Mobile marketing is going to make some major moves in 2013 - just not how most imagine.
Following up on our list of Top 10 Mobile Marketing Initiatives of 2012, it's time to look at some trends we'll see emerge and/or evolve in the year ahead.
Among the most prominent (not necessarily in this order):
5. Mobile Advertising Picks Up Speed (For A Time)
According to Forrester Research, mobile ad spend will boom next year - to $15 billion. Why? Because consumers now spend 10% of their media consumption time on mobile devices, yet mobile attracts less than 10% of ad dollars. The firm reasons that the old school Internet's ad growth from 8% of spend to 22% of spend means mobile must follow course (even though marketers get less and less from that increased Internet spend). But, the firm says, even a small step toward closing the gap will mean big dollars for this medium.
I'm not completely convinced. As a marketer, I find mobile advertising a bore (even some of the newer, much hyped expandable ad units). As a consumer, I find it all a snooze fest.
Mobile's far more powerful than just trying to replicate ad models from the old school Internet and... Read more
Tagged 'apps' 
A Technology Revolution: Personal Finance Apps
The average person using a personal computer to track their personal finance information is nothing new. Quicken has been around for years and boasts millions of users. However, as the capabilities of smartphones increase, the growth of mobile apps, specifically those which aid in securing users’ personal finances, has revolutionized the industry.
And personal finance is something that could use a little attention in the US. Many Americans are currently mired in debt and some 16% have no idea at all of what their spending habits are. What is of more concern is interest in personal finance, it seems, tends to deteriorate as people age and finances become more complicated. Only 10% of baby boomers are truly engaged with their finances.
The Rise of Mobile Apps for Personal Finance
In many ways, the ways in which users are now able to revolutionize their finances are endless. Thousands of different applications currently exist. For example, the most popular personal finance app, Mint, helps their 9 million users who want to keep track of their spending, like Jennifer Hudson, make a budget and track their spending by category, which makes it much easier for users to see when they are overspending. Mint also informs users... Read more
Auto’Mobile’ Marketing Driving the Innovation Highway
The statistics1 are overwhelming. This year:
• There are 1.2 billion mobile Web users worldwide
• All mobile phone users will reach 242.6 million
• 94% of smartphones users will be mobile internet users
• Mobile internet users will reach 113.9 million
• Mobile shoppers will reach 72.8 million
• Tablet users will reach 54.8 million
• iPad users will reach 41.9 million
• In the U.S., 25% of mobile Web users are mobile-only
We all know mobile is big and we all know it has enormous marketing potential. What many advertisers don’t yet know (and what’s probably more overwhelming than these statistics) is the most effective way to harness its power.
It’s understandable given challenges such as complications with the myriad of handsets and technologies available, privacy and spam concerns, tiny supplies of valuable ad inventory and obstacles to streamlined mobile commerce.
It’s also understandable why this year, mobile ad spend continues to represent a mere 1 percent of total worldwide ad spend. And why last year, more than half of companies surveyed (58 percent) said they don’t even have a mobile strategy primarily because they’re not sure how to get started2.
What we all seem to clearly understand, however, is that the more consumers buy and use smartphones and tablets, our ability as marketers to leverage this... Read more
App-athy
According to ABI Research, smartphone owners around the world will download about 36 billion mobile apps in 2012. That’s an average of almost 37 native app installs per user! Even with this tremendous usage, ABI estimates that app download numbers will decrease over the coming years.
Why the decrease? The staggering numbers listed above may be to blame. Smartphone users are overwhelmed by the variety of mobile apps available. What app is best? Should I download the free app or spring for the paid app? I should probably download an app to complete x, y and z, right?
While the iTunes App Store isn’t likely to disappear any time soon, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to sift through the 500,000 apps in the App Store, let alone other app sites. If a business “category” is already heavily populated, you might not even find an app that would be best suited for your needs.
After all of this back-and-forth, you have probably downloaded more apps than you can use which are now taking up precious memory on your phone.
The app clutter becomes overwhelming resulting in what I like to call “app-athy.”
How should you avoid this app overload? Here are a few questions to consider:
Why am... Read more
