Mobile Marketing Finally Comes Into Focus

Heather Wall - April 10, 2009

For the longest time, it seemed there had been more articles published about the benefits and strengths of mobile marketing from a promotional perspective, than articles showing the number of advertisers actually marketing in the channel and respectively, consumers using mobile devices.  However, in spite of the economic recession, there has been a pretty drastic upswing in the number of consumers buying and employing mobile technology. I have been paying close attention to the hype vs. the consumer usage, and I believe mobile marketing is finally coming to a point where data can be used to support a very compelling case for it.

Comscore recently released a study which indicates consumer use of mobile devices to get the latest news and information via the web doubled between January 2008 and January 2009. Even more interesting in reading the Comscore article, the most widely used websites on mobile devices were social networks and blog sites.  (Very interesting.. seems like I stumbled upon my next blog topic…)

I have to say it’s refreshing to hear that even in a shrinking economic market, there has been positive growth in both the purchase of mobile phones, and marketer’s willing to advertise in the channel.  Market indications are also showing this growth should continue over the next 5 years at a steady rate.  In 2008 estimated mobile ad revenues were 648 million, and are anticipated to growth to 3.3 billion annually by 2013, as reported by E-Marketer. 

Marketers that are looking for channels to advertise in should add mobile marketing to their mix.  Consumers are spending more and more time online via these devices. Also, search engines and 3rd party vendors are creating easier ways for you to create mobile ready ads. One word of caution in getting started, it is important to do your homework first. In order to have presence in the mobile world, you need to be sure your web pages and advertisements are mobile device compatible. Each mobile device employs different types of technology which means a webpage that works for an I-Phone may not work for a Blackberry or a Samsung.  This may be one of the biggest obstacles, but well worth the learning curve!