Just one year after the GSMA launched their trial program aimed at generating cross-operator mobile advertising metrics, they have released some preliminary information from the collaborative effort. The joint project had all 5 UK operators (Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, 3, O2) providing usage data to the GSMA (see the MobiAD article announcing the program GSMA and Mobile Operators Join To Measure Mobile Advertising).

The objective of the project was to provide cross operator data on mobile browsing, while maintaining subscriber privacy and anonymity.

One year after the project kicked off, the GSMA has released some results to give an idea of what they will eventually be able to provide. This information was put together in conjunction with the comScore who has been a partner in the project.

One of the key findings is a list of the top 10 mobile sites visited, compared with a list of the top 10 online sites. The interesting thing about this list is that it includes subscribers from the 5 major UK networks.

The mobile operators sites were lumped into a single category (perhaps to avoid competitive comparisons), and scored at the top of the list with 68% of subscribers visiting. In second place were the Google sites, followed by Facebook. In addition to these top 10, over 160,000 additional sites were measured during the study.

There is also some very specific information about mobile browsing behavior and user demographics:

• Facebook visitors spent 24 minutes per day on the site, visiting an average of 3.3 times per day. This compares with internet Facebook visitors who average 27.5 minutes per day and 2.3 visits per day.
• Mobile browsing is especially heavy in the morning hours, with 22% of browsing between 7am and 10am, This compares with 11% of internet browsing during the same hours.
• The mobile audience is tilted towards a youth audience, with 48% between 18 and 34 years old. This compares with 40% for the internet, and 29% for the TV audience.

“The mobile phone has the potential to offer relevant, personalised advertising on a level that has largely been unattainable until now,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Board Member of the GSMA. “This potential can only be achieved if mobile is part of a sophisticated, integrated approach to advertising. The rich data delivered through this programme will enable advertisers to create truly comprehensive, cross-platform media plan and campaigns.”

The next stage of the project will be the commercial launch of an audited mobile measurement service, expected in the second half of 2009.