One of the easiest ways to ensure that tireless advertising efforts actually become effective once released into the world is to pay close attention to who the ad is targeting. Since targeting became a very popular method in marketing, when the tools and technology needed to do it effectively showed up, it has been constantly used by marketers worldwide. However, the issue is that targeting the correct person or demographic is never an easy thing to do. When it comes to mobile, targeting is getting even harder to do, with a gigantic chunk of the population using handheld devices on a day to day basis. Marketers tend to struggle most with targeting adult mobile users, as they tend to serve as a patchy area in the entire mobile user population. Marketers are often unsure if marketing to adults on mobile is even a good idea.
The results of a new Forrester report, which were reported by Venture Beat, show that when targeting adults on mobile, things do not have to quite as difficult as they may seem. The results show that only 7% of adult consumers are not relevant on mobile platforms, meaning that the rest of adult consumers are available for targeting on mobile. That is great news for marketers that have been quite confused when it comes to targeting adults, with mobile being one of the more popular platforms for targeting today, and it seems things have just gotten a bit simpler.
An analyst with Forrester, Melissa Parrish, who was part of the collaboration in charge of this report, has broken down the adult mobile consumers into five categories;
Talkers (25%):
Use mobile phones primarily to talk. May occasionally use SMS.Communicators (16%):
Communicate at least weekly using SMS. May use MMS, IM, or personal email at least monthly.Connectors (15%):
Use mobile phones for work. Also use advanced services at least monthly.Entertainers (38%):
Listen to music, watch videos, or play games at least weeklySuperConnecteds (48%):
Access mobile internet weekly or do multiple activities, monthly
This information from Forrester could be crucial in future efforts or attempts to market to an adult consumer demographic using a mobile platform. However, even though these results show that 93% of adult consumers are available for mobile targeting, it does not mean that 93% are worthwhile. In VentureBeat’s reporting, they state:
According to Parrish, just because 93 percent of Americans own mobile phones, that doesn’t mean they are all valid targets for mobile marketing activities. In fact, quite the opposite. Only the SuperConnecteds — 48 percent of Americans — are the consumers you want to reach.
Regardless though, finding out that almost half of all adult consumers are potential targets for mobile marketing is good news. There are not many marketers out there that have known the true state of adults on mobile devices, even though it is a very important piece of marketing data. Mobile is growing fast, as is evident all over the place. Therefore, targeting on mobile is key, and targeting to adults is a big part of that.
