Mobile devices continue to be a significant advertising channel according to recent research GfK Technology recently undertook in the UK.  The proportion of consumers who had received some form of mobile advertising stood at 47%, fairly consistent with the findings from Q2 ’09.  The big shift is perhaps the growth of iPhone as a staggering 84% of iPhone users say they have seen mobile advertising in the last 3 months vs. 45% of all other mobile phone users.

SMS continues to be the dominant form of mobile advertising with 38% of UK consumers receiving at least one in the last quarter.  It’s therefore not surprising that network operators are putting significant investment into this area with O2 launching their SMS marketing service, More, in December and Orange partnering a trial with Blyk mid ’09.

Work that GfK has undertaken in this area identifies a number of criteria that brands need to consider in order for this form of marketing to be most effective.  GfK recruited a number of consumers to an opt-in ‘panel’ to trial mobile advertising.  Although this took place some time ago, the findings are just as relevant today.  The key findings included: