Report: Mobile Video Is Stickier
By Anne Sherber
Video viewed on mobile devices is "stickier" than video viewed online, according to a report issued by Rhythm New Media, a mobile video ad network. The "Mobile Video Advertising Report, Q3 2010" is compiled using data from the company's mobile ad network and culled from more than 100 mobile advertising campaigns. Publishers that use the company's network include CBS News, Eonline, Fox and AP. Advertisers on the network include Procter & Gamble, Tide and Macys.
According to Ujjal Kohli, Rhythm's CEO, the explanation for increased retention and completion rates for pre-roll video ads on mobile devices is fairly simple. He says that, like people watching television, people watching video on mobile devices are immersed in the experience. "You're emotionally open for branding messages," he notes.
He says that mobile and television differ substantially from the online experience. "When people are watching TV on their laptops, they have six screens open," he says. "You can show them a 30 second pre-roll [ad] but they cut to another screen while it runs. You cannot switch to another screen on your iPhone or iPad, while the pre-roll runs."
Additionally, he says, the company's data show that unlike television, where usage peaks between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. and television networks are obliged to crowd an average of nine minutes of advertising into a 30-minute program, viewing on mobile devices is spread more evenly throughout the day. "Someone at work at 4 pm, ready for a break, decides to watch a three minute clip with a 30 second pre-roll on Eonline about their favorite star," Kohli posits. "Usage spread throughout the day like that is priceless in advertising."
Kohli says that even companies that simply repurpose their television ads for use on mobile devices are seeing an increased completion rate. Rhythm's data show that more than 85 percent of viewers watch between 75 percent and 100 percent of pre-roll video ads that appear before programming on their mobile devices. "The chance that you will see my ad on TV is about 15 percent," he says.