Who's Ignoring Those iPhone Ads? Women.
According to mobile marketing firm Brand in Hand, female iPhone users are the worst demographic in terms of interacting with mobile ads on the iPhone. The company, whose high-profile clients include Procter & Gamble, General Mills and American Express, has run 60+ mobile ad campaigns over the past two years. During that time, they've had the opportunity to study the engagement of iPhone users with their ads. So why are women ignoring the ads? Apparently, they're too busy actually using the apps.
Women Use the Apps, Ignore the Ads
From an article on AdAge, which reported on Brand in Hand's news in detail, the reason that the women were not engaging with the mobile advertisements came down to how they actually used their phones. The research showed that women, "especially so-called super-moms, are task-oriented and tend to use their smartphones to help them get things done."
In other words, these busy iPhone users didn't have time to goof off by clicking (or rather, tapping) through on a mobile ad. Ads were seen only as distractions that would take them away from the particular task at hand.
For advertisers trying to market to this particular demographic, the new findings will have an impact on what type of mobile campaigns will be run in the future. And given that only 18% of women age 18-49 have a smartphone today, according to Nielsen, smartphone advertisements just won't deliver the numbers that advertisers need. At least for now.
A Better Alternative to Mobile Ads?
Although the AdAge article didn't go into any detail about how marketers could engage smartphone-owning women in different ways, we think that there's at least one company that may have figured it out. Instead of offering distracting mobile banner ads that get in the way of the task that needs to be done, food and beverage giant Kraft introduced their own iPhone app instead.
This branded effort, dubbed "iFood Assistant" (iTunes link), is a recipe app that helps users plan meals. This fits in perfectly with how Brand in Hand claim women use their smartphones - they launch apps designed for a particular purpose. Yet this time, while doing so, the women (and men, too, we suppose) are also engaging with the brand itself because the recipes featured in the iFood Assistant app include Kraft food products of course.
This app is so successful that Kraft is even able to successfully charge for it, something that rarely works for branded apps. But Kraft's app sells - and sells well - priced at 99 cents in the iTunes App Store. They even hit their 3-year download goal in a matter of weeks, said Ed Kaczmarek, Kraft Foods director of innovation.
While at the moment, Kraft's iPhone application appears to be the exception and not the rule when it comes to creative marketing efforts, it's a great example of how mobile marketing could and perhaps should be done, especially if you want to engage busy, task-oriented women.
Facebook
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
Women - you simply cannot trust them.
Sarah, I am a big believer that brands will all come to the iPhone not via advertising but via apps. This is a great example and case. There are not so many brands so far but the trend is here
fyi we have put them altogether in this widget
http://blog.appsfire.com/all-the-branded-apps-updated-from-jsmakr
Ouriel Ohayon
@Ouriel: did you see this crowdsourced spreadsheet of branded apps? Over 200 now listed! http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tYIbUFX5myZ17rbbWufTiKw&output=html
@sarah this is how we created our widget (read the credit in our post :)
I think it's important to note that this study was not comparing male iPhone users to female iPhone users; it was comparing female iPhone users to female non-iPhone users. In other was, it's an analysis on how to market to mobile phone users, that happened to focus on women; it's not specifically an analysis on how to market to women. There is no mention in the article of usage patterns among men.
How about this - stop using the ads entirely. When I'm using my cell phone, I'm busy DOING something and ads interfere. Pester me with ads and I'll go out of my way to NOT buy your product.
Appears consistent with a new study by Acision and OgilvyOne on the future of mobile advertising. Mobiles require utility and value that stand on their own and magnetically attract users. One interpretation at http://www.mercurybrief.com/2009/10/creating-product-romance-for-an-audience-of-one/
Bob Page
The Mercury Brief
Oh, yeah, right! This works because we know that women work in the kitchen, preparing food, and are task oriented-- whereas men are not! The sex role stereotyping in here is a bit disconcerting.
How do they know whether the iPhone user is male or female?
What percentage of people are clicking on these ads anyway? I, for one, discard any free app that has ads... they're terribly disconcerting, when my "task" at hand, is playing a game!
I'm perfectly happy to ignore "peripheral" ads in free apps (i.e., those not too intrusive). If it helps make the app available for free, great! Unfortunately for users, if the advertiser(s) don't think they're getting value for money, the sponsorship disappears and perhaps the app with it. The Kraft experience is pretty impressive: users helping finance an advertising vehicle; I hope that means Kraft is using the app revenue to cover software and content development and maintenance costs.
How do they know whether the iPhone user is male or female?