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Mobile Marketing - 2011 Mobile Marketing Predictions - Road to Barcelona

In this series we’re profiling top mobile industry trends in the run-up to Mobile World Congress 2011.

The potential for the mobile marketing and advertising channel is vast. ABI Research forecasts an unprecedented opportunity for growth in the market, projecting global spend will reach $28.9 billion by 2014.

One of the hottest areas of mobile marketing is mobile coupons/vouchers. According to a study by JiWire, consumers rated coupons and discounts as the most valuable feature of location-based services after GPS and maps. As consumers become more conditioned to sharing personal information – thanks to Facebook and Foursquare, among other services – they are more willing to hand over location and behavioural data in exchange for personalised, contextual offers. This presents a huge opportunity for both operators and brands, from global to local.  

Near-field communications (NFC) is also a promising technology for mobile marketers. NFC enables consumers to receive information, offers and pay for items by touching their handsets to special Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals. With a host of new NFC-compatible devices set to launch at Mobile World Congress and rumours that the iPhone5 will also be equipped with the technology, it will not be long before NFC-powered coupons and offers are part of daily commerce. In Japan, McDonald’s is an early adopter: users who have downloaded the McDonald’s app receive a weekly email with a list of coupons and promotions and can download coupons to their mobile wallet and redeem with a touch. 

Mobile social commerce is going to make marketing even more powerful. Applications of social commerce range from the rather impersonal Groupon app which allows users to redeem group-buying offers directly from mobile devices to deeply personal recommendations based on a user’s social graph. Facebook Deals, which was introduced in Europe this week, lets merchants create offers for users who check-in on Facebook Places. Newcomer Whatser has plans to roll out features on its LBS social recommendations app to enable brands, publishers and local businesses connect with consumers. (Disclosure: Whatser is a client)

Of course this is only the beginning. Mobile offers up a whole new range of opportunities for marketers and operators to reach consumers, from loyalty schemes to in-app advertising to digital goods to multimedia. MWC offers four sessions that will be of interest to marketers this year:  

Mobile Advertising: Integrating Mobile into a Broader Advertising Campaign – 2pm Tuesday 15th February

Mobile Advertising: How Effective is Multimedia Mobile Advertising? – 4pm Tuesday 15th February

Mobile Advertising: Delivering Personalised Advertising and Protecting Privacy – 2pm Wednesday 16th February

Mobile Advertising: How to Make In-App Advertising Work – 4pm Wednesday 16th February

Posted by Annie Klein on February 4, 2011 at 1:02 PM