In the UK there are more phones than people. Globally there are twice as many mobile phones than computers. According to research recently released by First Direct, The UK’s 45 million adults share almost 70 million mobile SIM cards (phone numbers) and over 71 million handsets – an average of 1.6 mobiles per adult! Research by the bank found that only 12% of adults have no mobile phone.
Almost half make do with just one mobile phone, but 40% of us now have more than one number. An extraordinary one in ten (9%) have more than four mobile numbers and handsets. Such a ready market has not been lost on our friends at Google. The internet giant is attempting to drive take-up of mobile pay-per-click advertising by allowing brands to extend their existing search campaigns onto mobile for free. Advertisers will be included in the trial for a two-month period, after which they will be charged per click on mobile keywords unless they opt out. Unsurprising then that the Nielsen Monitor Plus has just reported that US ad spend has gone into reverse for the first half of 2007, with radio and newspapers the worst hit, whilst according to the Internet Advertising Bureau, UK paid-search revenue grew by 52% last year to reach £1.2bn. With TV advertising revenues in decline and mobile phones outselling PC’s and TV’s by a considerable factor I think many brands will be watching these developments very closely!