overall (compared with 13.5% in the previous survey) and 11.6% for BtoC companies (previous survey: 28.0%), a decreasing trend (Figure 5-1).
Among companies not placing smartphone ads, 24.3% of all companies (previous survey: 23.8%) and 42.6% of BtoC companies (previous survey 43.3%) showed a future intent to use (Figure 5-2). These results do not show a large change from the previous survey, but because there is an increasing trend of companies with smartphone ad placements, a shift of companies from no intent to use in the last survey to intent to use in the present survey can be surmised.
31.7% of BtoC Companies Have Their Own Smartphone Website and 20.7% Offer Their Own Apps
Companies that have set up a feature phone website were 26.6% overall (compared with 30.2% last year) and over half for BtoC companies (50.6% compared with 55.6% in last year’s survey). See Figure 6-1.
For those companies responding that they have a feature phone site, 17.8% overall responded that they intend to raise their investment in the site (compared with 41.0% in the previous survey–a decreasing trend. Also, 52.1% of such respondents said they intend to “maintain current conditions” (last year: 50.3%) and 69.9% expressed plans to continue operating their feature phone site (last year: 91.3%). This result also indicates a decreasing trend (Figure 6-2).
For smartphones, 15.9% of overall respondents have set up a website (last year: 8.3%) and 31.7% of BtoC respondents have setup such a site, a 16.7 point increase from 15.0% in last year’s survey (Figure 6-3).
For those companies responding that they have a smartphone site, 71.1% overall responded that they intend to raise their investment in the site (last year’s figure: 72.7%). For BtoC companies, 79.2% have plans to raise their investment (last year: 77.1%), showing a continuation of the high value from last year (Figure 6-4.)
In response to questions about measures to support smartphone applications, 12.0% overall responded that the measures are now complete (last year: 7.4%) and 20.7% of BtoC companies responded that they now offer smartphone apps (last year: 12.0%). See Figure 6-5.
Among companies responding that they offer smartphone apps, 61.9% overall said they intend to strengthen their investment in such applications (last year: 76.9%). Among BtoC companies, this figure rose to 66.0%. This value has fallen from 82.1% in the previous survey, but if we look at this result in light of the increase in companies that are now supplying apps, we can conclude that the offering of smartphone apps by companies is spreading (figure 6-6).