This is the final presentation for a semester-long project I worked on with eight other seniors at Loras College in a Marketing Research class. We wanted to determine how our peers perceived advertisements within mobile applications. Overall, we discovered that most of our peers viewed in app ads as a "necessary evil"

1. LORASSTUDENTOPINIONS
ON
ADVERTISINGINAPPS
PRESENTED BY:
Jim Daly, Justin Giacotto, Marykate
Halm, Josh Kutzke, Dana Matykiewicz,
Austin Overmann, Ximena Duque Roa,
Zach Satterlee, and AndrewWampler

2. OVERVIEW
• Background
• Methodology
• Qualitative Research
• Quantitative Research
• Key Findings
• Limitations
• Recommendations
• Conclusions

3. BACKGROUND

4. BACKGROUND
• Huge growth in mobile advertising
• 1.86 billion people own a smartphone
• By 2019 that number is expected to be over 2.6 billion
• The influence of advertising on perception on apps
• Types of advertising occurring
• The type of apps that people use most
• Opinions on ad blocking

5. GROWTH IN MOBILE ADVERTISING

6. AVERAGE NUMBER OF APPS USED IN A MONTH
AND AVERAGE AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT

7. CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD APP

8. LITERATURE REVIEW
• Corporations have taken advantage of the developments
in mobile technologies
• Mobile device usage is very high mobile advertising can
reach more consumers
• Mobile advertising gives corporations competitive
advantages

9. LITERATURE REVIEW
• Mobile internet advertisements are divided into three
groups.
• Short message (SMS) advertisements
• Mobile video advertisements
• Mobile calling advertisements
IN 2013 NEARLY
OF 18-34 YEAR OLDS OWNED A
SMARTPHONE
80%

10. MORE ON MOBILE ADS
• Can be done using a variety of channels
• Concerns: Relevancy
• Ad Blocking: Is it ethical?
• Corporations pay big money
for those ads
• Many apps rely on
advertisement money
as their main source of
revenue
1
2 3
MOST POPULAR APPS

11. NATIVE ADVERSITING
• What is it?
• A form of paid media where the ad experience follows the
natural form and function of the user experience in which
it is placed.
• Why do apps use them?
• Why are they becoming popular?
• Mobile Branding
• 97% of media buyers report native ads effective at achieving
brand goal

12. MOST EFFECTIVE DIGITAL ADVERTISING
FORMATS IN THE UNITED STATES IN 2014

14. METHODOLOGY

15. METHODOLOGY
• Determine Research Problem
• Learn more about LC students and use of smartphones
• Choosing a topic
• LC Students Attitudes towards advertisements within apps
• Hypothesis
• Execute Design
• Research (Literature Review)
• One on One Interviews
• Questionnaire
• Focus Groups
• Communicate Results
• Today’s Presentation
• Research Report

16. 0 1-2 3-4 5-6 7+
Loras Student Opinions on Advertising in Apps
1. Do you own a smart phone? Yes _______________ No ________________
If No, do you use Apps through another type of device? If yes, please list type of device
______________________________________________________________________
2. How often do you use your cell phone/smart device per day (in hours)?
3. Please list the five Apps you use the most? (Excluding texting & calling).
1. _________________________________________
2. _________________________________________
3. _________________________________________
4. _________________________________________
5. _________________________________________
4. How likely would you be to pay for an App?
Very Likely Likely Maybe Not Likely Never
5. I only use free Apps
QUESTIONNAIRE

17. 3. _________________________________________
4. _________________________________________
5. _________________________________________
4. How likely would you be to pay for an App?
Very Likely Likely Maybe Not Likely Never
5. I only use free Apps
Yes __________ No ____________
6. In App advertising is ______ (For the following please check the words you believe best describe)
___ Informative
___ Annoying
___ Boring
___ Necessary
___ Dependable
___ Disturbing
___ Useful
___ Unreliable
___ Enlightening
7. Should App users be allowed to block advertisements?
Yes _____ No_____
8. Ad blocking is:
Ethical 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Unethical
Helpful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Unhelpful
Necessary 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Unnecessary
QUESTIONNAIRE

18. QUESTIONNAIRE
I buy many apps for my smart phone/device
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
I always click “skip ad” when given the option
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
The ads I receive correlate with my interests
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
I am influenced by the ads that pop up in apps
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
I pay to remove ads completely from apps
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
I delete an app if it does not allow me to skip
advertising
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
I look for similar apps that do not have
advertisement
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
I click on ads within Apps
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
9. For the following questions, answer using the scale listed after each question:

19. QUESTIONNAIRE
Male Female Age _______ Year in School _____________
I look for similar apps that do not have
advertisement
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly D
I click on ads within Apps
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly D
11. Please fill in the following information about yourself:
10. Please finish the statement
I feel that mobile advertisement is …
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

20. QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH

21. FOCUS GROUP
Going in we wanted to accomplish 3 things:
1. Discover keywords and themes for our questionnaire
2. Are there any stories that exist about ads
3. How often did people use the ads to buy or shop
5 Male Participants 6 Female Participants

22. FOCUS GROUP TAKEAWAYS
• Themes we discovered
• Ads are annoying
• 11 of 11 always click “Skip Ad”
• Social media had more “native
advertisements”
• Ads that appear as regular posts
“I’ve noticed recently with updates toTwitter and
Instagram the ads almost appear as other posts
and so as you are scrolling through posts you may
notice the word ‘sponsored’ or ‘promoted’ but it
doesn’t impact my enjoyment of the apps so it
doesn’t bother me.”

23. FOCUS GROUP TAKEAWAYS
• Other apps aren’t so good at hiding their ads
• Ex. ESPN andYouTube
“I was using theYouTube app on my phone when trying to show my
roommates theTravi$ Scott performance on Jimmy Kimmel and before
the video even loaded we had to watch a 30 second ad for the new Adele
song who I don’t even like. The worst part is the ad loaded just fine but then
when the video I actually wanted to share with her was supposed to play
it didn’t load. I then tried to reload it and I was greeted with another ad. I
gave up at that point and never showed the video to my roommates.”

24. FOCUS GROUP TAKEAWAYS
8 11of
participants said ads were annoying
ONE PARTICIPANT SHARED A
POSITIVE STORY RELATED TO WAZE:
“I just never find them
beneficial or about things
that I care about”
“I was using Waze over the summer in Chicago
and I was really low on gas. Thankfully Waze
has paid promotional advertisements that
showed me where the nearest gas station was
and I was able to make it before I ran out.”

25. ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEWS
• Conducted 9 interviews
• Males and females of varying ages
• Students had prior exposure to mobile advertisements
• Each lasted anywhere from 30-50 minutes
• Used probing questions

27. • Entertaining or useful
• Attitudes and feelings
• Usage
• Engagement
• Frequency
• Personalized advertising
• Permission and privacy
• Free vs paid apps
ONE-ON-ONE TAKEAWAYS

28. QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH

29. OBJECTIVES
1. Determine the most-used apps among Loras students
2. Determine Loras student attitudes towards the content of
mobile advertisements they receive
3. Measure Loras students’ attitudes towards ad blocking
software
4. Determine the willingness of Loras students to spend
money on mobile apps
5. Determine if demographic variables influence attitudes
towards mobile advertisements

35. LIMITATIONS

36. • Sample size
• Inability to control age of sample
• Repetition
• Survey takers inability to read/understand
questions
LIMITATIONS

37. RECOMMENDATIONS

38. • More research
• Better targeting
• Expanding age of sample
• People understand its necessary so use more of
native advertising in apps
• Varying advertisement content
• Use more retargeting & behavioral methods
RECOMMENDATIONS

39. CONCLUSIONS

40. • In-app advertising is a necessary evil
• Native ads are viewed as the least invasive and most
acceptable
• Disagreement on the ethics of ad blocking
• Only a small portion of our sample size was willing to
pay for ads
CONCLUSIONS

41. THANKYOU
QUESTIONS?