Ads boom, while social declines... inevitable?

With the mGaming and mSports Summits just around the corner on 24 April, it is interesting to see that two big things have happened that will have an impact on both these industries – and of course beyond – that perhaps take everyone in the telemedia industry by surprise: mobile advertising is actually starting to boom and established social media is starting, ever so slightly, to wane.

Mobile advertising has been growing slowly for the past decade but, much as has been the case in retail and commerce, it has finally come into its own. Brands are really getting it now and thanks to consumers doing every more on mobile rather than PCs, its reach is extending.

This of course is great news for anyone running any sort of premium mobile service as it offers a perfect storm of offering access to punters at the point of use.  But for gambling and sports in particular it offers the way to reach out to users, create new service – and to develop a lucrative revenue stream of their own based around the services they offer on mobile above and beyond just the content.

Much of what will be covered in the mGaming and mSport Summits will centre on the commerce and marketing paradigms offered up by mobile and for once this won’t be pie-in-the-sky, but will be grounded in something tangible.

No wonder then that Weve – the joint venture between the networks in the UK to pool their databases to offer a better marketing platforms – is essentially telling businesses they are going to be left out if they don’t sign up… or is that just marketing? I’m a cynic about Weve, but they will be at the mGaming Summit on 24 April, so I shall ask them.

But perhaps tempering the joy of mobile marketing finally breaking the £500m mark, is a worrying global study that suggests that “the kids” aren’t “down” with Facebook, Twitter and the like any more. No this doesn’t spell the end of social media as we know it, but it does give pause to those that are betting the farm on social. They can reach a lot of people, but unless you seed the youth market, you will be using social to reach ageing gits like me… and we have cash, but are as tight as you like.

The whole realm of social will be tackled on the 14 April at the summits, but it wil be vital that the experts on hand get to tell us all where the next social media platform is lurking…. Let’s hope their teenage kids have shared this with them and not just grunted incoherently from beneath Harry Styles hair while staring disconulately at their Vans.

To find out the answers to these tricky questions – and much much more – sign up here for the Summits