Global Mobile Advertising Opportunities: Brazil. Russia, India & China

Global mobile advertising is projected to rise 37.4 percent in 2014 to reach spending of $18 billion.

Brazil and Russia will be among the front-runners of this growing industry, as technology advances and large emerging economies stabilize. Meanwhile, mobile advertising in China and India will increase heavily due to expansion of the middle class.

Here's an overview and some tips on mobile advertising opportunities in BRIC nations.

Brazil

The number of smartphone users continues to grow in Brazil. Almost 16 million smartphones were purchased in Brazil in 2012 and another 21 million bought in 2013. It was projected that 5 million tablets would be purchased in 2013 and that about 67 million Brazilians would utilize the mobile Internet.

This evidence clearly shows the importance of implementing mobile advertising campaigns in Brazil.

When delving into a mobile campaign in Brazil, take note that the leading operating system for smartphones is Android. Android dominates the industry by making up 56 percent of the market share with Nokia following with 31.5 percent of market share.

Brazilians are receptive to mobile advertisements, according to Nielsen's Mobile Consumer: A Global Snapshot study. Brazilians enjoy ads that: Contain geographically relevant information Don't send them to a website out of the app. Give them access to free content. Use simple text or multimedia.

Most Brazilians use smartphones for gaming apps, social media apps, and maps.

Russia

Although Russian mobile Internet has been a step behind Western markets, it is rapidly growing. Brands that have taken the lead in the Russian market for mobile devices include Apple, Nokia, and Samsung. Apple having 34.7 percent of the market share in 2012 demonstrates iOS as the dominant mobile operating system in Russia and the most common version is iOS 5.1.1.

Moscow accounts for 40 percent of all mobile Internet usage in Russia, according to Anna Oshkalo of Russian Search Tips. With nearly half of the total mobile Internet usage in Russia, Moscow proves to be the area to target.

In terms of click-through rates, the average for mobile ads in Russia falls between 0.2653 and 0.2808 percent. When it comes to the leading mobile devices, which includes the iPad and iPhone, Apple far surpasses average CTR. The CTR for mobile ads targeted to Apple devices is .46 percent.

A mobile advertiser must be ready to spend a good amount of money for a high CTR and the large demographic. The Apple iPad is the most expensive device to target and costs about 5.44 Russian Rubles, which is the equivalent of $17 U.S. It is no surprise that the second most expensive device to target is the Apple iPhone and has a cost-per-click of approximately 3.47 Russian Rubles the U.S. (equivalent of $11 U.S.).

India

India is another emerging market in mobile advertising. With more than 50 percent of mobile devices for employees being purchased by themselves, and with the projected 70 percent of professionals using smartphones by 2018, mobile advertising will continue to grow.

With the extensive mobile Internet usage throughout the country, mobile advertising is a great strategy for the massive amount of Indian startups. Startups can assist marketers to determine and pinpoint ways to segment users and messages. Specifics of segmenting users can become as refined as targeting passengers at the airport waiting for a delayed flight.

The key to India is that digital marketers and advertisers need to embrace the importance of social media via mobile. Social media is more personal and has become about conversations. Advertisers should find a way to be a part of these social media conversations due to the fact that social media has helped push social shopping online in the country.

Mobile advertising has reached a major turning point in India, not that it wasn't there ahead of Western countries. Retailers have begun marketing campaigns on mobile social media now along with their desktop based Facebook campaigns. The mobile advertising tactics are proving to accelerate the influence and fulfillment of consumer demand and their collaboration with offline strategies (billboards, for example) is much to be admired.

China

Online marketing will increase to 1,000 billion Yuan by 2015, according to China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). The estimated online spending demonstrates the growth and importance of the industry in China.

Online marketing in China falls into two obvious but separate categories: mobile online marketing and desktop online marketing. Mobile online marketing is developing at a higher speed to keep up with the growing audience who'd rather use their device then head into Internet cafes. Mobile Internet users in China are accessing the mobile Internet far more times per day than desktop users, showing that marketers and advertisers have more opportunities to reach their target audiences.

Many types of ads, such as interactive ads, are being developed in the Chinese market. The most common active mobile ads are mobile search ads (Baidu, Qihoo360) and display ads.

Mobile SEO will grow due to 77 percent of smartphone users who utilize Google's Android to surf online (and you thought Google wasn't a player in the Chinese market).

One major driver in the use of Chinese mobile is text to speech. Because of the Chinese language's many dialects, typing in keywords is difficult for the average surfer (e.g., "weather forecast" has more than 200 different variations)

The "discount ad" is one of the most effective display ads amongst the Chinese population. This type of ad can be placed as a banner in apps, such as in gaming apps. Chinese customers tend to be highly price sensitive, so discount ads can prove to be helpful to the company that distributes them via in-app advertising.

Another advantage that Chinese mobile advertising offers in comparison to other types of advertising is the ability to distribute mobile ads based on the location of the user. If an advertiser wants to target a specific customer in a specific area, then the advertiser has a more refined way of doing that with mobile ads. Any company can utilize discount ads by placing them in areas that its preferred customer would be located.

Summary

There is no arguing that mobile advertising is on the rise. Russia, India, Brazil, and China all prove to be establishing a better base of mobile advertising due to the constant growth these countries are experiencing.

With the benefits that mobile advertising offers, such as targeting location and a large audience, advertisers and marketers throughout the world, especially in the elusive and emerging BRIC nations, should begin implementing mobile marketing campaigns and strategies.

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