The curious case of telcos and (mobile) DMPs

Mobile has slowly but surely become the primary screen for media consumption. It is the first screen we look at in the morning and the last screen at night. And it is the screen that is part of our lifestyle and activities through the day. It is, hence, an obvious channel that has caught the attention of brands and marketers, and now commands a prominent share in the media spend.

Over 50% of the average connected time is on a mobile or a tablet device. Given the in-person association and the varied uses and apps, mobile devices generate a bunch of very interesting data points, regardless of the PII data.

The explosion of smartphone sales and availability of 3G and 4G services in the emerging markets also represents a promising market base for branding and marketing initiatives.

Mobile Nuances

Ad targeting on mobile devices comes with its set of nuances.

First and foremost is the ad inventory format – native apps tend to form a bigger and more effective share of the supply side. This is an important dimension as apps and mobile OS stacks allow limited tracking as compared to cookie based display ad targeting for display ads on web. DMPs (data management platforms) that have rich web publisher audience data offer little intelligence for these scenarios.

Native ads do offer certain unique targeting criteria like app category, carrier and OS combination and most importantly location information.

The conventional cookie aggregation approach is not relevant for mobile ad targeting. The Mobile advertising segment has unique challenges around optimising media planning, audience targeting and Ad ROI measurement across mobile platforms.

An interesting problem is also around identifying unique audiences (same device) across mobile web and native apps, for retargeting purposes.

Mobile audience data is typically associated to a device ID and is more reliable and sticky as compared to 3rd party cookie data. But is also something that is well guarded under privacy veils of mobile OS and that of mobile carriers.

In particular, the location data can allow marketers to reach their relevant audiences at the right moment when the intent is high - be it a frequent traveller using a travel app at an airport or a shopper comparing prices when shopping at a mall.

Hence, ‘mobile first’ is no longer only relevant for content owners and publishers; it is also the way to go for display advertising and for DMPs in particular. This puts carriers and mobile networks in a very unique sweet spot as far as data ownership and its relevance to ad targeting is concerned. This is where we have a case for Mobile DMPs or generic DMPs that also leverage 3rd party data coming from telcos and mobile networks. The term “mobile DMP” is being used more in the Ad Tech industry. And rightly so.

Location awareness is the strongest selling point for Mobile DMPs.

 There are two types of mobile location data, and both provide very potent intelligence around ad targeting and optimising ROI.

1. The first is Point of Interest (POI) data — this represents the location of malls, airports, hotels, restaurants, shops and businesses in general, in context to maps or GPS data. There are multiple providers of this data. This data has certain challenges around accuracy. There are also common scenarios of overlapping data points when multiple businesses or shops exist in close vicinity.
2. The second mobile data type is user location data — primary coming from the Location/ GPS data of the mobile handset anonymously. In the Assisted GPS mode (A-GPS), this data can also come from cell tower data of telcos and wifi hotspots, thereby reducing its accuracy. But again, combining A-GPS data with LOI data can help with location aware ad targeting.

By combining the above data sets with publisher and content consumption data patterns, a mobile carrier or telco can build user personas and audience segments (and hence a mobile DMP offering) that can be leveraged effectively by the programmatic advertising eco-system.

Telcos put their money where the mouth is

There have been some interesting industry movements in the past 12 months – bringing together the interests of Ad Tech and Telecom industry. The telecom industry is looking at their 1st party data as an incidental source of revenue. And the Ad Tech industry gets to better target ad campaigns across screens.

• Verizon Wireless’ merger with AOL is the strongest case-in-point. AOL has a strong portfolio on the supply side (publishers) of the ad world and also in the Ad Tech space.
• Amobee, a subsidiary of Singtel, acquired Adconion and Kontera last year.
• Australia-based Telstra’s subsidiary Ooyala bought over Videoplaza, a video advertising player.
• And Japan based SoftBank continues to invest in In-Mobi, an India based mobile advertising company.

On the ground though, we all live a multi-channel life. An ad that we see on our mobile device may end up as a buy transaction on our laptop. This makes for an interesting case for the established (web first) DMP providers also vying for the mobile carrier’s data to enrich their overall audience personas. And let us not forget the Facebook Audience network. These are interesting times and marketers are spoilt for choices!

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