75% of Australians are comfortable with mobile ads, new study reveals

Australians are more willing to receive ads on their mobiles than any other market in the world, new research from InMobi and ComScore has found, with three quarters of respondents saying they would be comfortable with mobile advertising.

But InMobi says smaller businesses aren’t taking advantage of a market that is actually willing to receive ads, and Australia-New Zealand regional director Rob Marston says SMEs need to start harvesting this market.

“There’s a very huge gulf between mobile consumption and actual spend by advertisers. The bridge between those two is really knowledge and understanding… it’s just about understanding the role that mobile actually plays.”

The research, which was conducted in 14 countries and with 22,000 respondents, has found that 75% of Australians are at least “somewhat” comfortable with receiving mobile ads. While 48% of respondents said they would be “very comfortable”.

This is the highest comfort level in the entire world. The next highest level is in Europe, with 68% of respondents saying they would be comfortable, while the United States only had 63% of respondents that said they were comfortable.

Men are also more likely to want these ads. 77% of men said they were at least somewhat comfortable with mobile ads, and only 71% of women gave the same response. Age was less of a factor, with 75% of respondents under 25 saying they would be comfortable, along with 73% of those aged between 25 to 44.

Surag Patel, InMobi head of global research, says this level of comfort is due to Australia being one of the most technologically advanced markets in the world – our iOS ad impression share is 42%, and that’s well ahead of the 19% recorded in the United States.

The research breaks down actual ad impressions, and found that the iPhone is leading the way with 42%, followed by Symbian at 18.8% and Android at 10.3%.

“I think there is a great health in the ecosystem here,” Patel says. “There is such a high penetration of iOS devices here, and the consumer experience overall is much better. Compare this to the US, where the iPhone is large, but not nearly as penetrative.”

When asked why users would be so willing to receive mobile ads, 56% of respondents said they would want to receive information about a new product. A further 37% said they wanted help in learning about something, 34% said one of the best benefits of mobile ads was that you received something for free.

“We didn’t specifically ask what type of advertising they wanted to see,” Patel says, “but we did look at the perceived benefits. And what came out of that was that people want to be introduced to something new.”

Breaking down the data, the report found women were more interested in sharing viral content, with 44% of respondents saying they would respond more to that rather than a call to action. However, 35% of men said they would prefer a call-to-action type of ad.

And while the survey also found that users may be more willing to click on ads in categories such as consumer electronics and entertainment, which lean towards bigger brands, there are plenty of opportunities for smaller businesses to enter mobile advertising with a small campaign.

“From an Australian perspective,” Marston says, “Australians want to learn more. But I think there is a big reluctance from big brands, they are holding back and aren’t engaging in this space.”

“I think there is a great space here for small and nimble businesses to be making strong in-roads into mobile advertising, purely be experimenting and playing the game.”

Marston says businesses will miss out if they wait too long, when mobile advertising becomes too expensive.

“Of course, you can wait and see what your competitors do, and see where they excel. But by the time you get in, it will be more expensive. There is an opportunity to get involved now.”