InsightExpress, a Connecticut-based online market research firm, has launched a mobile media measurement tool, with Ad Infuse signing on as the first mobile ad network to offer the solution to its
clients.
While research groups like eMarketer predict mobile ad spending will grow from $421 million now to $4.8 billion by 2011, advertisers and ad agencies are struggling to
make sense of how to allocate those dollars effectively--and how to determine benchmarks for ROI.
InsightExpress' Mobile AdInsights program applies established metrics such as brand awareness,
association and preference to campaigns by using surveys with six to seven questions. Typical sample sizes run between 200 and 300 respondents, and InsightExpress compares answers across both an
unexposed (or control) group and an exposed (or test) group.
"Mobile AdInsights complements the currencies that advertisers and agencies are familiar with--such as click-throughs, future
conversions and acquisitions--to provide a holistic view of how a mobile campaign is performing," said Drew Lipner, vice president and group director of online media measurement, InsightExpress. "We
can also compare a campaign across on- and offline platforms."
Although industry analysts may question the use of traditional advertising metrics to measure the effectiveness of such a new medium,
"we need to start somewhere," said Chris Arens, director of marketing, Ad Infuse. "We may end up using different metrics, but we thought it would benefit advertisers to start with what we do know and
see where it takes us."
Media agency representatives at the Mobile Marketing Forum, for example, made it clear that both standardized metrics and third-party research are needed to validate and
support market adoption--especially with mobile CPM rates hovering in the $60-$80 range.
Although industry insiders counter that the highly personalized nature of mobile advertising warrants
premium pricing, they also believe that "the rates will come down over time, as more advertisers shift their dollars," said Arens.
Since standardized performance metrics are needed before such a
substantial shift can occur, InsightExpress seems to have launched its Mobile AdInsights solution at an opportune time--right on the heels of the Mobile Marketing Association's formation of a Global
Measurement Committee.