Is it the ‘Year of Mobile’ yet? We Think it is for Gaming…

For years now mobile has been one of those areas that most marketers find themselves unsure or cautious about. There haven’t been huge volumes of traffic, the technology hasn’t really been ready, and users weren’t using their phones for browsing the net.

But it’s now 2009, and with the release of products like the iPhone, the mobile platform is finally starting to take off.

With increasing numbers of gaming operators looking at the mobile space to launch new products, it’s time to take the mobile platform seriously.

It’s not just high-end phones like the iPhone - even the most basic of handsets released today is capable of browsing the net, taking photos and playing basic games. For the first time, the vast majority of mobile users are now able to make the most of the technology in their handsets.

Poker, Casino and Bingo are all now able to be played on your mobile phone handset, and with the likes of 32Red, PaddyPower and Gone Bingo all jumping on board, it might be time to start taking a serious look at mobile as a direct response channel.

Mobile Sportsbooks has been around for a while and, with gambling, sports and a number of CPC channels available on the big mobile portals, there plenty of options for promoting them.

According to research recently carried out by Orange, 23% of phone users download ringtones, 53% use the internet on their phones, 31% listen to radio, and an astonishing 55% of all mobile users play games on their phone handsets.

What’s more, 35% of mobile users have engaged in some kind of commerce on their handsets. The numbers are certainly encouraging, and indicate that users now, more than ever are open to the idea of downloading mobile games and carrying out transactions on their mobile phones.

So how do we reach these technologically comfortable, mobile commerce aware mobile users?

Mobile media is much like traditional online. You can buy on a variety of metrics - CPC, CPM, and Tenancy. CPA isn’t so much an option at the moment but it’s only a matter of time until publishers begin to seriously.

Creative is again similar to online, although the formats are different in order to accommodate the smaller screen formats (we’ve got Mobile Ad Formats in the Reference Section Here), but generally it’s GIF only at the moment - Flash Lite (for mobiles) is around, but adoption is slow and isn’t yet a viable option.

In terms of supplier options, you’ve got the big portals like O2, Orange and Vodafone, who have had mobile media offerings available in one way or another for years, but more interestingly is the increase in numbers of smaller, niche sites. Now consumers are more comfortable using their handsets to browse the net, niche site owners have begun to sit up and take notice by offering mobile versions of their sitse. This is an exciting change because, for the first time, affiliates are starting to see the revenue potential of the mobile platform - affiliates who can drive registrations and deposits.

In addition to display media on mobile portals and sites, SMS and MMS are powerful means of communication and there are a variety of mostly untapped lists available. With greater mobile internet awareness and comfort levels, messaging can be used to drive users to .mobi sites and to download applications with great effectiveness.

So Mobile is at last becoming a viable option for DR - How are you going to approach it?

Research Source: Exposure2, Orange Home UK plc, March 2009