For executives looking to get mobile enabled in 2012, this latest report in the PQ Media Alternative Media Series represents the most far-reaching examination of two of the fastest-growing and fastest-changing mediums in U.S. history – mobile and social. For the first time the rapidly expanding, highly interconnected and increasingly complex U.S. mobile & social advertising and marketing ecosystem is defined, sized and structured. The report illuminates the trends and analyzes the power of the mobile device to create, shape and influence markets, with a forecast upside to exceed $100 billion by 2015.
Executives responsible for mobile strategic initiatives and business development will find invaluable 30,000 foot perspective, insights and actionable intelligence by three sectors and seven segments. This comprehensive report contains 2006-2010 historicals, 2011 actuals and five year forecasts for mobile advertising & marketing, content & access, social networks, blogs and podcasts, as well as a deep data dive into 44 distinct revenue streams, which reference the market leaders in each. Industry stakeholders will find the 115 page report, 80 tables & charts, comprehensive list of definitions and detailed Appendix a useful tool for identifying growth opportunities and navigating the constant change in mobile and social media.
Making Your First Billion in the Media Business
Economic sector growth begins with technology and innovation. PQ Media believes this is particularly true for media and communications. The pace of consumer adoption has accelerated as each new media technology emerged and evolved - from radio and TV, to cable, DOOH and the Internet. With each new medium user behaviors changed en masse, driving additional investment in the medium and fueling growth in advertising and marketing spend. Starting with its first year with advertising support, it took radio 44 years to reach $1 billion, TV 14, cable 10, digital out-of-home 9 and just 5 years for the Internet.
Mobile Breaks the Emerging Media Adoption Trend
The year was 1993. There were only sixteen million U.S. mobile phone subscribers and 130 websites. That year IBM technologists unveiled "Simon", the first smartphone. It had a touch screen and no physical buttons. Major applications included a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, email and games. BellSouth confidently rolled out the $899 Simon, supported by a national marketing campaign. With land lines the norm, IBM and BellSouth were a decade ahead of consumer demand. The Simon would be short lived. Advanced technology alone was not enough to drive consumer adoption. A catalyst was needed.
The Catalyst That Changed More Than the Mobile World
Mobile phone subscribers grew at double digit rates throughout the 1990's as technology and innovation brought the size and cost of cell phones way down. By 1998 business mobile access fees for web/email broke $3 billion. But it wasn't until after Sept. 11, 2001 that consumer demand and adoption of mobile web/email would take off, reaching the $1 billion tipping point for access spend in 2003, and fueling the "texting" communications phenomenon. Our deep collective human need for connection in our lives with those we care for was the catalyst. The mobile genie was out of the bottle and the media and communications world would never be the same.
How we connect and interact today has been fundamentally transformed by the accelerating pace of mobile technology and innovation. Mobile devices now satisfy and feed that deep human need for connection - at all levels...with friends, family, work and play...with life. They make it easy to form and maintain relationships with people, companies and brands. For many of us they are the last thing we look at before we fall asleep and the first thing we check upon awakening. However, while the ubiquity of the mobile device and the rapid adoption of mobile activities have created mass media potential, audience atomization and the expanding complexity of the mobile ecosystem have created significant challenges for brands, agencies, media companies and financial institutions.
A 2006 to 2011 Fast Forward And Beyond
According to the report, during the 2006-2011 tracking period 12 mobile & social revenue streams passed the $1 billion dollar tipping point, ranging from mobile access to web/email/data content and music downloads to gaming and information services. From 2012-2016, PQ Media forecasts nearly a dozen more revenue streams across the segments of advertising & marketing, content & access, and social media will reach the $1 billion dollar benchmark.
The Future of Mobile and Social Media Is Only Up
PQ Media's ground-breaking mobile & social media forecast illuminates the profound growth, altered social behaviors and challenges to the status quo that have arisen over the last decade. The change has been nothing short of a mobile ecosystem revolution. PQ Media believes the pace of growth and change will continue to accelerate over the forecast period.
The data, analytics, trends and insights in the PQ Media U.S. Mobile & Social Media Forecast 2012-2016 provide a valuable new tool for executives with a stake in the future of the growing and constantly changing mobile & social media economy.
How the Report Was Prepared
PQ Media analysts examined hundreds of documents from mobile and social media stakeholders including research firms, Wall Street analysts, government reports, brands and agencies, newspapers, trade magazines, newsletters and associations, marketing and technology journals, mobile and social media books, and online sites dedicated to mobile and social media trends. More than one thousand public and private companies operating in the mobile and social media market were identified.
About PQ Media
PQ Media is a respected leader in emerging media research and econometrics. While there are bigger research firms, none have PQ Media's proprietary and proven econometric system – PQ Medianomics, of algorithmic models, data collection techniques and analytical approaches to track, analyze and forecast spending, growth, consumption and trends across 20 major segments and more than 100 sub-segments of the global media, entertainment and communications industries. Importantly, this enables PQ Media to put mobile and social media growth in context to the overall media economy.
Our research methodology is driven by our SpendTrak™ and UsageTrak™ databases, as well as our exclusive Global Opinion Leader Panel™, which together layer the impact of key industry data and variables, including economic, demographic, behavioral, technological and regulatory, with ground-level insights from key industry thought leaders. Rather than use outside interviewers, PQ Media analysts conduct all interviews with senior executives on its worldwide panel. This ongoing marketplace listening process provides PQ Media with priceless business intelligence and rich forward looking insights for all those who support our research reports.
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