A Research on the Four Types of Mobile Advertising and the Impact of the Mobile Advertising Strategies

This section presents, analyzes and discusses the findings of this research by focusing on two main aspects, namely the four types of mobile advertising mentioned in the previous sections (i.e. E-mail advertising, social media, pop- up advertising and interstitial advertising) and four main mobile advertising strategies, namely app advertising, "go local", Google and Facebook and targeted adverts. The impact of mobile advertising on young people will also be evaluated. Interviews were conducted for ten days and twenty questionnaires were answered. The sample consists of university students aged between nineteen and twenty-five.

Since all participants own a mobile phone, they all understood the questions and the theme being explored. Most importantly, they were all familiar with mobile advertising and were patient enough to answer each question and to share their experience with and views on mobile advertising. Also, during the interviews a few difficulties were encountered. For example, some respondents couldn't understand the questions and did not know some of the types of mobile advertising being investigated. Out of the twenty-five open-ended questionnaires that were returned to the author, only twenty were deemed suitable for this study in view of their clarity and relevance to the research.

This section illustrates and analyzes the findings of this research in such a way to evaluate participants' attitudes towards and views on four types of mobile advertising.

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E-mail Advertising

Interview data revealed that eighteen respondents use their mobile phones to check their e-mail and that sixteen participants have two e-mail accounts, a university-associated one and a personal one. Only two respondents claimed to use just one account. Interviewees observed that the main reason why they check their e-mail on their phone is because they like seeing notifications when a new email is received. This applies to their University-associated e- mail accounts as well, as if tutors have very important messages they can conveniently read them on their mobile phones. They maintained that checking their E-mail on their computers is more difficult than checking it on their phones. Interview data also revealed that young people who use mobile E-mail have received E-mail adverts at least once.

This was mainly because they purchased something on an e-commerce shop and their e-mail was added to the shop's newsletter list. A significant number of young people claimed that they usually read such e-mails, mainly because they are usually sent after they have registered on certain websites in order to receive information about upcoming sales and promotions. If people don't want to receive e-mails from a certain brand, they can easily cancel their subscription. Usually when a consumer purchases from a brand for the first time, the website will ask them to agree to receive information about sales and promotions.

However the research revealed that young people prefer reading promotional emails from brands and shops that they are interested in. Such promotional messages can also help them learn more about the company and the brand. A particular respondent noted that her buying decisions are highly affected by the promotional e-mails that she received, to the extent that when she receives a promotional message from a brand, she usually ends up buying from it.

Social Media Advertising

All respondents claimed to have a Facebook account, seventeen have an Instagram account and nineteen have a Twitter account. They all agreed that Facebook is a very important social communication tool for them as it allows them to connect with the people they know, communicate with them in a convenient way and find out what is new in their life. All respondents claimed to follow at least a brand's official page and that if they like a particular company, they are willing to follow it on Facebook and Instagram. If the brand launches a promotion, the consumer will find out in a very short time as when they log into their account, they will find the update on the home page of the website.

With regards to the impact of social media on young people, gender, habits, personality and environmental factors play an important role in defining this relationship. For example, six female respondents claimed to follow many luxury brands on Instagram and to care about fashion. Their interest in fashion mainly stems from the fact that the majority of their friends are interested in luxury fashion, which clearly suggests that young people influence each other through social media platforms.

Young people enjoy sharing messages and images of amazing luxury products, promotions and recommendations about shopping, which is why they always pay close attention to those luxury accounts to make sure that they are always informed about the latest trends and events. Five male respondents claimed to be particularly interested in sports and to follow football and / or basketball stars or some sport brand such as Nike. Out of these five male respondents, three explained that they usually go to the gym and, therefore, need to purchase fitness products.

Pop-up Advertising

Pop-up adverts usually appear on the screen when people open an APP. Interview data revealed that the majority of young people don't like pop-up advertising, mainly because they don't like it when adverts pop up on the screen while they are playing games or using Apps. Such adverts can be so annoying that users may even get angry when they pop up and wish that they did not disturb them. Ten respondents said that they are interested in learning

how to stop pop-up adverts from appearing on their mobile phones and seven others said that they wish they could stop pop-up adverts altogether. Because these adverts appear on the screen very suddenly, many people find the content of the adverts unrelated and disturbing and hope that the adverts disappeared quickly. With regards to the influence of pop-up advertising, interview data suggests that it does not have a significant impact on users, as they are not patient enough to read the adverts carefully.

In fact, most of them tend to close the pop-up window as soon as it appears on the screen, whether it is a promotional message or a short video. Moreover, if a video requires users to watch a short promotional video of 10 to 30 seconds, most consumers are likely to close the page. Two respondents even said that if they can't avoid watching the pop-up video, they will directly close the APP and open it again. Also, it appears that pop-up videos are widely perceived as boring and useless, which is why most consumers are not patient enough to watch them.

Interstitial Advertising

Questions about interstitial advertising also focused mainly on YouTube videos. Even though interstitial adverts appear on many different websites and Apps, YouTube is the most popular video website in the world and uses such adverts quite often (eBizMBA, 2015 [online]). In fact, before being able to play a video on YouTube, users are required to watch an interstitial advert while the video loads. However, the consumer can skip video ads after 5 seconds. All interviewees claimed to have the YouTube APP on their phone. Moreover, British consumers tend to have the YouTube App pre-installed on their phones. (Pocket-lint, 2011).

YouTube can locate the user in order to play local adverts. Surprisingly, fifteen respondents claimed that they not dislike the interstitial advertising, mainly because initial adverts are usually interesting and videos are high quality. Moreover, six respondents said that being the adverts meant for their specific location, they can convey relevant information and are easy to understand.

Also, 9 interviewees said that they not dislike adverts because they can usually skip them after 5 seconds. If the Internet connection is not particularly fast, they may wait 20 or 30 seconds and use this time to watch the promotional adverts. Three respondents claimed that they do not appreciate interstitial advertising and two others specifically said that they don't like YouTube adverts, mainly because their Internet connection is not fast. If they play a high quality video, interstitial adverts are more likely to pop up.

Mobile Advertising Strategies

This part analyzes the primary data collected for this study and discusses it in view of the theories and perspectives evaluated in the Literature Review. The observations presented in the following sections may help advertisers to learn more about the impact of advertising on consumers' behavior. From this aspect it can be understood how adverts promote products and services and what impact each strategy has on consumers. There are have four strategies to analyze.

This strategy encompasses pop-up advertising and interstitial advertising. During the interviews, a respondent observed that after downloading an App, she usually receives pop-up adverts, whether it is a gaming App or not. Moreover, such adverts may appear upon opening the App, as well as whilst utilizing it. For example, when playing Sudoku, i.e. a popular Japanese game, an advert popped up on the screen, while when using a London Tube App, an advert popped up while she was checking a map. Most interstitial adverts tend to appear before playing a video. A respondent observed that such adverts may appear at different times depending on the App being used.

Local advertisers can invest in local APPs in order to ensure that consumers understand the message being relayed. The most important aspect of go local is language. Next in importance are culture and religion. The advertiser needs to engage consumers in order for them to be willing to view the advert. As previously explained, YouTube has certain settings that locate consumers in order to adapt promotional messages to their location. This way, when the user plays a video, the website will only display adverts meant for their particular location. However YouTube is not the only website that adopts this strategy, as other APPS like the Line and Facebook also use it.

During the interviews, a respondent stated that when he start using Line, a message saying "could you allowed to Line follow your location?" appeared on the screen. If the consumer selects "yes", local adverts will be displayed. The go local approach is needed to receive more support and understanding from consumers. In addition, some APPS identify the consumer's current location to play local adverts. In this regard, an interviewee noted that this technique is used when users go on holiday and adverts are automatically adapted to their new location. E-mail advertising, on the other hand, is more "local" in nature, as when a customer purchases a product online, they can leave their email address to receive a confirmation link, as well as updates and promotions via e-mail.

This strategy exploits the potential of social media. As previously mentioned, Facebook is the most popular social communication media in the world. This platform allows users to easily communicate with their friends and find out what is new in the lives of the people they know. In view of these considerations, it is no surprise that all interviewees claimed to have a Facebook account and to check it almost every day, when they have some free time. According to the high frequency with which Facebook is used, it is evident that Facebook has gained great attention especially among young people.

Therefore, when a brand has an official Facebook page, it may use this powerful channel to promote its products using different advertising strategies in order to maximize its chances to engaging its target audience. Google is the world's largest search engine to which people turn when they have any question (Bevan, 2015). Sometimes, Google displays adverts on the pages that show the user's search results. According to an interviewee, this approach makes it easier for advertisers to capture users' attention. This is one of the reasons why brands often advertise on popular social media platforms and Google.

This strategy allows advertisers to target specific consumer groups. Different organizations have different goals and target audiences, which is why targeting can help them to achieve their strategic goals by reaching their target consumers. For example, Vertu is a luxury smart phone brand which targets consumers who appreciate expensive mobile devices that can be used as status symbols (Charlton & Schwab, 2015). Moreover, targeted adverts can be designed in such a way to reflect the organization's overall image.

This advertising strategy enables organizations to target specific genders, age groups, countries, religions, educational background, social status, income level and cultural background. However, in view of the goal of this study, more emphasis will be placed on young people, who are usually associated with clubbing, gaming and so on. Gender and age are two essential factors that need to be taken into consideration when choosing a target audience. For example, the majority of boys are interested in playing online games on their mobile devices, such as clash of clans. Online games like this one can be linked to users' Facebook accounts in order for them to invite their friends to sign up and to play with them. In addition, the mobile game is very convenient to play as mobile devices can be carried around all day.

The findings reported in this section demonstrated that mobile advertising has remarkable potential and that different mobile advertising strategies can be used to reach young people. Different strategies can also be combined. For example, a gaming platform could combine targeting and social media advertising in order to attract more players. Also, interview data revealed that young people tend to influence each other as a result of their curiosity. Their age, gender, educational background, family, social environment, culture and so on also affect their decisions. This study has also revealed that gender, habits and personality traits should also be taken into consideration when planning a mobile advertising campaign.

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