COVID’s impact is being felt across all media channels, but mobile has remained the fastest grower at a time when the channel is being used more than ever, with nearly all marketers (94%) surveyed in a new report considering mobile ads effective.

This is according to the State of the Industry: Mobile Marketing in EMEA 2020, an annual report based on a survey of 596 marketing professionals across 26 markets in EMEA carried out in April and May 2020 by WARC on behalf of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

“The findings of this year’s survey reveal that despite reduced budgets bought on by COVID-19, mobile marketing remains the fastest-growing channel providing opportunities, such as mobile video, e-commerce and gaming, for brands to effectively engage with consumers,” says Amy Rodgers, Managing Editor, Research & Rankings at WARC.  

Mobile’s growth story, in which 49% of marketing professionals – up nine percentage points from 2019 – said they will allocate more than a quarter of their budget to mobile advertising, confirms WARC adspend forecasts that mobile will continue to be the biggest driver of growth. However, as the chart below shows, COVID has hit mobile budgets, too, with projections almost halved. Just 39% of marketers plan to increase their budgets in this area.


A key element of this remaining mobile investment, however, will be in mobile video with 50% of budgets going to that format. Despite the realities of lockdown measures around the world, the mobile has remained one of the favoured media devices, as evidenced by the rise of apps such as TikTok.

Mobile has consistently ranked as an effective medium among marketers over the last five years, with 94% saying as much this year. And though the COVID-19 outbreak has reduced budgets, the initial signs are that mobile advertising has been less affected than desktop advertising, with marketers seeing higher levels of effectiveness on mobile due to increasing usage.


“This is our fifth year in publishing this report that is designed to give comprehensive insights and guidance for marketers, agencies, and media owners alike with data to benchmark their clients and peers, gain guidance on marketing and mobile trends, and identify future challenges and opportunities, especially based on this most unusual year,” said Chris Babayode, Managing Director, MMA EMEA.

Sourced from WARC/MMA