• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, October 12, 2012

According to Celtra’s Quarterly Mobile Rich Media Monitor, summarized in part by Marketing Charts, among 60 campaigns across 4 industry verticals engagement rates were the highest in the financial vertical, although both retail and entertainment also saw double-digit engagement rates, with auto close behind.

Highlights from the Q2 Benchmarks:

• Among ad formats, 67% were expandable banners, making it the most popular ad format. The remaining 1/3 of the ads were split between interstitials (21%) and animated banners (12%)
• There were more iOS (55%) ads than Android (45%) but Android adoption continues to rise and the report expects that these numbers will shift in the coming months
• Engagement rates for mobile rich media ads average in the double-digits, with video and gaming experiences being the most engaging
• Gaming experiences are highly effective for entertainment with 16.6% of users responding to a gaming element.
• Users are engaging with social media through mobile ads and sharing branded content. 8.7% share on Facebook and 12.6% Tweet. In addition, brands are increasingly integrating newer social media services such as Instagram, foursquare and Pinterest
• Direct response features are present in most ads. A click to an external service, such as app store, or website is almost always included in an ad

Matevz Klanjsek, co-founder and chief product officer at Celtra, notes that ”... rich media mobile advertising is changing the way brands communicate... by engaging (consumers) with meaningful, useful and often intimate experiences instead of simply bombarding them with commercial messages... “ 

The study measured click-through rates on direct response ads, finding them to be highest in the finance vertical (7.9%), with retail a close second at 7.4%. Retailers benefited from high CTRs on links to stores, from which consumers could complete a purchase. Entertainment had a relatively low CTR due to many of these ads being self-contained and used to build brand awareness, rather than involving some call to action.

Each vertical has an ad feature that proves particularly strong in driving engagement, says the report:

• In retail, branding and presentation (e.g. product catalogs) yield a 25.1% rate.
• For entertainment, gaming, shows a 16.6% engagement. Gaming allows deeper engagement beyond video trailers and image galleries
• In finance  the most effective features are location-based, such as ATM or branch locators, with a 7.2% engagement
• Location-based features (to find car dealerships, for example) lead in the auto vertical, with an engagement rate of 4.7%

Rich media ads are becoming much more sophisticated and elaborate. While including video is still the first and obvious choice for most brands, they are increasingly leveraging advanced mobile capabilities and ad features, such as location-based services, social media and gaming elements. The report concludes that these features drive significantly higher ad performance and create much bigger value for advertisers than traditional static “click-to-site” mobile banners.

For more detailed data from the report on vertical specific performance, please visit the Celtra Q2 2012 Mobile Rich Media Monitor here; For the blog summary, go here.