Mobile Advertising Growth Fueled by New Ad Formats on Smartphones

BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brightkite, the company that brings social networking back to the real world, and GfK Technology, a leading market research agency, today released their latest Mobile Advertising Report (MAR). The quarterly MAR is a tool to help marketers and their agencies monitor and understand the fast-changing mobile medium.

38% of US mobile phone owners recall seeing advertising on their cell phones in the first quarter of 2009, although for Smartphone (such as iPhone) users, 59% recalled seeing mobile advertising. For Smartphone users, the number one format is mobile web advertising, while for regular phone users, it is SMS. However, perhaps the most striking finding of this report is the increased breadth of mobile advertising formats that consumers are noticing. 23% of Smartphone users recall seeing SMS advertising, but 20% saw ads in mobile social networks and 15% saw ads in mobile TV/video. In just three months, the number of Smartphone users seeing ads inside a location-based network has almost tripled to 15%. At current growth rates, we can expect to see some of these formats surpass mobile web and/or SMS in 2009.

In addition to being more aware of mobile advertising, phone users are quickly adopting a much broader set of mobile services:

• 14% now use one or more location based services (peaking at 38% of iPhone users).
• 10% use a mobile social network (33% of iPhone users).
• The fastest growing application for iPhone users is games, which experiences a 21% growth quarter over quarter; 50% of iPhone owners are now playing games on their phone.

“Over the last few years, we’ve tracked the growth of mobile advertising, and this has been fueled by text messaging and mobile Internet formats. Now we are seeing consumers adopting a much broader set of mobile applications and services and this is exposing them to new ad formats,” explained Jonathon Linner, Brightkite’s CEO. “It’s fascinating to see that iPhone users are almost as likely to see ads in a mobile social network as they are in a text message. This was unthinkable 12 months ago.”

“If the iPhone is an indicator of future behavior across other handsets, then we would conclude that the former ‘standards’ of mobile advertising – WAP and SMS – are going to be caught up to and perhaps surpassed by ads inside of other applications and services,” says Colin Strong, head of Mobile Communications Research at GfK Technology.

About the Mobile Advertising Report

The Brightkite-GfK Technology Mobile Advertising Report is a tool used to help marketers and their agencies understand the fast-changing mobile advertising medium. The report is produced quarterly and is distributed free to marketers. The Q1 2009 report is based on a survey of 1,000 representative American adults interviewed by telephone.

If you’d like to have your mobile advertising campaign measured in the next Brightkite-GfK Mobile Advertising Report, please email all pertinent details to measureme@Brightkite.com. If you’d like to receive future copies of the report, please e-mail mar@Brightkite.com.

About GfK Technology

With a global team of over 200 research professionals in 40 countries, GfK Technology is a leading provider of tailored consumer and business related research services to the Technology, Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment industries. As these sectors continue to converge and evolve, the opportunities for the industry players are huge. But they face many challenges - increasingly complex markets; new types of competition; and the need to carefully manage growth and diversification. At the same time, consumers and businesses are becoming more demanding, sophisticated and influential in the way that they choose, buy and use technology, data and content - increasingly on the move.

To find out how GfK Technology can help you meet these challenges and exploit new opportunities, visit our website at www.gfknop.com/technology.

About Brightkite

Founded in 2005, Brightkite brings social networking back into the real world. Brightkite’s location-aware mobile service helps you connect with your friends and share real world experiences. More than two million people use Brightkite’s free service every month. Use Brightkite to meet people around you, keep track of your friends, explore and discover new places, and annotate places with notes and photos. Best of all, Brightkite is available to anyone, anywhere, worldwide. All you need is a mobile phone or Web browser to bring your friends together in the real world, wherever you may be.

The award-winning company is headquartered in Burlingame, California and is backed by four of the world’s top venture capital funds. To learn more about using your phone as a social discovery tool, visit us at www.brightkite.com.