For CPGs, Mobile Ads meet Awareness Goals.

Experimenting with various mobile advertising tactics has helped CPG marketers stand out among other industries. As consistent spenders in the mobile advertising space, Millennial Media reported that from 2011 to 2012, the consumer goods vertical grew 235% on its platform. In addition, a study by comScore and Millennial Media found that the vertical’s primary goal of driving brand awareness is a core reason for expanded reliance on the mobile platform.

According to comScore and Millennial’s findings, when compared with all advertisers, 46% of consumer goods campaigns worldwide in 2012 focused on brand awareness, while only 14% of advertisers across all verticals focused on the same goal for their mobile ads. Other common goals among consumer products advertisers were site traffic and sustained in-market presence.

Because CPG brands are primarily purchased in physical stores, awareness-focused campaigns are typically more effective than direct response.

Based on their growing sophistication in the mobile ad space, CPG advertisers are becoming more adept at burgeoning mobile tactics like mobile video advertising, mobile social media and location-based mobile ads. Millennial and comScore also noted the calls-to-action embedded in mobile ads. Mobile actions vary but commonly direct users to watch a video or visit the brand’s social media page. In fact, 44% of CPG advertisers implemented video as a post-click campaign action, compared with only 16% of all advertisers. Moreover, 34% of CPG mobile advertisers used some sort of social media post-click action, compared with only 18% of all advertisers.

For CPG advertiser Procter & Gamble, mobile video advertising is a beneficial tactic to drive user engagement.

For a Tide NFL campaign, P&G used mobile video ads that also asked users to submit their favorite team colors in a social way. “We try to look at every mobile ad through a mobile-specific lens,” Eric Gruen, fabric care digital brand manager at Procter & Gamble North America, told eMarketer. “We look at mobile video as an opportunity for us to engage with consumers in a medium they use quite frequently. We know NFL viewers are constantly checking scores, checking their fantasy football standings and reading team news. With mobile video specifically, we were able to take a lot of what we were doing in traditional media, whether it was a specific team activation or our national TV spot, and bring it to life in the mobile platform.”

eMarketer expects mobile video advertising will reach $518 million this year, and that spending will nearly double, to $925 million in 2014. The US CPG and consumer products industry will spend $3.53 billion on digital advertising as a whole this year. That number will tip $4 billion in 2014.

For more information at http://www.emarketer.com