Marketing outlook mobile driving the bandwagon

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CONTENTSPAGE

3 INTRODUCTION: By Giselle Tsirulnik

4 2012 will be the year of tablet advertising By Chantal Tode

6 Location, 3D ad creative and social to dominate mobile ad strategies By Rimma Kats

8 Ad agencies will embrace the marriage of digital and physical in 2012 By Chantal Tode

10 Mobile no longer a peripheral thought for banking By Lauren Johnson

12 Mobile marketing offers carriers significant opportunities in 2012 By Lauren Johnson

14 Retailers will struggle with mobile point of sale payments in 2012 By Lauren Johnson

16 Mobile content needs to be practical, useful and resourceful By Rimma Kats

18 Marketers shift from building databases to successfully engaging them By Rimma Kats

20 Fragmentation will continue to haunt mobile email marketing in 2012 By Lauren Johnson

22 Brand integration in mobile gaming will drive mobile commerce By Rimma Kats

PAGE

23 Which will be the most discussed mobile legal issues in 2012? By Chantal Tode

25 OEM focus on smartphones in 2012 to leave feature phones in the dust By Chantal Tode

27 Publishers to eye mobile monetization in 2012 By Rimma Kats

29 Loyalty and rewards programs will rely heavily on SMS/ MMS in 2012 By Lauren Johnson

31 Music industry must set focus on mobile discovery in 2012 By Lauren Johnson

33 Mobile stats to remember in 2012 By Rimma Kats

35 Local, social will play prominent role in search By Lauren Johnson

37 Who will win the mobile, social war in 2012? By Rimma Kats

39 Mobile payments, social mcommerce and QR codes will dominate in 2012 By Chantal Tode

41 More TV programming to use mobile, tablets to complement viewing experience By Lauren Johnson

43 A year in pictures By staff reports

PAGE 2 Mobile Marketer MOBILE OUTLOOK 2012

Mickey Alam KhanEditor in [email protected]

Giselle TsirulnikDeputy Managing [email protected]

Chantal TodeAssociate [email protected]

Rimma KatsStaff [email protected]

Jodie SolomonDirector, Ad [email protected]

Lauren JohnsonEditorial [email protected]

INTRODUCTION


Mobile steamroller transforms content, commerce and marketing

Many brands and retailers who did not jump aboard the mobile bandwagon in 2010, learned from their mistakes and took mobile more seriously in 2011.

Marketers built mobile Web sites, developed apps, engaged consumers via rich-media mobile advertising, drove loyal-ists in-store via mobile database and CRM efforts and dab-bled with new, sexy mobile technology such as QR codes and augmented reality.

Predictions for 2012What should marketers expect in the year ahead?

Mobile payments will make headlines for most of 2012, as Google Wallet has paved the way for innovation in the space.

Mobile advertising will grow to be healthy in terms of dol-lars spent. New ad units with more engagement opportuni-ties will increase spend in the channel.

SMS will continue to be the No. 1 channel for cultivating loyalty, as consumers become more open to opting into da-tabases and hearing from their favorite brands regularly.

Fragmentation will continue to be a problem in 2012 as more devices pop up. Marketers will continue to be chal-lenged by this.

Marketers will place a larger emphasis on smartphones, leaving feature phones as an after-thought. With smart-phone proliferation expected to grow exponentially in 2012, it is no surprise that marketer’s will follow consum-ers to engage and excite them.

Social media will play a crucial role in mobile market-ing initiatives, as brands and retailers alike realize the importance of word of mouth in a world where consum-ers are comfortable sharing opinions and insights with one another.

Location-based advertis-ing will be a hot topic in 2012 and will likely be on regulatory radar.

Mobile search will be in-creasingly important in 2012 as the number of mo-bile-optimized Web sites skyrockets. Google will

Mobile advertising, marketing, media and commerce will have a bright 2012 as consumers increasingly

rely on their mobile devices daily to shop, learn, research, play and engage.

have a large part in growing the mobile Web ecosystem and therefore driving mobile search dollars.

The guideThe 2012 Mobile Marketer Outlook is spot-on in terms of what marketers can expect in the mobile medium in 2012.

The insight and analysis by reporters and industry execu-tives shines light on mobile’s opportunities.

Thank you to reporters Chantel Tode, Rimma Kats and Lauren Johnson for writing these insightful articles. Also, much appreciation to all of the mobile mobile executives that took the time to provide feedback and insight. This would have been impossible without you all.

This is the fourth Mobile Outlook and is featured on http://www.mobilemarketer.com for all of 2012. Read it from cover-to-cover. Learn from the best practices, how-to’s, forecasts and case studies within. Share the guide will friends, family and colleagues.

Best of luck in 2012 and beyond.

Giselle TsirulnikDeputy Managing EditorMobile Marketer

As marketers learn more about what mobile advertising can offer, they are allocating a greater portion of their spend to mobile ads and have higher expectations, ad networks will be competing to meet expectations to win business.

“Going into 2012, mobile ad networks that find a way to execute the latest creative and targeting capabilities at scale will have a big advantage in 2012 as we expect more players to enter the space or existing smaller play-ers to converge,” said Susan Kuo, InMobi, San Mateo, CA. “Those with the global footprint and technical and creative expertise in these areas will ultimately prevail.”

Pressure is onAd networks will also be under pressure to better target mobile ads and improve ad creative.

In 2012, creativity and bigger and better rich media ini-tiatives will be an important part of every ad buy.

“The mobile advertising industry continues to grow at a rapid rate,” said Amy Vale, vice president of mobile mar-keting for Mojiva, New York.

“Technology integrations between the creative en-ablers, ad servers and ad networks will make the whole process a lot easier, thereby taking mobile far beyond the ‘experimental’ portion of the ad spend that has been seen in years gone by,” she said.

“I think we will see more companies roll out new ideas, new ad units and new executions, all so that advertisers can differentiate in this medium and get the best possi-ble ROI for their spend, whether it be based on brand lift, conversions or any other campaign objective. HTML5 is also opening creative floodgates in mobile advertising.”

2012 will be the year of tablet advertisingBy Chantal Tode

Mobile ad networks will be under pressure to deliver better creative executions and wider campaign reach in 2012 as many brands move


beyond the basics of mobile advertising.

Competition in the ad network space will heat up next year as firms such as Millennial Media, Jumptap, InMobi and Mojiva compete with the leaders in the space – Apple’s iAd and Google AdMob – for a portion of the resources being funneled into mobile advertising.

Mobile ad fundingIn 2011, several ad networks received an infusion of cash to help build out their mobile advertising offerings and will look to use the funding to help them compete for growing mobile budgets as well as try to take advan-tage of opportunities such as continued grumblings that Apple charges too much for the placement of ads via its mobile ad network iAd.

There will be significant opportunities for those ad net-works that can offer engaging and rich brand experiences via mobile to large audiences.

A growing opportunity for ad networks in 2012 will be tablets, which are being scooped up by consumers in growing numbers and are quickly changing users’ media consumption habits.

“Tablets will become an even larger opportuni-ty,” said Anne Frisbie, vice president and manag-ing director for North America at InMobi, San Fran-cisco. “We expect to see this double in the U.S., and will deliver strong results for both brand and performance marketers.”

Tablets will be a popular gift during the holiday season, which will help create an even bigger opportunity for brands to reach consumers via mobile ads on tablets.

The payoff can be significant for ad networks and brands that tailor their mobile advertising for the tablet experience.

Consider the tablet experience“We are seeing and will continue to see a demand for ‘all things tablet,’ – both advertisers and users love the big-

AD NETWORKS

ger screen and richer experience tablets offer,” Mojiva’s Ms. Vale said. “Some ad units built specifically for tablets are experiencing phenomenal user engagement because advertisers are really thinking about tablet differences compared to other devices and how content and media is consumed.”

This is an exciting time for mobile, when all players have an opportunity to gain from exponential growth.

As a result, expect ad networks to investigate a myriad of strategies intended to help them stand out and grab a bigger share of mobile ads.


“In a market that is beginning to saturate mobile, ad net-works are challenged to define their niche,” said Harald Neidhardt, chief marketing officer of Smaato, Redwood Shores, CA.

“I would recommend to invest in technology leadership and carve out a remarkable and dominant place in a role as either premium- or reach-oriented, U.S.-centric or international scope and excel from this position by working within industry bodies to push the envelope to grab more market share for the mobile advertising ecosystem as a whole and therefore grow the market together,” he said.

While 2011 was the year of engagement, 2012 will be the year of relevance. If consumers are served a mobile ad that does not interest them nor uses their device’s GPS functionality, then they will be less inclined to click on it.

“Right now, there’s less friction all around,” said Tom Limongello, vice president of marketing at Crisp Media, New York. “New technology is making it even easier for users to interact with mobile ads.

“If 2010 and 2011 was about touch gestures, 2012 will be more about accelerometer enacted rotation of 3D ad creative assets, and potentially voice activated controls for iOS and Android devices,” he said.

“Also, now that iOS and Android both have notification trays, it’s even possible for publisher apps to communi-cate with users more often, which may mean that spon-sors could push notifications from time to time from advertisers without breaking the social contract with its users.”

Commerce into playThe main challenges of mobile advertising is not brands are not using location-based technology or thinking about relevance.

Consumers increasingly have their mobile devices on them and running targeted ads with information that would appeal to them would not only help build that brand and consumer relationship, but have the user fur-ther engage with a mobile ad.

Additionally,with iOS and Android now close to 15 per-cent of all Web purchases, it is clear that 2012 will bring a new focus on mobile commerce – not from near field communication, but from digital commerce.

Location, 3D ad creative and social to dominate mobile ad strategies By Rimma Kats

Brands and marketers are realizing the impact that location plays in their mobile advertising strategy. Location-based technology will be the key driver in


not only bolstering in-store traffic, but also a good way to serve relevant and targeted mobile ads to on-the-go users.

“I think the innovation for 2012, will be that we start to see commerce functionality creeping into rich-media advertisements more and more for digi-tal goods as well as some low to mid cost physi-cal goods segments, such as food and even clothing,” Mr. Limongello said.

“I think the challenge will be to move brands from the content building phase where they fo-cus their budgets on building sites and apps to the media phase where they spend their budgets on media,” he said.

“Also, technology issues behind deploying conversion tracking either on sites or for when users move from app to app have held back online segments from spending

ADVERTISING

more on mobile, specifically the travel segment has been slow to move from test budgets to ROI driven budgets due to lack of conversion tracking capabilities.”

Overall enhancementAdvertisers should try to leverage their real-time feeds and social profiles in mobile banners to make their ads as dynamic as possible.

“RSS feeds or APIs are useful branding tools not only for daily deal sites or credit card companies, but for in-stance, auto or CPG brands who sponsor events such as March Madness,” Mr. Limongello said.

“Interestingly, there have been a lot of uses of live feeds in desktop advertising, there has been less demand on mobile, potentially because logins are more difficult for social media on mobile,” he said.

“However, if pub-lic feeds were pulled directly into rich media advertising pan-els, this approach also makes it pos-sible for users to see the brand in-formation before they are prompted to login.”


Above the restAlthough many brands are still not realizing the poten-tial of running targeted mobile ads, others are leading the pack.

Victoria’s Secret has been running mobile ads for a while. The ads drive traffic to its in-store loca-tions, as well as its mobile apps and mobile-optimized commerce-enabled site.

Recently, the company realized that running targeted, location-based ads is effective to getting that consumer to click the ad.

“With the expected usage growth among advertis-ers becoming more mature, we expect 2012 to be an exciting year for mobile advertising,” said Kim Lu-egers, director of mobile and emerging media at Pandora, Chicago.

“We expect many of the industry shaping orga-nizations such as the IAB and MMA, along with their members, to make great strides in assisting with overcoming the many challenges mobile ad-vertising faces such as measurement and ad unit standardization,” she said.

There will be ongoing maturation of the mobile advertising marketplace in 2012 as mobile solidifies its presence as a valuable and viable marketing channel.

“You have to embrace it,” Ms. Luegers said.

Some agencies have not been as aggressive in mobile as others because of challenges creating and executing mobile campaigns at scale. However, with big brands such as Coca-Cola, Walmart, BMW and others active in mobile over the past year, agencies recognize that they need to continue to build out the mobile services they offer with either in-house capabilities or by partnering with third-parties.

“The pace of the technological revolution is not de-termined by technology only but also by our willing-ness to use it – this year, we saw a significant change in behavior,” said Hugh Boyle, global head of digital for OgilvyAction, New York.

Mr. Boyle points to the appearance of national televi-sion ads during primetime showcasing how a brand’s app works. For example, British supermarket chain Tesco ran a spot in 2011 that focused on its app. Mr. Boyle said this points to the significant role that mobile plays for consumers.

“An app being advertised is not about early adopters,” Mr. Boyle said. “Marketers are being cognizant of the fact that people have smartphones in their pocket and are happy to use it if it is useful to them.”

As mobile continues to rapidly evolve, agencies will need to master mobile compatibility, mcommerce, messaging and location-based services.

Agencies are also responding to the significant changes in consumer behavior that are being driven by growing mobile penetration.

Larger focus on mobile marketingWhile 2011 was the year that brands and their agencies

Ad agencies will embrace the marriage of digital and physical in 2012By Chantal Tode

A dvertising agencies in 2012 will be looking to in-corporate mobile in a bigger way into their brand strategies, following a year in which smart-

phone penetration grew significantly and initial efforts found success.

focused on bringing branded content and utility at the point of purchase to mobile, one area of focus in 2012 will be on bringing mobile marketing to more consumers and products.

“In 2011, the penetration and use of smartphones has gone through the roof across all groups,” Mr. Boyle said. “For an ad agency, this means that mobile is a channel we can use for more products than last year and more groups than last year.” Since women still typically hold the household’s purse strings, agencies will need to pay close attention to fe-male mobile users in 2012.

Mobile Marketer MOBILE OUTLOOK 2012PAGE 8

ADVERTISING AGENCIES

Currently, most women use their mobile phones primar-ily for basic communications, according to research from agency JWT. However, that could start to change.

“You will see the mobile phone evolving into a woman’s Swiss Army knife, helping her manage all her identi-ties – mom, daughter, boss/employee, wife, friend – and responsibilities – making social plans, shopping, paying bills – simultaneously,” said Ann Mack, director of trend spotting for JWT, New York.

“As a result, brands will need to create seamless experi-ences optimized for mobile and local,” she said.

The marriage of digital and physicalAgencies will also be well served by developing mobile programs that integrate digital with physical.

Mobile is a great way to bridge the physical with the digital because users can interact with real world prod-

ucts and marketing materials via mobile devices.

QR codes and augmented reality are also exam-ples of how agencies can use mobile for a real-world connection in mobile.

“The future is very much in the electricity between the digital and the physical,” OgilvyAction’s Mr. Boyle said.

“Treating mobile like a standalone technology is a mis-take,” he said. “Treating it as an integrated part of peo-ple’s lives is the right way to do it.

“Our recommendation is to look at ways to use mobile to interact with physical stuff.”

Dual-screeningA related trend that will pick up more steam in 2012 is the way that consumers increasingly consume me-dia and engage with their mobile phones at the same time.

“In the year ahead, you’ll see marketers creating more experiences designed for simultaneous consumption and engagement,” JWT’s Ms. Mack said.

“People are no longer interacting with media and tech-nology in a focused, linear way,” she said. Rather, they’re chatting on Facebook as they watch TV, texting while flipping through a magazine, gaming on their mobile while listening to music.

“Brands should steer attention between one medium and another in a continuous loop, timing secondary content to stream alongside primary content.”


Mobile no longer a peripheral thought for bankingBy Lauren Johnson

Experts agree that 2012 will be the year that mobile will become an essential part of marketing mixes for financial institutions and payment companies.

In particular, mobile advertising will increasingly be used by banks and financial institutions to spread the word about mobile services. Banks and institutions will continue to rely on mobile to develop easier banking solutions for clients.

“One of the key things we are focused on its making sure we are servicing our customers when they go to mobile,” said Russ Eisenman, head of mobile marketing and partnerships at JPMorgan Chase, New York.

“Every year, our numbers double with the amount of consumers using our mobile services and we are focused on continuing to build our mobile browser, applications and SMS programs in 2012,” he said.

Quick bankingAccording to Mr. Eisenman, Chase’s quick deposit app feature, which lets consumers snap a picture of a check to deposit, has generated 2 billion depos-its since launching in 2010, showing that consumers are relying on mobile for everyday banking.

Chase’s mobile strategy with apps is focused on being on every platform for its consumers, and in 2012 the financial institution will roll out apps on more devices including BlackBerry products and for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet.

In 2011, big and small financial institutions focused on translating online banking to mobile for both consumers and business clients.

Now that financial institutions have mobile services such as apps, the challenge for banks will be keeping them updated with features that are relevant and useful for consumers.

Similar to other areas of mobile, fragmentation will con-

tinue to be an issue for financial institutions looking to reach the most consumers.

HTML5 is rumored to help solve fragmentation problems in 2012, but it is still unknown how effective the tech-nology will be for app developers.

“From a marketing point of view, the biggest challenge is looking at mobile standards because fragmentation hurts us in order to be an effective ecosystem,” Mr. Eisenman said.

“As soon as the market starts to stabilize, we will start to see an increase in development,” he said.


BANKING AND PAYMENTS


Market on mobileAs more consumers have adopted to mobile devices in the past year, including tablets and smartphones, finan-cial institutions need to start putting more of an empha-sis on mobile to beef up their other digital channels such as social media.

For example, this year ING Direct Canada ran a mobile advertising campaign that asked consumers to “like” the bank’s Facebook page to play games that unlocked prizes.

“I think 2012 will be the year that mobile is no longer a peripheral thought for most marketers,” said Mark Nicholson, head of digital and interactive at ING Direct Canada, Toronto.

It will take on a more prominent role in the marketing strategy, and marketers will look to create engaging cross-platform initiatives and experiences,” he said.

2012 will also see an increase in both consumer and business clients using mobile to manage their money. Additionally, consumers will be looking for multiple mobile platforms to bank on, whether it is done via mobile applications, Web sites, push notifications or SMS programs.

“In 2012 ING Direct will look to create more value for clients in the mobile space,” Mr. Nicholson said.

“We will do this by launching new features that will en-hance the experience and drive everyday interaction and usage,” he said.

“With respect to mobile advertising, we will continue to invest and test new ways to engage Canadians uncon-ventionally, specifically for the mobile channel.”

he massive upgrades undertaken by wireless net-works in 2011 will help encourage consumers to move more activities from a tradition wired T

By Chantal Tode

CARRIER NETWORKS

Mobile marketing offers carriers significant opportunities in 2012

The combination of increased smartphone penetration, greater bandwidth speeds and consumers who want to shift behavior to mobile will provide significant opportu-nities for marketers next year. Wireless carriers will build on their efforts to roll out faster networks to subscribers by simplifying and improving the ability for marketers to reach consumers via their networks with ads, games and other unique content.

“Organizations, large and small, public or private, are looking to find mobile-supported revenues,” said Rob Russell, director of mobile marketing solutions at AT&T, Dallas. “These trends are top of mind with our customers, regardless of the direction of economy at large.

“As a leader in wireless, AT&T is poised to support and spread mobile marketing solutions among business-es and consumers,” he said. “We plan to continue in-novating in the ways that matter most to businesses in 2012 to further the momentum we have seen this past year with business adoption of mobile applications and services.

“Whether our customers are looking for global machine-to-machine communications or mobile marketing solu-tions, we’ll center our efforts on the areas that provide significant return on investment and help businesses work better.”

Bar code opportunityOne of the opportunities AT&T sees in 2012 is with 2D bar codes.

“Bar code scanning is making huge strides in the industry by preloading scanners on our devices,” Mr. Russell said.

“AT&T has a vision to move the industry toward interop-

erability between bar code scanning technologies and enable seamless interactive marketing,” he said.

Next year will also see greater standardization by wire-less carriers to simplify mobile marketing.

Protecting consumersAlready, carriers have been working with organizations such as the Mobile Marketing Association, Interactive Advertising Bureau and others to create a standard ap-proach to mobile marketing that protects consumers while enriching their mobile lives.

Next year the fruits of these efforts will begin to appear.


Internet connection to their mobile devices in 2012.


“That step signifies the importance these carriers place on providing their subscribers with the services they want, when they want them, while protecting their pri-vacy,” said Jean Foster, vice president of marketing for carrier services at Neustar, Sterling, VA.

“Carriers are well aware of the mobile dynamics at work and are positioning themselves to support the forthcom-ing tidal wave of mobile marketing,” Ms. Foster said. “Privacy becomes a concern.

“Furthermore, we expect carriers to explore new ways to add value to their subscribers with additional network intelligence and functionality.”

Content is kingOne important area of opportunity for wireless carriers next year will be in enabling the delivery of engaging content to subscribers.

With smartphones expected to overtake feature phones in 2012, the desire for more content is growing and re-flects the need for wireless networks to look beyond SMS.

“Mobile carriers have spent vast resources to upgrade their infrastructures to support the surge in mobile traffic,” Ms. Foster said.

“It is paramount to their future that mobile car-riers deliver intelligent content with that to add value and monetize their investments,” she said. “By achieving success here, opera-tors will develop further brand loyalty with their subscriber base and begin to monetize their resources.”

“Today the primary form of mobile marketing is still done via SMS. This is the most basic mobile functionality and while it allows brands to reach consumers on-the-go, it does not provide the same engaging content as other data streams able to be delivered via a wireless connection.”

One form of content that will be a big focus in 2012 is mobile video.

“The surge in Internet traffic related to YouTube shows consumers’ love of video,” Ms. Foster said. “Industry fore-casts expect mobile video traffic to continue its steep pace of growth.

“The challenge and opportunity is for mobile carriers to help brands turn this obsession with video into mobile marketing,” she said.

“[The convergence of social, local and mobile is a trend that] captures the move by consumers to shift their so-cial lives to mobile and to make it locally relevant.”

Additionally, retailers and merchants need to view their mobile properties differently from their Web properties in 2012. In order to move forward, retailers need to tie mo-bile payments with incentives that encourage consumers to use their mobile device, including mobile coupons and loyalty programs.

“Merchants and retailers will continue to face the issue of redemption at the point of sale,” said Chip Fishburne, vice president of mobile commerce services at Firethorn Holdings, Atlanta.

“The mobile consumer continues to hear of the options for mobile payments, but the merchants are waiting to see what mode of payment will be broadly adopted,” he said.

Mobile catch-upAccording to a Juniper Research study, smartphone ship-ments are expected to reach one billion by 2016.

As mobile device usage continues to grow, consumers will have higher expectations in 2012.

In order to catch up with consumers, businesses will need to take bigger risks and develop a complete mobile strategy around payments.

2011 was the year of mobile payments for small-ticket items, such as transportation tickets or food and bev-erage purchases, which was largely spurred by the in-troduction of Google’s mobile payment program, Google Wallet.

Google Wallet works with merchants and retailers to set up a mobile payment solution using a mobile app that consumers can add money to via a credit card or by cre-ating a Google Prepaid card.

Retailers will struggle with mobile point of sale payments in 2012 By Lauren Johnson

Despite the rise in mobile commerce and payments this year with advancements in initiatives such as Google Wallet and NFC, retailers will continue to

Since launching in September, retail-ers including Jamba Juice, Gap, Ameri-can Eagle Outfit-ters and NJ Transit have begun using Google Wallet.

In particular, con-sumers will begin to purchase bigger-


COMMERCE

ticket items such as apparel on their mobile devices in 2012.

However, retailers and merchants need to be more open to trying multiple mobile payment services in 2012 to find the sweet spot with their consumers.

“Don’t be afraid to place multiple bets and use exter-nal partners, stay closely engaged with consumers and how they are interacting with your brand across multiple channels,” Mr. Fishburne said.

“Make sure you give them options and clearly communi-cate the value of each,” he said.

Plan on commerceWhen consumers use a retailer’s application or mobile Web site, they are looking for more than just informa-tion - they are also looking for a unique experience that mimics their device.

With major brands and companies utilizing multiple mo-bile channels, consumers know they can get more out of their experience than an exact replica of a company’s Web site.

Not having a unique mobile experience is now an ex-pense that retailers cannot afford.

“The approach of replicating your online site is a mis-take that I see a lot of retailers making,” said Roger Un-

struggle with point-of-sale mobile purchases in 2012.


derwood, senior vice president of ecommerce operations and technology at The Finish Line, Indianapolis.

“It’s important to understand how consumers are using their mobile devices and respond by building the proper services in order to fit needs,” he said.

Retailers will also need to tie their mobile commerce solutions to more real-time features such as inventory in 2012.

This year, The Finish Line introduced an application that let users find specific items at the nearest location.

In 2012, the retailer will continue to build a mobile strat-egy that differentiates itself from the company’s other digital efforts.

“I think 2012 is the year retailers look at mobile com-merce as an opportunity to engage consumers in a unique way,” Mr. Underwood said.

While rolling out mobile apps is becoming a daily thing, having a consumer download it and use it only once will not be good for the brand or the user.

In 2012, companies will need to find their own niche and build a mobile application that syncs with who their target user is.

“Mobile is no longer a novelty, it is a necessity,” said Judy Galani, product manager at XO Group Inc, New York.

“Practical, useful and resourceful is what our audi-

Mobile content needs to be practical, useful and resourcefulBy Rimma Kats

Mobile users are becoming more niche-focused with regards to smartphone applications and companies are realizing that new content will

ence is looking for, and we want to give them some-thing they will come to depend on,” she said. “The challenge is inherent in the opportunity – how do we organize our abundance of authoritative content in an easy-to-use way.

“We have so much to offer our audiences that there will always be another thing to develop and it’s a challenge to find the best way to do that.”

Interactive contentBefore companies launch a mobile app simply for the fact that their competitor has one or that they just want one, brands and marketers need to have a strong under-standing of who their audience is and who the app they are building is meant to reach.

Personalization is going to play a big role in 2012.

More apps, such as AOL Editions are letting consumers personalize the content that they want to see.

Letting users personalize the content they want to see when they open up a mobile application helps build user engagement.

“2012 will bring the expectation of complete accessibil-ity and a fully-synched user experience,” Ms. Galani said. “The user’s actions and information will translate seam-lessly from laptop to on the go.

“We will take personalization of content delivery a step further by utilizing inherent mobile technologies and le-veraging the consumer’s dependence on social media,” she said.

FrequencyGrowth in the number of mobile users and frequency of use will reinforce the importance of enabling content to allow customers the ability to view, transact and apply for our products and services.

The shifting mobile landscape and rapid changes in


CONTENT

succeed only if it addresses what the consumer wants to hear.

technology such as increased tablet and operating sys-tem availability and varied device capabilities, will cre-ate a challenging environment for industry leaders to maintain their current position.

Creating content that is appropriate for mobile devices will continue to be a challenge.

“We will continue to use mobile content to cross-mar-ket our products across all platforms while looking for ways to integrate with social media,” said Eli Winn, manager of enterprise Internet solutions at State Farm, Bloomington, IL.

“New form factors for mobile platforms, like television and automobiles will provide new and exciting opportu-nities,” she said.

Additionally, mobile content will need to be tailored


to the platform in order to provide the best possible customer experience.

Providing content that is meaningful and relevant will start to become a requirement rather than a good idea.

“State Farm will continue to focus on the consumer with our 2012 mobile strategy by providing additional access points that are easy to use, when and where the con-sumer needs our services,” Ms. Winn said.

“Our mobile content will be customer centric, providing solutions to address consumers’ expressed and antici-pated needs,” she said.

“In general, mobile marketers should monitor new tech-nologies in the mobile sector and look for opportunities to serve the consumer with simplified solutions that pro-vide value and are easy to use and access.”

Many companies have experimented with SMS mar-keting programs and found that the medium provided additional information about consumers and improved overall consumer engagement. Marketers were able to capture mobile phone numbers, provide relevant offers and information specific to the individual and measure that consumer’s response.

“Over the past year, mobile marketing has swept over the nation and many companies have invested substantial resources in building a mobile database,” said Shuli Lowy, marketing and client services manager at Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

“For those companies who have devised successful database building strategies, the goal will now shift from building a database to successfully engaging it,” she said.

“At the same time, we expect more and more companies to realize that the ability to remarket to consumers is one of the foundational distinguishing factors that sets mobile apart from other forms of advertising, and to be-gin database and CRM focused mobile campaigns.

2012 will see a major increase in the number of com-panies who are focused on mobile database building and CRM.

Growing databaseThe growing investment in database building and CRM is indicative of the spreading awareness of the effective-ness of marketing via SMS and of the many consum-ers who are engaging with companies through their mobile devices.

While this represents tremendous opportunity for mo-

Marketers shift from building databases to successfully engaging themBy Rimma Kats

Using mobile as an integral part of the CRM strat-egy will be a key trend in 2012, with more com-panies adopting common practices and new

tools, technology and data to fuel deeper engagement and relevance.

bile marketing companies who wish to grow their rev-enues, it also will bring along challenges – particularly that consumers are likely to be inundated with multiple mobile messages on a daily basis.

This may decrease the penetration level of each cam-paign and make it harder for advertisers to catch a consumer’s attention.

However, this also represents a real opportunity for marketers, as consumers will tend to remain subscribed only to those programs that are providing them with real value.

Companies who can really give their database sub-scribers what they want will find themselves with loyal customers.

“The overall focus for marketers should be to strive to build a relationship with each of their subscribers, in-stead of just blindly pushing out content to a database,” Ms. Lowy said. “This means they must be more creative in structuring their campaigns to ensure delivered content captures the consumer’s attention, and they should also


DATABASE/CRM

be sure that they are using platforms which allow them to effectively profile and target their audiences.

“From a marketing perspective, companies should con-sult with experienced industry experts to strategize their campaigns in order to ensure their messages are clear, desirable to consumers, and delivered at the optimal mo-ment,” she said.

“Above all, companies must remember that mobile in-teractions are powerful encounters which can generate very strong positive and negative reactions, and focus on generating a positive brand interaction in every contact.”

Brands and marketers are constantly looking for ways to target within their own database.

A big challenge is being presented due to the increase in traffic across short codes that are shared among brands, sometimes hundreds, and without much oversight by application providers.

Carriers are becoming increasingly sensitive to this in-crease, and continue to tighten requirements for compa-nies utilizing these shared codes,” said Randy Atkisson, executive vice president of sales and business develop-ment at Sumotext, Little Rock, AK. “Brands that are serious about their marketing efforts are already working with a dedicated short code,” he said.

Mobile effortsConsumers want the ability to choose how brands com-municate with them – even when they have signed up and opted in for multiple channels of communication, how and when the brand communicates with them is critically important.

Marketers have the opportunity to create customized, online preference centers that provide consumers with options for channels and messages that are relevant to their individual needs and lifestyles. In addition, one of the biggest opportunities for growth in the mobile channel is standard industry metrics and ROI measurement.

While some mobile programs are transaction-based and are measured based on the number of transactions and sales revenue, other mobile programs which focus on providing information or brand engagement struggle with how to measure success.

One way to overcome this challenge in 2012 will be to set key objectives for the mobile channel prior to creat-ing the CRM program.

“2012 will be different because even more brands are actively using or planning to use mobile as part of their marketing channel,” said Doug Yokoyama, vice president of mobile and emerging technologies at Epsilon.

“We will see significant growth as it relates to imple-menting SMS programs,” he said. “Marketers will be more focused on gathering consumers’ mobile phone numbers and driving them to participate in ongoing dia-logues with the brand.


This year expect to see email marketing being used with several mobile initiatives, including application down-loads, instant email sign-up and cross-platform features that load email quickly and efficiently regardless of the device users are reading their email on.

“With more and more consumers reading emails on mobile devices, marketers are now faced with the new burden of ensuring that their content renders reason-ably well across diverse devices,” said Manny Ju, direc-tor of product management at BlueHornet Networks, San Diego.

“Marketers do not yet understand the opportunities that the mobile context provides. They still treat mo-bile email as simply a formatting exercise when in fact, it is a whole new opportunity that the desktop cannot duplicate,” he said.

Untapped opportunitiesAccording to Mr. Ju, email is only being used in prelim-inary stages by brands and companies in their overall mobile initiatives.

Similar to other digital marketing efforts, brands and marketers need to remember to extend the mobile email experience past the initial click.

To create an engaging post-click experience, remember to keep mobile in mind. For example, redirecting users to an un-optimized Web site in an email that they are reading from their mobile device is a bad user experience that they are likely to abandon.

In addition to the new opportunities that mobile offers, brands and marketers should not forget how email is tra-ditionally used to build databases and instant email sign-up features will be used more by companies in 2012.

Fragmentation will continue to haunt mobile email marketing in 2012By Lauren Johnson

In 2012 marketers and brands to use email to ramp up their mobile email marketing strategy. With the grow-ing rate of email opens done via mobile, there is a big

opportunity for marketers here.


EMAIL

“Don’t wait for a consumer to go home and turn on his computer to sign up for your email marketing program,” Mr. Ju said.

“Allow the person to sign up by simply sending a text message with his email address while he’s in the restau-rant, hotel, store, museum, concert or amusement park.”

Keep it freshUnlike traditional marketing initiatives, one of the chal-lenges of email marketing is constantly re-evaluating your program and constantly finding new ways to im-prove it.

“With the speed that mobile is moving, any mobile strat-egy created on Jan. 1 will likely be obsolete by Septem-ber,” said R.J. Taylor, director of product marketing at

ExactTarget, Indianapolis, IN.

“Quarterly evaluation and adjustments will ensure you stay on track and create meaningful experiences for your customer and conversions for your business,” he said.

2012 will also bring more experimentation with email marketing being tied to other mobile initiatives, includ-ing SMS and push notification programs.


With an increase in apps over the past year, brands should leverage their email campaigns by placing calls-to-action that promote their mobile services in emails.

This can be done with a click-to-download feature for apps or a click-to-call feature for smartphone owners wanting to opt-in to an SMS program.

Another issue that mobile email marketing will face in 2012 is relevancy and making sure that email messages can target specific users, which is a common problem for all email marketing.

Data is kingBrands and marketers can expect to see more data being used to segment email blasts to users.

“There will be an increased focus on dynamic, tar-geted emails based on an individual user’s inter-ests and activities,” said Manish Naik, cofounder/

CEO of Paper Hat Press, New York.

For Paper Hat Press, which is a digital publisher that sells personalized children’s books, being able to link a con-sumer’s shopping history with a targeted email message is key.

If a consumer clicks on a link in an email and buys some-thing, the company is able to tell that the transaction came via email and can send other relevant emails to consumers in the future.

Marketers and brands will also need to continue testing email subject lines for 2012, per Mr. Naik.

Email marketing is more than just a one-hit approach.

If a consumer did not open an email, marketers need to try variations on the subject lines until they find one that generates successful opens.

“Batch and blast email campaigns will continue to pro-duce poor results and unengaged email databases,” Mr. Naik said.

Brand integration in mobile gaming will drive mcommerce By Rimma Kats

Brands and marketers are seeing the potential of us-ing mobile games to reach a broader audience and companies such as HSN are bridging the virtual

While 2011 was a successful year for gaming – com-panies such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and HSN incor-porated their brand into mobile games, 2012 will bring in more opportunities. Partnerships with mobile gam-ing companies will prove to be an effective way to drive user engagement.

“In 2012 we will thoughtfully pursue and participate in mobile gaming opportunities that are a good fit with the HSN brand in order to extend our brand presence and reach a new audience that doesn’t know our sto-ry,” said Jill Braff, executive vice president of digital commerce at HSN, San Francisco.

“Combining our mobile shopping experience and casual games is a natural progression for our consumer - she loves both, she said.

“We want to further differentiate the HSN shopping ex-perience by bringing together content and commerce in a fun and innovative way.”

Play firstHSN teamed up with PlayFirst for the Cooking Dash ap-plication that incorporates chef Emeril Lagasse’s cook-ware and kitchen electrics line and lets players buy the products without leaving the app.

The Cooking Dash app includes a new restaurant venue called “HSN Cooks with Emeril” that lets players inter-act with virtual representations of his cookware and kitchen electrics line, and buy the real products via the mobile game.

A partnership such as that is an ideal way to not only engage users, but also add a commerce element to the mobile mix.

Marrying mcommerce with gaming helps brands further build a relationship with consumers. The mobile gam-ing world must deliver quality entertainment that is truly engaging and let companies introduce their personalities and products to users.

Socially mobile2012 is going to be the year where mobile social games and social networks start to break into the mainstream.

“I don’t think games on mobile have truly become social between players and devices, and 2012 is the year where publishers and developers begin to crack the code,” said Chris Cunningham, cofounder/CEO of appssavvy, New York.

“With NFC, better processors and voice recognition com-ing to mobile devices, the possibilities on the gaming platform with social interaction is endless,” he said.

In 2012, publishers and developers will have to find a way to maximize the revenue they drive from their apps and fine-tune micro-transaction strategies and ad-supported models.

One of the biggest challenges will be for a developer to form a seamless layer between location-based games and social platforms on the Web and mobile.

“Location-aware multi-user games are the next big thing,” Mr. Cunningham said.


GAMING

and real-time world together.

Which will be the most discussed mobile legal issues in 2012?By Chantal Tode

T he number of legal battles in the mobile space will continue to grow in 2012 thanks in no small part to mobile’s rapid growth, which has raised the

stakes considerably for many companies. As a result, legal wranglings over who owns the right to use a particular mobile technology will continue to be a headache for many in 2012. At the same time, the indus-try could see greater enforcement around mobile privacy next year now that regulators have turned their focus on the burgeoning mobile space.

“Patent issues will continue to be a major source of dis-cussion in the mobile world, which will dovetail with an acceleration in deals,” said Jason Koslofsky, an attorney with ArentFox LLP, Washington.

“Big companies will continue to compete in the mobile space, not only through marketing and sales, but also through patent licensing strategies designed to obtain a piece of every mobile-related transaction,” he said.

“One solution companies are employing is buying up patent portfolios and companies to attempt to head off patent infringement claims before they arise. Expect to see more of these patent portfolio deals at eye-raising sums and mobile patent litigation to continue to impact every major mobile company in 2012.”


LEGAL/PRIVACY

Patents and privacyLegal battles involving mobile-related patents were big news in 2011 and understandably so. Microsoft was re-ported to be making millions on the sale of Android de-vices because of patent licensing deals it has with the device manufacturers.

An unlikely alliance between Apple, Microsoft, RIM and others spent billions buying bankrupt Nortel’s pat-ents simply to protect themselves against intellectual property suits.

On the privacy front, regulators turned their focus to mobile in 2011 and this scrutiny will be more intense in 2012. If no privacy legislation is passed this year, then new legislation is likely to be introduced next year.

One area of focus for regulators is the Telephone Con-sumer Protection Act, which Congress has expressed an interest in updating. Such a move could impact text message marketing.

The Federal Trade Commission is likely to address how children use mobile apps and smartphones, which could have significant repercussions for mobile marketing.

The FTC has proposed changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection act that would make geo-based loca-tion or identification of a mobile device similar to the IP address for a computer.

“The information would be considered personally iden-tifiable information, which means marketers would not be able to market to kids without parental consent,” said Linda Goldstein, partner and chair at Manatt Phelps & Phillips, New York.

“And, obtaining consent in mobile is difficult because there is no robust system developed for obtaining paren-tal consent,” she said.

“I think you are going to see a lot more enforcement in the kids area as it relates to mobile.”


Location-based servicesFollowing a growing number of news stories about how it easy it is to locate a smartphone and what the impli-cations are for consumers, location-based services and apps will be an important part of the discussion sur-rounding mobile and privacy in 2012.

“The need for location information to provide effective search and other services for mobile is inherently in ten-sion with the desire for privacy and to not publicize in-formation,” ArentFox’s Mr. Koslofsky said.

“Many users may not understand what information is gathered and how it is used,” he said.

“This will be one of the most discussed mobile legal is-sues in 2012 as companies, Congress, and users struggle to balance the usefulness of the information with the desire to keep it private.”

While mobile commerce is growing rapidly, it is still small

percentage of overall sales.

As the volume begins to reach hiogher levels and a few mobile payments systems gain share, this will also present some privacy issues.

“This is the year you are going to see mobile pay-ments systems emerge and move toward mobile com-merce,” Manatt Phelps & Phillips’ Ms. Goldstein said. “With that will come additional privacy considerations such making sure that the person authorizing billing is i n fact authorized to do so.”

Mobile companies will be well served to pay atten-tion to which direction the regulatory wind is blow-ing and to make sure that they are providing proper notice regarding their privacy issues.

“Companies should adopt the same privacy principals that they do on their Web sites because the FTC is view-ing the two similarly,” Ms. Goldstein said.


Building viable smartphone businesses will be especially important for companies such as Nokia and Research in Motion, which both saw their fortunes dwindle in 2011 because they were not positioned properly to take ad-vantage of the transition to smartphones.

“The key thing that is strangling a lot of folks is the fea-ture phone market,” Michael Morgan, an analyst with ABI Research, New York. “We always know that it would be eaten up by smartphones but it seems to be collapsing a bit faster than expected.

“Manufacturers want to establish faster growing smart-phone businesses faster than they are losing business on the feature phone side,” he said. “It is a race for survival for a lot of these folks.”

Apple stomping competitionNokia saw sales waiver in 2011 and lost ground to Apple, Samsung because of its weak position in smartphones.

OEM focus on smartphones in 2012 to leave feature phones in the dustBy Chantal Tode

Mobile device manufacturers will seek to acceler-ate growth for their smartphone businesses in 2012 as feature phone sales continue to col-

With only two new smart devices coming out next year built on the Windows operating system, Nokia is not likely to gain significant ground in the near future.

“[Next year] is going to be the proving point for Nokia,” Mr. Morgan said. “Either they are going to turn around and do it in 2012 or they are going to have to make some big changes again.”

The situation is not likely to be much better for Research in Motion, which went through a restructuring in 2011 as sales faltered.

“RIM is going to have a rugged 2012,” Mr. Morgan said. “In 2012, RIM is transitioning to the QNX platform and moving into smartphones – they are hoping this will put them back into a technologically relevant space.”

Samsung’s well-balanced portfolioHowever, other manufacturers are well positioned to take advantage of how mobile is evolving and, as a re-sult, will cement their leadership roles in 2012.

Samsung, with its well-balanced portfolio of high-end and feature phone devices, is one of these.

“Samsung will still be looking good in 2012 as the Galaxy platform establishes itself as a key driver of the Android

MANUFACTURERS

lapse. Introducing lower cost smartphones that offer much of the functionality of high-end devices is one of the major ways manufacturers will try to achieve these goals.


platform,” Mr. Morgan said.

Apple is also likely to continue to perform well next year even though it lost its leader Steve Jobs, who retired in August and passed away a couple of months later.

“Steve Jobs didn’t leave the company without instill-ing a technology map for at least two years,” Mr. Mor-gan said. “Apple will be able to subsist off of that easily through 2012.

“They have a portfolio of devices with low price points and high-end devices that are still proving to be very successful,” he said.

The wildcard is Motorola, which was acquired by Google in August for $12.5 billion. In the ensuing months, a lot of questions have arisen about whether Google will give

Motorola advance access to new technology or treat it the same as other manufacturers.

“Motorola has been marginally successful and now it is owned by Google,” Mr. Morgan said.

“The question is will Google strangle Motorola or be a benefit to it,” he said.

As interest in smartphones continues to grow and consumers integrate the devices into their every-day lives, handset manufacturers will look for ways to bring many of the features that have previously only been available at the high-end of the market to a wider audience.

Lower prices a must“In order to make smartphones mass marketable and so that the carrier can offer it for free with a two-year con-tract, manufacturers need to drive the price down un-der $200,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst for IHS, El Segundo, CA.

“Making the hardware low enough in cost while also ad-dressing the functionality of smartphones is key,” he said. “We are seeing a shift and more of a focus on selling to that type of demographics.”

A wider audience for smartphones could be good news for marketers.

“There is a lot more interaction in the ecosystem of ser-vices with smartphones,” Mr. Lam said.

“The marketing potential is significant because the ad-dressable market becomes a lot bigger with lower cost phones,” he said.

Functionality such as touchscreens and near-field communication are likely to make their way to these low-cost smartphones.

“There should be some interesting business models in-troduced next year where Google absorbs the cost of in-cluding NFC or Mastercard absorbs the cost to enable mobile payments,” Mr. Lam said.

In 2011, tablet devices emerged and publishers quickly hopped on the mobile bandwagon to offer their readers another screen to absorb the editorial content. However, the media sector is experiencing a paradigm shift from online to mobile and publishers need to rethink their strategies to stay on top of the game.

“The mobile channel has given publishers an additional touch point to connect with consumers as they increas-ingly turn to a wide variety of devices to search for, read and are entertained by content,” said Christine Cook, se-nior vice president of sales and advertising operations at The Daily, New York.

“Tablet devices allow publishers to earn revenue from subscriptions and advertising, as well as revenue share from in-application purchases – a healthy and diversified revenue portfolio,” she said.

Rise of tabletsApple’s iPad has been a game-changer for the publish-ing industry with The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily and Conde Nast being one of the first to take advantage.

Additionally, many publishers have rolled out mo-bile apps both in Apple’s App Store and in Google’s Android Market.

However, throughout 2011 there have been con-flicts about Apple retaining 30 percent of the revenue from subscriptions sold on iTunes.

The Financial Times took a different route to drive mobile subscriptions and launched a browser-based applica-tion instead of making the content available via Apple’s App Store.

Publishers to eye mobile monetization in 2012By Rimma Kats

In 2012, media giants and publishers will not only think of mobile as another revenue driver, but will focus more on how they can monetize their mobile applica-

The Financial Times Web App was built using HTML5 technology.

HTML5 enables open, cross-platform rich-media stan-dards that help brands’ and agencies’ display adver-tising achieve the creative and reach across various mobile devices.

Although Apple contributed significantly to the growth of HTML5 – first by refusing to let its iOS devices support Adobe Flash, then by launching its own rich-media mobile ad network, iAd, many industry experts still believe that HTML5 is helping companies create rich content and bypass the App Store.


MEDIA

tions and build readership.

However, others do not agree.

“There is a lot of, in my opinion, wishful thinking that HTML5 will replace native apps,” said Brennan Hayden, vice president at Wireless Developer Agency, East Lansing, MI.

“This thinking is bad for mobile media, because native mobile apps are arguably the most attractive mobile-specific media innovation yet,” he said. “This thinking leads to the presumption that what we call the digital space will absorb and assimilate the mobile space with regard to monetization and publishing, and in turn has given some pause to aggressive investment plans in mo-bile-media-specific technologies and business models.

“This pause is a mistake, but nonetheless will likely make the 2012 landscape more difficult for loss-making mobile and app businesses.”

According to Mr. Hayden, media and publishers will need to see continued innovation in this space, however, there will be less venture investment in the short term.

In 2011, mobile apps were where the action was, almost exclusively.

In 2012, the more mature companies will field more well-rounded uses of mobile technology.

“The effective, repeatable and attributable executions – especially QR codes and location and apps – will in-creasingly be deployed in a holistic fashion with tradi-tional media such as out-of-home, print and television,” Mr. Hayden said.

“This year’s trials and innovations in this integrated mo-bile paradigm will be commonplace – even imperative – by the 2012 Christmas season.”

MonetizationMobile media – as a separately monetizable entity – is fighting the laws of physics, not technology, when it comes to monetization.

“It cannot possibly replace or even supplement other mass media, dollar-for-dollar, and become a significant

part of the media mix, on a CPM basis,” Mr. Hayden said. “There just isn’t enough real-estate or ‘lean-back’ attention span.

“Mobile media value, then, has to come from superior quality – showing the right ad, to the right people, at the right time, with a perfectly trackable, highly profit-able and frequently converting call-to-action,” he said. “Mobile is the perfect medium in theory for this objective.”

According to Mr. Hayden, publishers that want mobile media monetization should use 2012 to build a premi-um product that is probably worth a premium, at least relative to digital.

“Today, any mobile inventory that manages to mon-etize at a premium is sold as digital in the $10 CPM range, with no particular mobile innovation, and no premium over the equivalent digital ad,” Mr. Hayden said. “2012 ought to be the year to change at least that equation.”


Brands and companies will also start to tie their SMS ef-forts to more measurable programs, such as mobile cou-pons and loyalty programs. However, mobile redemption will need to be more universally acceptable by retailers in 2012.

“The ability to generate unique coupon codes and inte-grate into point-of-sale systems for retailers and manu-facturers will be critical,” said Carrie Chitsey, CEO of 3 Seventy, Austin, TX.

Loyalty and rewards programs will rely heavily on SMS/MMS in 2012By Lauren Johnson

In 2011 brands focused on building databases via mes-saging campaigns that offered incentives such as sweepstakes in return for an opt-in. In 2012, market-

ers will focus on ways to cultivate these databases and engage the consumers within.

“Additionally, the abil-ity to not only track a mobile campaign but track the results and redemption by con-sumer is important,” she said.

“The days of one-way messaging will change in 2012. Brands want


MESSAGING

and need to know more demographic information about consumers than a cell phone number and that they text in a particular keyword.”

Universal redemptionOne of the key challenges for brands and companies in 2012 will be continuing to get retailers on board with mobile redemption that is tied to SMS.

With more companies experimenting with SMS and loy-alty, retailers need to understand how to process mobile coupons at the point of sale.

“In order to do mobile coupons and promotions in-store, retailers have to be able to access mobile coupons,” Ms. Chitsey said.

“The method of coupon delivery has to be agnostic so retailers and consumers have channel of choice,” she said.

“One example of an effective and easy messaging promo-tion is to run a sweepstakes through mobile to develop a database and then begin the communication channel.”

By tying SMS programs with rewards and loyalty pro-grams, consumers are more comfortable opting-in to text messages and the channel will continue to increase in 2012.

Despite the rise in mobile device ownership, SMS re-mains the most universal way to reach consumers via text message.

“Understand that one size does not fit all, not all of your consumers have the same use of mobile devices,” Ms. Chitsey said.

“Finding the happy medium of rolling out multichannels to see how consumers interact will help establish a fu-ture roadmap for innovation,” she said.

Call to mobileAccording to experts, 2012 will bring more calls-to-ac-tion for SMS programs.

“I think we’ll see more loyalty clubs triggered by SMS calls-to-action,” said Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer of Hipcricket, Kirkland, WA.

“We surely will experience calls to action in tradition-al media like TV, radio and print ads, and we’ll also see


brands offer consumers multiple means of engagement - for example an SMS call to action and a QR code will both lead to a richer experience via the mobile Web or MMS,” he said.

In 2012, mobile messaging will continue to battle spam and SMS programs that bombard consumers with irrel-evant, constant messages.

According to Mr. Hasen, there will be more than two tril-lion messages sent and received in the United States in 2012, showing the opportunity that marketers will con-tinue to have to reach a broad range of consumers with the channel.

Apple’s iMessage service, which was rolled out this year to let iPhone owners with iOS5 text other iPhone owners for free, will pave the way for mobile messaging in 2012 by opening up a free text message program.

RIM’s BBM group messaging service is another example of a wireless carrier helping consumers adapt SMS into their everyday lives.

Older demographics, which are typically thought to not use mobile technology as much, will increase in 2012.

“We recommend brands offer multiple means of engage-ment,” Mr. Hasen said.

“By giving consumers a choice in how they want to in-teract, brands will increase participation, drive sales and gain loyal customers,” he said.

And, with the numerous choices that consumers have for accessing music on their mobile devices, companies need to use added marketing efforts, such as social media, to draw consumers to their products. It is no longer enough to just offer free music to users.

“Discovery is a huge issue now that everyone has access to every track,” said Kristin Frank, general manager of MTV and VH1 Digital, New York.

“Starting at an empty search box on a music service can be very daunting,” she said.

“Social networks and all the data they produce around music make for some interesting opportunities in product development.”

Music to my ears2012 will see more mobile-specific features added to music services, such as location.

Brands and marketers can tie location into its services to make music relevant and offer recommended tracks for users.

MTV uses location in its Music Meter application, which lets users discover new music based on what is trending on the Web.

“Go beyond simply playing back music or music videos and really consider what makes your product unique,” Ms. Frank said. “What does your product do best and how can that be applied to the music conversation?”

Music programmers have traditionally used mobile ap-plications to target smart device owners, but with the plethora of music apps on the marketplace, getting con-sumers to find, download and engage with a particular

Music industry must set focus on mobile discovery in 2012By Lauren Johnson

With the introduction of more music streaming options that are either free or low-cost, such as Spotify and Rdio, the challenge for mobile

music marketers in 2012 will be discovery.

brand’s app will continue to be a challenge for the in-dustry in 2012.

For 2012, MTV and VH1 plan to update and release appli-cations that work with user-generated content, includ-ing polls and features that let users give instant feedback on what they like and are listening to.

Interactive features that let users interact with con-tent in real-time will be a valuable asset that music brands and companies can use to measure their mar-keting initiatives, which has always been an issue with mobile.

Shared tunes2012 will continue the transition from personal music


MUSIC

libraries to shared music clouds, which shows the con-tinuing need from consumers to access as much music as possible.

As long as consumers can get music, they do not care where it is from.

“There is one key challenge - reliability and accessible connectivity,” said Michael Cerda, senior vice president of product at VEVO, New York.

“People don’t want to burn their entire data plan on mu-sic, but as Wi-Fi becomes more prevalent this issue will go away,” he said.

With the increase of the cloud, users will start to use mobile music in more social environments and around the home.


Tablets will also play a key role for mobile music in 2012 with their lean-back tendencies.

Consumers will also be looking for more features than just playing a song on their mobile devices.

In 2012, users will be looking for more utility options that enhance the music listening experience, which in-cludes games, facts, video and trivia.

However, consumers are not looking for a full package of information and are only interested in pieces of content that is tailored for their music.

Simply put, the digital music industry is shifting to-wards a strategy that matches the basic principles \of mobile.

Music companies need to pull nuggets of information from multiple places to give consumers a tailored, inclu-sive experience. Additionally, it will be more important in 2012 to think about where consumers will be using mobile music services.

“Find the sweet spot between use case, ease of use, con-text, rights and how it can become more than audible background,” Mr. Cerda said.

Mobile stats to remember in 2012By Rimma Kats

Mobile as an advertising and marketing vehicle will continue to grow and advance in 2012. Consum-ers will be come even more dependant on their

Here are some stats that are indicative of what to expect in 2012:

1. The spend on local mobile advertising will approach $1 billion by the end of 2012 as campaign objectives evolve to meet the location-targeting abilities of smart-phones, according to BIA/Kelsey.

2. Twenty-nine percent of mobile phone owners today believe their handset will be the primary device for their entertainment needs in the future, per Experian Simmons.

3. Android could generate more than $1 billion in mo-bile advertising revenue for Google in 2012, according to Piper Jaffray.

4. Tablets are rapidly emerging as the go-to device and us-age will definitely increase in 2012. According to Google,

forty-two percent of tablet owners multitask while on their devices. In particular, consumers are switching over their entertainment use from desktop to mobile devices.

5. In-stream video ads, which appear as a commercial break in full episodes or before video clips, are picking up momentum and outperforming online ads, according to Rhythm NewMedia.

6. According to Knotice, the number of emails opened on a mobile device jumped 51 percent in the first half of 2011 compared with the last quarter of 2010 – indica-tive that the number will grow in 2012 as smartphone penetration grows.

7. While iOS and Android are the top operating systems, Windows Phone is gaining speed. IOS continues to trump Android when it comes to click-through rates for mo-bile ads by operating system. However, Windows Phone beats them both, suggesting there is an opportunity here for marketers who want their advertising to stand out, per Smaato.

8. Mobile bar codes made a big impact in 2011 and the number will only increase. According to ScanLife, there was a 440 percent increase in scans year-over-year from the third quarter of 2011, indicating consumers are more willing to interact and engage with content delivered through QR codes.


RESEARCH

mobile devices for shopping, searching and researching in 2012 and more marketers will take note.

9. Location-based targeting grew 50 percent quarter-over-quarter and made up 66 percent of all the targeted audience campaigns, according to Millennial Media.

10. Mobile will be the primary device for entertainment needs. According to Experian Simmons, 29 percent of mobile phone owners today believe their handset will be the primary device for their entertainment needs in the future.

11. Social and mobile go hand in hand and according to ABI Research, mobile device users are heavily engaged with social, with 73 percent of mobile device owners in the United States using their phones to visit social networking sites daily and, sometimes, more than once a day.

12. Privacy and security are still big issues when it comes to mobile. Despite a steady increase in threats from de-vice loss and threats, malware and viruses, only 4 percent

of smartphones and tablets are protected with security software, according to Juniper Research.

13. Google continues to triumph in mobile search and was the top destination among mobile sites in the month of April last year attracting 55.3 million unique visitors, per Nielsen.

14. Mobile banking is gaining traction in the United States with gains in consumer adoption and avail-ability of mobile banking services across a wide array of devices, however 47 percent of financial eBusiness managers do not know how to measure the ROI of mobile, according to Forrester Research.

15. Wireless data service revenues in the United States grew 23 percent in the first quarter of 2011 com-pared with same quarter last year for a total of $15.4 billion, proving that it will continue to grow in 2012, per Chetan Sharma Consulting.


Making search results more relevant for consumers is increasingly important, especially for mobile when con-sumers have less time to find what they are looking for. Voice will also begin to play an important part in mobile search in 2012.

“Search has evolved beyond simply typing text and navigating to third party sites via blue links,” said Andy Chu, director of product management for Bing at Microsoft, Seattle.

“In the end, we are driving towards a mobile service where Bing will be the must-have mobile companion service that delivers exactly what you need, whether that is booking a restaurant reservation or buying a pair of shoes,” he said.

Local intentWith the increase in making content relevant for users via mobile applications and Web sites, mobile search needs to catch up to be useful for consumers.

Mobile search needs to be viewed differently than desk-top search, which is when consumers have more time to research what they are looking for.

In 2012, different channels will be integrated into mobile search, including social media.

For example, Bing believes that one way consumers will find relevant results is to see what their friends are searching for.

Mobile search will need to give consumers all important information directly through a search instead of clicking on links to make search easier for users in 2012.

“Ultimately, we want to help users make fast, more in-formed local decisions on-the-go but also help people

Local, social will play prominent role in searchBy Lauren Johnson

Mobile search will continue to evolve in 2012 with an emphasis on localization and social media, according to experts.

complete tasks and save money,” Mr. Chu said.

“This helps Bing for Mobile better understanding user in-tent, context and location, which in turn allows Bing to provide answers, help with decisions, and even recom-mend additional things to do after completing the im-mediate task at hand,” he said.

Voice will also become key to mobile search with the launch of Apple’s Siri service this year and advancements with Google Voice.

Ask and findAccording to search executives, mobile search has made a significant switch from being a quick place for ques-tions and answers.

Mobile search is not about exploration, and in 2012 it


SEARCH

will continue to be focused on finding common ques-tions while on the go.

“Mobile search has become ubiquitous — whether some-one is looking for a restaurant they should try that evening, or the best hotels at a given travel destina-tion, search has become the first place people go when looking for information from their mobile devices,” said Jason Rupp, senior director of product management at Ask.com, Oakland, CA.

“On top of that, people want immediate gratification from their mobile search experience,” he said.

Consumes expect more from their mobile devices and with the advancements in location-based services, users ex-pect to get results immediately where they currently are.

The coming year will also see mobile search become a

more two-way conversation with users and more inter-active features.

Mobile search results need to utilize data sources that aren’t traditionally found through search such as user-generated content, per Mr. Rupp.

The mobile search industry will also continue to be clut-tered with companies trying to tap into exactly what consumers are looking for.

“Just a few years ago, your mobile experience was so lim-ited that search couldn’t be localized, and you couldn’t expect more than local business listings or a few search links when looking for information,” Mr. Rupp said.

“Now, people can control their entire lives on a mobile phone and there are thousands of companies vying to get users the information they want,” he said.


Google has already started integrating Google+ into An-droid and Twitter has deep integration into Appe’s iOS. In 2011, Facebook and Apple saw the impact that social plays in the mobile space and next year, companies – both big and small – will be incorporating some aspect of social into their mobile strategies.

“Consumers will eviscerate the line between mobile so-cial networks and social networks in 2012,” said Curtis Hougland, founder/CEO of Attention USA, New York.

“More than one-third of people already access Facebook through mobile,” he said. “Twitter and Facebook are growing more closely together through features such as the Activity Stream and Ticker, respectively.”

Social changeWhile Google and Apple looking to outdo each oth-er in the mobile space is no surprise, Facebook will increasingly make its way into the mobile picture.

“The question has become whether Facebook is satisfied with being an app or has to own its own mobile future,” Mr. Hougland said.

Additionally, location will play a big role in the mobile social space. Users are increasingly using applications such as Facebook, foursquare and Gowalla to check-in to places and let their friends and family know where they are.

Companies such as Cabela’s and Crumbs Bakery are real-izing the impact of this and offerings consumers specials and incentives when they check-in.

In doing so, consumers can share these offers with friends and family and thus begin a social change.

Who will win the mobile, social war in 2012?By Rimma Kats

Battle lines will be drawn in 2012 between Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple, with each fighting for direct integration into mobile operating systems.

“2012 will usher in the maturation of geo location,” Mr. Houghland said. “Increasingly, consumers seek greater rewards than a badge, or an alert.

“They want to unlock rewards, experiences, brand and community recognition and personalized offers,” he said. “Mobile social will overlay and enrich the real world.

“Technology requirements and budgets will have to grow significantly.”

MocialIn addition to geolocation, brands, marketers and pub-lishers are increasingly incorporating social in their mo-bile marketing efforts, whether it is placing a Facebook icon on their mobile application to get users to “Like”


SOCIAL NETWORKS

them or using Twitter to get users talking.

Recently, The Weather Channel integrated local, weath-er-related tweets across its television, Web and mobile platforms to increase the company’s two-way dialogue with consumers.

The Weather Channel decided to make social a part of all of its platforms to helps the company tell a more complete story of how weather events impact consumers locally.

“Weather is the ultimate social content,” said Patrick McCormack, vice president of mobile sales and strategy at The Weather Channel, Atlanta.

“Adding The Weather Channel Social to The Weather Channel’s mobile platforms lets us integrate live local


feedback from our consumers in a way that is both rel-evant and personal,” he said.

“2012 should be another great year for mobile, with an-ticipated advancements in both devices – iPhone 5, iPad 3, Android Tablets – and network speeds – 4G, it will be eas-ier than ever to stay connected to your social networks.”

Key to success Successful mobile and social marketing campaigns de-pend on providing the user with a highly personalized content experience.

If the users do not feel that the content is tailored for them or if it is not relevant, then they will not want to interact with it nor tell their friends about it.

“We use user-generated social content to complement our expert weather content, providing the mobile user with complete coverage of their local weather,” Mr. McCormack said.

“It’s about generating content that’s meaningful to the user that’s very specific to them,” he said. “In other words, hyper-local equals hyper-relevant.”

Mobile payments, social mcommerce and QR codes will dominate in 2012By Chantal Tode

Marketers must gain a better grasp of mobile software and technology in order to provide the kinds of experiences that consumers are de-

The goals of these efforts should be to ensure the best possible consumer experience by seamlessly incorpo-rating mobile technology into a brand’s marketing ef-forts, optimizing mobile content across multiple devices and leveraging mobile’s unique characteristics such as location-based services and personalization to meet consumers’ needs.

“As smartphone penetration is reaching significant lev-els, we are reaching a tipping point with the technol-ogy moving from emerging to mainstream,” said Rebec-ca Kane, vice president of brand and customer-specific marketing at Ahold USA, Quincy, MA. “In response, the marketers will now be making the shift from watching and waiting to actively engaging.

“With the move from emerging to mainstream, custom-ers will have greater expectations – expectations around speed, simplicity and relevance,” she said. “If marketers/

manding now that mobile is mainstream.

companies don’t deliver on these expectations, custom-ers will not have patience and will look for other options resulting in wasted investments.

“In 2012, we anticipate an exponential increase in total marketing dollars flowing through the mobile channel – specifically the smartphone mobile channel.”

Mobile payments and commerceMobile payment and commerce technologies such as Google Wallet, Isis and others that are yet to come will play a big role in brands’ mobile software and technology plans next year.

Much, although not all, of the activity will take place around dedicated mobile applications.

“There are a lot of competing technology platforms out there to support mobile marketing and commerce,” Ms Kane said. “To some extent, therefore, winners and losers will begin to shake out with respect to the providers of these technology solutions.”

In 2012, as even more people embrace the rich capabili-ties offered by smartphones, marketers will look for ways to take advantage of mobile software and technology that address way that mobile is changing how consum-ers engage with each other, content and brands.

“From the conversations that we’ve been having with our clients, the outlook [for mobile software and technology] is very strong,” said Chia Chen, senior vice president and mobile practice lead for Digitas, Boston.

“Paradoxically, it has less to do with the specific mo-bile technologies and software and more to do with the culture of mobility that the mobile technologies have enabled,” he said. “This culture of mobility has changed the way people connect with each other, content and brands.”

Onset of MoSoCommKey areas of opportunity for marketers beyond mobile


SOFTWARE AND TECHNOLOGY

payments include the convergence of mobile, social and commerce as well as consumers’ increasing use of smart devices while they are watching television.

However, marketers will need to prove the effective-ness of their mobile efforts in order to gain support for increased investment.

“We are excited about two sets of mobile software/tech-nology opportunity for marketers,” Mr. Chen said.

“One is MoSoComm, the convergence of mobile, social and commerce, especially as loyalty platforms start re-ally tapping into the social graph,” he said. “The second is Co-Consumption, which is the engagement of people across more than one screen at the same time.

“The key challenges are around the need for integrat-ing mobile technologies and software into the mar-keters’ existing technology and software infrastruc-ture and real ROI cases to support the investment needed to integrate mobile technologies into the marketing programs.”

QR codes QR codes saw significant uptake in 2011 and this will continue in 2012.


“QR codes will become mainstream, becoming not only the dominant 2D symbology, but also one of the most utilized mobile media elements lever-aged by marketers,” said Laura Marriott, CEO of NeoMedia, Atlanta.

“2D won’t be the only bar code symbology that reaches new heights of adoption in 2012, we will also see 1D ac-cess via mobile continue to climb – and as part of this, we will see retailers offering scanning applications bun-dled into their offers to encourage consumer purchases,” she said.

“QR codes will also begin to be launched alongside NFC initiatives in 2012, as the technologies are increasing-ly seen as complementary, rather than competitive, to each other.”

More TV programming to use mobile, tablets to complement viewing experience

By Lauren Johnson

With the introduction of the next-generation iPad this year, and all of the other tablet de-vices rolled out, the broadcast industry found

a platform that made sense as a second screen for con-tent with its size and image quality. In 2012, broadcast-ers will need to continue to take advantage of tablets and combine mobile into their overall digital strategy.

Additionally, broadcasters will need to find new ways to tie relevant and personalized content into their mobile services. Experts forecast that broadcasters will begin to stream more select pieces of content onto mobile plat-forms.

“It’s still the early days for the mass market to adopt watching TV on tablets and smartphones, but in 2012 you’ll continue to see a lot more content companies and cable,satellite and IP service providers push into this space,” said Jay Lee, senior director of product develop-ment and management at ESPN Mobile, Bristol, CT.

“We expect some partnerships between companies to also emerge as common challenges such as authentica-tion, rights management and mobile advertising become pervasive,” he said.

Mobile actionIn 2012, broadcasters will continue to roll out program-ming on mobile devices.

However, mobile is not at the level that it is treated as a completely separate channel for TV. Instead, mobile will be mixed into companies’ marketing mixes by using it with on-air, Web and other channels in 2012.

Live streaming will be used by broadcasters in 2012, but it will be used strategically with nuggets of information. Mobile apps and Web sites will continue to select only the most useful and relevant content.

“We think with sports in particular there’s an opportu-nity to augment live TV with shoulder content on other devices like scores, stats, in-progress highlights, and


TELEVISION

more,” Mr. Lee said.

“But what we offer has to make sense for the consumer – we have to help solve problems for fans, not just give them novel things to tinker with,” he said.

“We’re looking at how we can do that across a number of mobile products and fully expect that us and others will learn a lot through trial and error.”

Mobile will continue to struggle in 2012 with measure-ment. Unlike other channels such as traditional broad-cast, mobile is still difficult to measure and gauge what types of things viewers are most interested in.


Pick your propertiesFor a broadcaster, companies will need to hone in on and pick specific programs to push a mobile emphasis on.

“We have to look at mobile show by show and find the best strategy for each,” said Marc DeBevoise, senior vice president and general manager of entertainment at CBS Interactive, New York.

“It’s all about cross-platform and doing the right thing for the brand and show,” he said.

For example, CBS is the network that airs the Grammy Awards. In the past, the network has used a companion application that viewers could use to predict the winners and play trivia games.

In 2012, CBS will continue to use mobile and Web plat-forms to build buzz around the Grammy’s with an app

developed for both smartphones and tablets.

CBS is also testing live streaming for particular events, particularly with sports coverage.

Recently, sports fans could watch college football games via the CBS Sports Mobile app, which is something CBS plans to continue to offer for specific games that viewers may not be able to watch elsewhere.

Broadcasters will continue to struggle to decide which mobile platforms are worth investing in.

“As products continue to evolve, you might build some-thing one year but don’t want it to be obsolete next year,” Mr. DeBevoise said.

“We have to make sure we build the right things and know when to outsource appropriately,” he said.

A year in pictures