How does a 168-year old publication stay young? Continuous innovation.

The weekly newspaper was founded in 1843 by an enterprising Scotsman, the British publication has, right from the start, steadily served up business and political news, analysis, and opinion to both U.K. and U.S. readers.

The publication has embraced the digital zeitgeist with an archival-based website and web-only content that includes blogs, debates, and audio/video programs. It has also made editions available on Android, iPhone, and iPad. Users can download the apps for free access to the editor’s weekly selection of six must-read articles. Full access is available by subscription.

Mobilizing an app strategy

Determined to further broaden its readership and accessibility, The Economist turned to mobile  marketing strategies in order to tap into the burgeoning base of young, on-the-go professionals. Working with ad agency Neo@Ogilvy, the publication chose mobile advertising network Google AdMob to target a desired demographic: 25-to-35 year-olds exhibiting intellectual curiosity, thirst for current news, and a predilection for high-tech content delivery. The initial markets targeted were Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Phase I of The Economist campaign took place over 4.5 months from November 19, 2010 to March 31, 2011. Banner and text ads ran on AdMob’s network and targeted users of both Apple iPhone and iPad.




Reaching new market audiences

The campaign significantly raised awareness of The Economist among mobile consumers both within the overall group and amongst target consumers. Additionally, the campaign was significantly well received amongst those interested in news and current affairs where the campaign had a directional impact on awareness, brand favorability and purchase intention.

In particular, the iPad audience had an increase in intent to purchase a single issue/subscribe to The Economist after exposure, indicating that the campaign was able to positively change perceptions among this group.

Neo@Ogilvy also conducted a corollary study of 105 mobile-device users fitting the targeted 25-35 demographic. Of the group sampled, 47.1% of those exposed to the mobile ads indicated a willingness to purchase a subscription to The Economist on the iPad as opposed to only 32.7% of the control group not exposed to the ads. This difference in intent to purchase exceeded the 80th percentile confidence level, indicating a positive impact on branding, according to BrandMetrics.

Overall, the campaign was effective in reaching new audiences that differ in demographics and media consumption than the traditional core reader of The Economist. By demonstrating directional improvements in brand awareness, brand favourability and purchase intention, the campaign results show that advertising on the mobile web offers a new opportunity for The Economist, including targeting the fast-growing base of Android users in the near future. By enabling discovery, branding, and monetization on the mobile web, AdMob has become a critical media platform for a publication with a venerable past and a bright future.

Posted by: Christian Cadeo, Head of Mobile, Southeast Asia
 

Rich Media Display Ads Across Screens = Better Together
We partnered with Nielsen to measure the incremental impact of multi-screen advertising. In a study conducted at CBS’s Television City media lab run by Nielsen, study participants were asked to view related content across TV, PCs, smartphones and tablets. A 15-second video ad promoting Volvo's S60 sedan was shown to different groups of participants, with some people seeing no ads, and others seeing the ad on a different combinations of screens controlling for frequency.

The results clearly demonstrated the impact that multi-screen advertising has on branding. In the group that was exposed to TV ads alone, 50% of people correctly attributed the ad to Volvo. For groups that saw the ad across all screens -- TV, PC, smartphone and tablet -- the brand recall jumps dramatically to 74%.


Similarly, only 22% of the group that was exposed to just the TV ad correctly recalled that the ad was for a 4-door sedan versus 39% of the group that saw the ad across all screens.

 

We share this ad effectiveness research on the heels of our recently released internal data on multi-screen usage patterns revealing how users select the type of screen they are interacting with at different points in their day (New! Search data reveal that when the sun goes down, the tablets come out).  The multi-screen opportunity is looming for advertisers so we wanted to share these new insights and showcase examples of successful integrated digital display campaigns.

Smart advertisers are already running integrated digital campaigns.
We’ve worked with hundreds of advertisers who have translated their desktop search and display goals to mobile and now to tablets.  One example we’ve shared previously is the Animal Planet case study, and today we want to share a new example: adidas.  adidas, in partnership with Carat, worked with Google to extend their video brand message to digital. With Google’s unique cross-channel capabilities, adidas was able to extend its video creative across all digital platforms, adapting them for engagement across PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Posted by:  Johanna Werther & Ben Chung, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Last week, we presented a webinar,“Going Mobile: From Why to How?” on the five fundamental components to a mobile advertising strategy to help you get started. Google Product Marketing Manager, Sonja Lee and Mobile Specialist, Angela Sherman presented key statistics surrounding the current state of the mobile landscape, particularly looking ahead into the holiday season, and presented a deep dive on the five things that every mobile advertiser should do:

1. Mobilizing your web presence
2. Set up separate mobile-only campaigns
3. Think Local with Mobile
4. Utilize mobile-unique ad formats
5. Track and optimize your mobile performance

To learn more, download the Mobile Site Optimization webinar slides or watch the recording of the event on the Google Mobile Ads YouTube Channel or below.





Posted by: Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

Are you reading this post from your PC at work, from your mobile phone as you wait in line at a cafe or from your tablet at home before bed?  The screen a user chooses to engage with is largely driven by context and users are matching their device type to their situation.  At Google Mobile Ads, we’re interested in the way the proliferation of these screens is impacting user behavior, especially search behavior.  We looked separately at searches from tablets, PCs and mobile devices.  The data show that during the workday users are searching from their computers and they use smartphones steadily throughout the day with a lift during commute time and in the evening.  Tablet usage spikes dramatically in the evening.  While both tablets and mobile are portable devices that can be used in a variety of places, this data points to the fact that tablets are used primarily at home as “lean back” devices while sitting on the couch, whereas smartphone devices may be used in a similar way but are also used in the office and on-the-go throughout the day. 

Google Internal Data 2011. % of each platform's traffic shown hourly for one day. Does not indicate absolute or relative traffic volumes.

If you’re an advertiser, you might be wondering which is the best screen to reach your customers on. The answer is: all of them. These screens are better together. Each screen fills a specific need state consumers have for information at different, complementary points in the day.  Failing to invest in any of these three digital screens not only leaves the door open for competitors to engage with your customers, but also could mean a missed opportunity for brand awareness and sales either on the device itself or through driving potential customers into your place of business.  

Posted by Johanna Werther, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

Box, a Silicon Valley based start-up focused on providing solutions in online content management, has been growing exponentially since it launched in 2005. Box has seen success with their online advertising campaigns but wanted to ensure they were in front of all prospective clients, so they tested mobile as another way to acquire new users.  With Google Mobile Ads, Box was able to setup a mobile-targeted search campaign in just minutes. In the first month of running mobile search ads, more than 30% of Box’s overall conversions from Google came from their mobile campaigns, demonstrating the great potential for B2B businesses on mobile.

Hear more from Box below in the video case study about their experience on mobile and advertising with Google.



You can download the entire case study PDF here.

Posted by: Mike Schipper, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

The best consumer experiences on mobile devices happen on websites that are designed for mobile. We all know the difference that sites designed for mobile make in pure usability - they are designed for the smaller touchscreen, making it easy to find what you are looking for and interact with. We believe that giving consumers the best possible experience on their mobile device is critically important. A poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of a brand or company and make it hard for them to engage or make a purchase. A recent study which asked users about the performance of mobile websites found that 61% of users# are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone.  

Last year, we began to limit ad serving on high-end mobile devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content. This was an initial step taken to improve the experience for mobile users. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing the mobile optimization of a website as a new factor of ads quality for AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile search traffic. As a result of this change, ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords -- they will generally drive more mobile traffic at a lower cost.

We encourage you to visit the website for your business on a mobile phone, and experience your site as your customers do. If your site is not mobile optimized, we are committed to helping you get started. We recently launched a free Google Sites tool to help you create simple mobile pages. Here is a webinar that has useful best practices for mobile sites. There are case studies from businesses who created successful mobile sites, and a series of blog posts (1, 2, 3) with tips on how to build a mobile friendly site. These are some resources that can help businesses get started.  

Stay tuned to the Google Mobile Ads blog for news of upcoming events and initiatives related to mobile site optimization.

Posted by David Nachum, Product Manager, Mobile Ads

However you say it, Get Mobilized, Jouez La Carte Mobile, Mobil Werben or Get Mobilised, the time for mobile is now! With our Get Mobilized website now available in 3 new languages there has never been a better time for your business to join the mobile revolution. Don’t feel left out Japanese readers, you can モバイル最適化のおすすめ too! Your version is due to drop soon, keep your eyes on this blog for more information.

You just have to look around you to see how smartphones are radically changing the way consumers connect the real world with the online world. They are out and about, their smartphones are with them 24/7, they need your services and 82% of US smartphone users notice mobile ads. Is your business ready for them? They are searching more and more, in fact, at Google, we are seeing mobile search grow at an exponential rate, increasing five-fold worldwide in just the past two years - a rate comparable to the early days of desktop Google Search. No matter what your business size, you can get started with a few some simple steps to connect with your customers and grow your business with mobile advertising.

From tips on optimizing your mobile campaign performance to how to drive more calls to your business, there’s lots of getting started resources with short videos explaining the benefits of each key mobile ad solution. Want more clicks? Want more calls? Want more customers in your store? We’ll show you how.

Begin on the path to mobile advertising success by watching this introduction to mobile advertising video and don’t forget to Get Mobilized!

Posted by Jon Garwood, Google Mobile Ads Marketing Team

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