Mobile Marketing Growth

Yesterday we looked at Social Media and its predicated impact in 2011. Today we turn our attention to mobile devices. I say mobile devices, as I am keen to emphasise that mobile has moved beyond the phone. We have the ipad, the ipod touch, Amazon’s Kindle and many more mobile products to launch this year. All of this means another year of massive growth in mobile marketing. Where there are eyeballs are going, the advertisers will no doubt follow. If you want a flavour of how mind boggling the stats around Mobile Growth are right now then have a look at Mobi Thinking.

What struck me about all the information contained in this stats page was that sometimes commonality within mobile users is difficult to pin down. For example – some countries respond to SMS opt ins while other countries respond to mobile ads. There is no one solution for targeting mobile device users. It brings me back to a previous point I have made on the blog – mobiles are personal and personalised devices. That is what makes them so powerful. Individuals have an intimate relationship with their phones, hence why advertising and marketing via this channel is so effective.

One of the things I am keen to emphasise about mobile is that it is still an evolving advertising market. Ways to use this channel will change as advertisers and marketers find the best way of reaching the market. You only need to look at how advertising developed from the newspaper page to the computer screen to know what I am talking about. Initially online advertising was very similar to the adverts you would normally see in the paper. It was not uncommon to see flat, one dimensional, black and white adverts. They evolved over time as marketing teams realised that audiences respond differently to online as they would to print. Hence, the initial adverts for mobile were the banners, MPUs and buttons we came to know and understand as online adverts. What was clear was that for a screen the size of a mobile these adverts do not work. New forms of mobile advertising and promotion are being developed as I type to meet with demand of both the buyer and the expectation of the consumer.

Mobile is a great opportunity for Geo-Targeting marketing – which I’ll talk more about on Monday. Just to touch on it quickly however, the very nature of this personal and personalised device makes mobile marketing a dream for small local companies. For them, the benefits are clear – marketing to people, looking for their service, in their area cuts down on the “wastage”. Mobile means advertisers do not need to take the scattergun approach to advertising and can instead target marketing and promotions to those who might use them.

Mobile growth will spur on the whole advertising market. It will lead to innovations in promotion and marketing, it will further geo-targeting, and by the end of 2011 there will be little you cannot do from the comfort of an app via your phone. Those who use smart phones are early adapters and are therefore more likely to take risks or buy on impulse – if you want to see you work rewarded quickly then mobile is the place to experiment.

Ready to tear up your 2011 Marcomms plan yet? Tomorrow we discuss how garnering sales intelligence from social media can help your business, wait until then before revising.