Mobile messaging is the optimum format for mobile advertising and is an untapped opportunity for mobile operators, said Blyk co-founder Antti Öhrling.
Messaging currently accounts for about 55% of mobile advertising, with 25% going to apps/website and 20% to search.
Instead of being overshadowed by more sophisticated formats in the future, he believes messaging will continue to dominate because when a message is relevant, it creates engagement with the customer and actually enhances an operator's service instead of deteriorating from it.
Öhrling, a keynote speaker at the TM Form Management World Asia in Singapore, said customers say they preferred their services with the ads.
He pointed to a number of key advantages over other formats.
"It's a simple, low-tech communications tool - based on a natural behavior that happens on a mobile phone. In addition, the in-box is always on, it's viral and for advertisers it's a fantastic platform that verifies that the message has been read."
Yankee Group's Declan Lonergan agrees messaging will be an important technology in mobile advertising's future. In a report last year he said, "It's well understood, reliable, ubiquitous and highly personal."
Mobile advertising on its own already provides fairly high response rates, Öhrling said.
"They are several times those of fixed internet. What we have discovered is that when you profile an opted-in audience beforehand, and you engage them with contextual advertising that really fits them, you get really high response rates."
Effective results
He said because mobile messaging can be measured and tracked, it's easy to prove it works for advertisers. Based on 2,600 campaigns done in the UK over 18 months, he said the average response rate was 25% - "that's ten times more you'd expect on any mobile campaign or traditional messaging-based advertising and 100 times more than a mobile banner."
"For the advertiser it's by far the most efficient way of reaching its target audience," Öhrling said.