Nielsen and MMA prepare to measure the value of mobile

Nielsen and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) are preparing to launch their joint bid to measure the economic value of mobile advertising as the trade body aims to bolster the profile of the media among brand-side marketers.

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The pair are preparing to launch SMoX.me (Smart Mobile Cross Marketing Effectiveness) which they claim is the industry’s first panel-based research study of the effectiveness and economic value of mobile advertising as part of a wider multi-media campaigns later this quarter.

SMoX.me will help brands optimise their campaign budgets to accommodate the shifts on media consumption, especially the trend towards mobile devices, as mobile advertising budgets are expected to hit $11.4bn this year according to Gartner.

Currently, the pair are in the final stages of finalising the study’s methodology although Marketing Week understands this will involve exposing three separate panels to varying degrees of mobile advertising within the context of a wider multimedia campaign.

The amount of mobile advertising exposure will be the only variable within the study and participants, the intended size of the panel remains unclear, will then be quizzed to measure metrics such as brand awareness. Later in the year, the study will attempt to measure further metrics, such as actual sales.

Paul Berney, MMA’s CMO and managing director for EMEA, says: “We’re 99 per cent of the way there with the methodology and what we aim to do is work out the economic value of mobile [marketing] against [spend] on other platforms such as the internet and other media.”

Nielsen was unable to provide a spokesperson on the scheme by time of publication when contacted by Marketing Week. Although an earlier release by the company announcing the initial pairing said SMoC.me will help marketers gain further insight into how they should invest their budgets as digital media consumption migrates towards mobile devices.

The same release also announced that Coca-Cola and Colgate-Palmolive were backing the study.
News of the impending launch also comes a week after the MMA announced the formation of its Executive Marketer Advisory Board, a body of brand-side marketers, primarily based out of the US at present.

At launch, the board’s membership includes Mondelēz International (Bonin Bough, VP global media & consumer engagement), Unilever (Rahul Welde, VP of media) and Wal-Mart (Wanda Young, senior director of social media strategy).

Last week, Marketing Week revealed that UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM) and comScore were preparing offer marketers a combined view of media consumption including mobile for the first time later this month.

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