• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 3, 2015

According to Opera Mediaworks’ global mobile ad platform, reaching over 1.1 billion consumers each month, and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), Latin America takes the lead as the fastest-growing mobile ad market globally, capturing nearly 8% of the global market. In addition, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina are now in the company’s Top 10 list of all countries by mobile ad traffic.

On top of being the fastest growing region globally, Latin America also has the highest monetization potential, compared to other emerging markets (Asia Pacific and Africa), says the report. Mobile ads served within the region generate more revenue per impression than either of these two regions, with a ratio of 1 to 0.87 (global average is 1:1). When narrowed down to just the top five LatAm countries, the discrepancy drops even lower, to a ratio of 1 to 0.92.

Globally, 55% of ad impressions are delivered within apps, and, in Latin America, that share is lower, at 30%, though partially attributed to the below-average level in Brazil (18%), says the report. Still, revenue levels within apps are proportionally higher, at nearly 40% for LatAm overall and over 45% for the LatAm top five countries. Video ads, with their high engagement rates and revenue capabilities, continue to grow in popularity. Brazil, Colombia and Chile all have high ratios of video impression share to a total impression share of more than 1:1, with Chile the clear leader at nearly 4:1.

80.7% of mobile users in Latin America have mobile devices with the Android operating system, followed by iOS at 14.1%. While just 5.2% of users are on “other” operating systems (e.g., BlackBerry, Windows, Symbian, Java), the number of impressions per user on these OS’s is significantly higher than the global averages.

In Latin America, mobile traffic (measured by ad impressions) to Sports sites and apps is nearly 3X that of the global average, 42.1% vs. 14.6%. However, the revenue earned from Sports impressions is not proportionate to the impression volume, hovering in the 10% range, says the report.

Gaston Bercún, Co-President, Opera Mediaworks LatAm, says “… (the) sports… category for Latin American mobile consumers… tend to seek fast information, like the score of a football match… less likely to engage… advertising… (but) engage more deeply with the mobile content… responding positively to long-form ad creative… ”

Other key demographic and mobile behavioral findings from the report:

Among the top five countries, the gender split is fairly close, typically around 50/50. Mexico shows a slight lean toward men, with 59.7% male and 40.3% female.

Argentina and Chile have more “high frequency” users, meaning they engage with mobile content 5-7 days per week. Colombia has a larger portion of “low frequency” users, with 53% engaging just 1-2 days a week.

After sports, the Games category receives the most traffic, with a 22.9% share, more than 4 times the global share. Social Networking is no. 3, accounting for 17.7% of impressions, though less than the 31.5% seen on a global level, says the report.

Fabiano Destri Lobo, Managing Director of MMA - LatAm, notes that “… mobile is the closest you can get to your consumer…  we have empirical evidence that allocating… marketing mix effectively… generates better branding, greater buy intent, conversions and sales…”

Globally, we have witnessed increased demand for, and rapid adoption of, mobile video-ad units, says the report. Within the P4 region, the Philippines has the highest ratio of video-ad impressions compared to the volume of all impressions served in its market.

User interest in these categories varies significantly within the sub-region and also when compared to the global data set. For instance, when compared to the global average:

• Social Networking is far more popular in the Philippines than other markets, but interest in other categories wanes, particularly for News.
• Indonesians also top the global average for Social Networking use, but far outpace the rest of the world when it comes to consumption of Business content.
• Vietnam shows a strong preference for News.
• In India, mobile users are visiting more sites and apps in the Music, Video, Media & Entertainment and the Technology & Computing categories than the average global user.

For additional information from Opera Mediaworks, please visit here.