With mobile devices becoming mainstream, it’s clear that much of our behavior is shifting towards digital content on these mobile platforms. Smartphones are used for several activities including reading email, social networking, finding information, coupons and scanning QR redeeming coupons, staying up-to-date, shopping and of course, being entertained.

Mobile commerce in the entertainment industry including those in television, films, games, and home entertainment is gaining attention. As per a report from Gartner, worldwide mobile display advertising spending is expected to grow from $1.8 billion in 2011 to approximately $13.5 billion in 2015.

Millennial Media, commissioned with mobile measurement firm, comScore, released the Mobile Intel Series: Entertainment report detailing how entertainment brands can use mobile to reach and engage consumers, what leading entertainment brands are doing in mobile today and current trends of mobile entertainment consumers’ behavior.

Mobile Entertainment Audience

According to comScore and Millennial Media’s report, consumers engagement with entertainment content and ads on their mobile devices is increasing. These include access to movie information, viewing trailers, and buying tickets, checking TV show times and engaging with mobile social media sites during shows, as well as pre-ordering and buying DVDs, video games, and digital downloads.

Based on the findings, smartphone owners are most likely to access entertainment content on their device, but tablets encourage even more engagement, with 22 percent of the mobile entertainment users more likely to own the larger-screened device.

Hispanic users are 39 percent more likely to view mobile entertainment content than the overall smartphone audience. African-American consumers are 10 percent more likely to access mobile content. In the U.K., consumers originating from Asian countries are three times more likely to access Kids & Family Entertainment content than the overall smartphone audience.

Purchase Behavior

The report suggested that the amount of entertainment content accessed on mobile devices increased 82 percent from December 2010 to December 2011.

Consumer digital category is the most frequently purchased via mobile devices (47 percent of all mobile shoppers).  It’s followed by tickets for movies, concerts, theatrical productions, and sporting event (37 percent), daily deals (35 percent), gift certificates (34 percent) and electronics goods (also 34 percent).

Cable and network television advertisers on the Millennial Media platform are consistently promoting their shows to drive sales.

Mobile Spending in Entertainment Vertical

Finance was the leading global brand advertising vertically on the Millennial Media platform. But when it comes to Entertainment, it was the third leading mobile advertising vertical on the Millennial Media platform, ranked by spend. The spending in the Entertainment vertical grew 133 percent worldwide from 2010 to 2011.

Large-scale entertainment brands are using mobile to run campaigns to promote theatrical releases, soundtrack releases, DVD and digital releases, and associated merchandise sales. Campaigns promotion related to theatrical releases made up 43 percent of all entertainment campaigns on the Millennial Media platform, while TV shows and DVD releases were the 2nd and 3rd most popular entertainment campaigns.

Moreover, 55 percent of all mobile spending and mobile campaigns had the goal of promoting a launch or release of film debuts, DVD, games etc. Movie and music studios, TV networks, game developers, and Home Entertainment brands, use mobile platform for engaging consumers over long period of time.

Content-based Brand Advertising

Entertainment brands are targeting behavioral, local, demographic, content-based, and tactical audiences to optimize their reach.

For example, according to the report, movie studios and theater chains use location-based targeting to deliver locally-relevant, dynamic content like movie showtimes, and new releases. Nearly 71 percent of all entertainment campaigns give consumers the option to watch a video as a post-click action. One-third (31 percent) of entertainment campaigns used content-based audience targeting.

Nearly three-quarters (71%) of entertainment campaigns incorporate video, such as interactive video and click-to-video ads, to get consumers to interact with the ad content. In addition, 27 percent of entertainment campaigns used mCommerce, which was more than double the average for all advertisers.

Millennial Media’s Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART) report for 2012 released in June also highlighted the key global trends and campaign goals for brands, where most campaigns on the platform allowed the consumer to download an app as a post-click action.