Keeping up with mobile: What to watch out for in 2015

The mobile industry has progressed at an unprecedented rate. Driven by changing patterns in consumer behaviour, the rapid evolution of the industry continues to challenge all of us who work in this space every day.[Millennial Media is the Platinum Sponsor of The Mobile Excellence (Mob-Ex) Awards 2015 which takes places on 5 February 2015 at the Mandarin Orchard Hotel, Singapore.To RSVP click here.]Mid last year, I wrote about the trends and themes that were emerging in Asia Pacific that mobile advertisers needed to keep an eye on. These included a boom in mobile video engagement, a ramp-up in algo-centric buying and selling, and a greater focus on measurement and attribution. Over the course of the past eight months, these three themes remained high on the agenda. Here’s how we, at Millennial Media, picture them shaping the mobile landscape in 2015.Marketers will try to figure out how to make programmatic work for themProgrammatic buying has become the industry’s hottest buzzword. Interest in automated trading has increased and investment poured in from all sides in 2014. Magna Global recently forecast that programmatic ad buying will reach $33 billion globally by 2017. That’s over 200% growth in only three years.All this excitement exists for good reason. And mobile marketers have even more to look forward to as mobile, in particular, lends itself to programmatic buying because of its unique targeting options. Automated trading is becoming extremely important to the efficiency and scalability of our industry, as well as a vital part of brands’ digital strategies. Asia Pacific can’t afford to ignore this trend.Chief among the programmatic concerns are brand safety and the threats that a misplaced ad could pose to corporate brand-building. In 2015, the conversation around programmatic will evolve to tackle this issue, and more brands will explore premium programmatic and choose private marketplaces (PMPs) in order to achieve scale in brand-safe environments.Mobile video will boost engagement, while cross-screen targeting closes the sales loopThis year, we’ll see brands focused on making sure good content is delivered to audiences in the right context. Network capabilities across Asia Pacific are improving, and increasingly, sophisticated devices are available at lower price points. Video will be one of the most discussed topics. Where TV advertising has proved that video can be a powerful way to tell a story, mobile enables brands to go one step further and have consumers physically interact with an ad to take immediate action, delivering engaging experiences.As brands work toward targeting consumers in more personalised ways, they’ll utilise cross-screen strategies to better understand their consumer’s journey. Brands will ask how they can become more strategic with mobile in 2015, as audiences use many devices at different touch-points across the day – and, increasingly, in tandem with each other.Accountability in mobile will riseJust like any other marketing platform, reliable and consistent measurement is key to driving investment into mobile. As the use of cross-screen strategies and automated trading increases, brands – armed with better quality data and improved capabilities – will be able to use increasingly sophisticated methods to determine the success of any particular mobile campaign.In 2015, more brands will ask their agencies to track specific mobile measurement metrics, helping them determine the path to purchase for their consumers and to understand them better.This will open doors for more comprehensive and tailored campaigns better suited to consumer preferences, as well as a better understanding of ad effectiveness on the platform.Mobile’s rise as a preferred marketing medium for brands has been phenomenal. In 2015, mobile will continue to push marketers to rethink the way they approach marketing. I’m personally very excited to be a part of this change and am looking forward to 2015 being a landmark year for the digital and mobile industry. This article was contributed by Robert Woolfrey, managing director for APAC at Millennial Media.Millennial Media is the Platinum Sponsor of The Mobile Excellence (Mob-Ex) Awards 2015 which takes places on 5 February 2015 at the Mandarin Orchard Hotel, Singapore. To RSVP click here.For table bookings or any other enquiries, please get in touch with Czarina Solomon at +65 6423 0329, czarinas@marketing-interactive.com