Box UK: BBC Innovation Labs Blog

So advertising researchers have finally cracked it, no not my eternal question ‘why was the Cadbury Gorilla such a big deal?’ but how to reach that elusive 18 – 34 audience… male audience to be more specific.

A report released by M:Metrics this week (just in time for the Mobile Marketing Forum in London) finds that ‘young males are a rich target for mobile advertisers, as among mobile phone users 36 percent of 18 to 34-year-old men accessed mobile media in February. Men in this age group are also highly receptive to SMS advertising, with 9 percent responding to an SMS advert they received, versus a 4 percent market average.’

The figures speak for themselves and show that young consumers are redirecting their attentions to their mobile phones. According to M:Metrics 18 to 34 year olds comprise 56% of mobile media users, compared to only 29% of TV viewers.

I’m not surprised, in the not too distant future it won’t be obese children that parents need to worry about, or how to get them away from the TV… but I have a vision of rehab camps where teenagers are separated from their mobile phones, hospitals full of thumb injuries from over-zealous texting, Jeremy Kyle counseling young couples who pay more attention to their mobiles than their partners – yes the UK is breeding a generation of nomophobes! But hey, it could be worse, right?

Among Europeans the UK has the second highest mobile messaging audience at 86.9% of the total UK mobile audience, only just falling behind the Italians with 87.4% (and way ahead of the US with 48.6% – with an editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry reporting that excessive text messaging may be a sign or mental illness with a high rate of relapse and in some cases requiring hospitalization!).

The M:Metrics figures are amazing, and as an ex-advertising gal I found them quite an eye opener. But I also found it quietly reassuring for our proposal that the mobile trend is growing and in particular mobile messaging as opposed to mobile media is an incredibly effective way of reaching your audience.

Ironic too that these results come in a week that is reporting that the mobile web is dead following the decline of mowser.com (a start-up that ‘translates’ websites into mobile-friendly versions) due to lack of demand.

I’m not so sure, I wouldn’t say the mobile web bubble has burst, but is merely waiting for the next ‘blow’ and thanks to the birth of the iPhone and Android I think the next year will see some incredible developments in the world of mobile phone technology, I’ll just wait for the text message telling me that it’s started…

*** Claire