INTERVIEW: InMobi's Robert Woolfrey talks mobile advertising

In worldwide research into mobile advertising, Asia came out top, with 69 per cent of those surveyed saying they were comfortable with mobile advertising. Asked why this was, Woolfrey said he believed people in Asia were just more comfortable overall with their mobile devices. “People are always browsing on their mobile phones here in Asia,” he said.

The study also found that mobile advertising had the ability to influence consumers who shopped on their mobiles particularly in product categories like entertainment tickets, consumer electronics and apparel.

Having established people’s comfort levels, he said InMobi took its research to the next level by looking into mobile shopping and m-commerce at the global, regional and market levels.

In Singapore, 52 per cent of people have already shopped via mobile, and while the majority of that was on digital purchases, he said the interesting fact was that buying consumer electronics and travel was already over the 10 per cent mark. “They already exceed the mark that the PC took so long to get to,” he said.

At the Asia-Pacific regional level, 80 per cent of those surveyed had shopped via mobile, surprisingly putting Singapore behind the curve in that respect. Woolfrey says that this is probably due to high penetration of PC’s in Singapore – shopping via mobile tends to be higher in markets with lower PC penetration.

In terms of take-up of mobile advertising, Woolfrey says part of InMobi’s job is to educate agencies and brands, hence a lot of their research is to help fill a gap. “There’s not a whole lot of consumer insight into mobile advertising in market today.”