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Mobile marketing is poised for dramatic growth in 2012, according to a survey of 501 marketing and advertising executives by AT&T, which predicts that much of the growth will be driven by smartphone applications and mobile bar codes.

Separately, a study from ReturnPath found big increases in email open rates on mobile devices, suggesting an emerging area of opportunity for email marketers.

The AT&T survey of marketing and advertising executives found that 88% of respondents expect their mobile marketing program to increase over the next year, with 43% saying they expect more mobile apps, 41% pointing to mobile barcodes, and 40% saying they anticipate more mobile banner ads. Mobile Web came next at 35%, followed by SMS messages, cited by 34% of respondents.

Overall, 66% of respondents said they expect mobile barcodes to be the main driver of mobile marketing innovation over the next year. However, security and cost remain important issues when mobile marketers consider using mobile barcodes.

The ReturnPath survey found that the volume of email accessed via mobile devices increased 34% in the six-month period from April-September 2011 compared to the preceding six-month period. Over this period, the volume of email opened via iPads surged 73%.

One of the most popular times for accessing email via mobile devices was over the weekend, when users are away from workplace laptops and PCs. Conversely, the volume of email accessed via mobile drops sharply on Mondays, when workers return to the workplace.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/163667/mobile-marketing-ready-to-rocket.html#ixzz1fyF7WJ1g

Our two cents:
Clearly there is value in using a multi-screen approach with consumers. However, what marketers should keep in mind when reading this study is that the mere fact that a consumer viewed a brand advertisement on multiple screens means that they had increased exposure to the brand, which undoubtedly helps. When using a multi-screen strategy, we typically recommend to our clients that they create a messaging strategy based on the format the end customer is viewing the message on. In other words, you don’t simply cut and paste a bunch of :30 spots into tablets, PCs and mobile devices. Instead, marketers need to take the time to figure out which messages translate best to each device and make sure to take advantage of each device’s inherent attributes.

Full article below by Stuart Elliot

By STUART ELLIOTT

The conventional wisdom deems that many consumers may become confused or overwhelmed when ads are aimed at them on different screens in multiple media. However, according to new research from Nielsen, which was commissioned by Google, marketers may benefit from such cross-platform exposure.

As part of the research, consumers visiting an interactive digital laboratory at TVCity in MGM Las Vegas –- a joint venture between the Nielsen Entertainment unit of Nielsen Holdings and the CBS Vision unit of the CBS Corporation -– were asked to look at content on a TV set, a computer, a smartphone and a tablet.

During the test, a video ad that ran 15 seconds, pitching a premium-priced sports sedan, was shown in different permutations. Some people did not see any video ads, while others saw the video ad on various combinations of screens.

According to the research report, the ability to remember the automotive brand behind the video ad – and engage with the car being advertised — increased significantly when multiple screens were involved.

For instance, the report finds, in the group that saw the video only on TV, 50 percent recalled the brand being peddled. In the groups that saw the video ad on all four kinds of screens, 74 percent remembered the brand name.

Twenty-two percent of the members of the group watching the video on TV were able to recall that the car was a four-door sedan, according to the research. When the video was watched on four screens, that figure increased to 39 percent.

Also, according to the report, people who saw the video on four screens almost always had more positive opinions about the car compared with those who watched only TV, in categories like reliability and power.

“This research demonstrates the positive incremental value of multiple exposures across multiple platforms,” says a summary of the report that Google and Nielsen plan to release on Wednesday.

The report is titled “Better Together: Examining the Incremental Utility of Cross-Media Campaigns.” Three of its authors are from Nielsen Entertainment and one is from Google.

Google has been active lately in providing marketers with information about consumer behavior as digital media become more prevalent.

For instance, a post this week on the Google Mobile Ads blog presents data about the use of tablets, PCs and mobile devices for searches during the course of a work day.

According to the data, consumers use computers and smartphones for searches throughout the work day; smartphone use increases during commuting times and in the evenings.

And the use of tablets for searches “spikes dramatically” in the evenings, according to the blog post.

“If you are an advertiser, you might be wondering which is the best screen to reach your customers on,” the post concludes. “The answer is: All of them. These screens are better together.”

Millennial Media found that Hotel and Resort advertisers made up over 60 percent of all travel-related advertising, with 40 percent coming from booking sites.

Marketers are still relying on demographic targeting for campaigns, the report says, with 25 percent of all ads using some demographic criteria. For example, travel marketers sought mothers to increase awareness of summer specials, while automotive advertisers looked for adult males, hoping to get them excited about the new model year. There was a strong local angle to much of the advertising running through the network. Local Market Audience targeting grew 22 percent month-over-month, and 67 percent of all targeted audience campaigns included location as a criterion for targeting.

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1. Mobile Is Highly Engaging: There’s no other platform that can allow you to touch and engage with a product or brand like mobile can, so intrigue users to interact with your advertising campaign. Invite them to swipe, rotate, tell their own story, or upload their own personal video: the sky’s the limit. The Gilt Groupe, for instance, ran a iPad Rich Media Interstitial ad that lets users interact with multiple product images by swiping and enlarging the images in an interactive manner.  Users simply tap or pinch-out and, in this case, have the option to download the app directly from the Apple Marketplace. Recommendation:  Tie mobile into other branding and channel marketing strategies and look at tapping into Mobile’s unique native features to further engage customers.
2. Local Drives Business: We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: we believe in local search. The most popular mobile shopping activity is locating the nearest retailer. When consumers find local information, 88% take action within a day; of this number, 61% call a retailer and 59% visit a store. (1) Recommendation: Be discoverable and drive store foot traffic when consumers are searching for your business, products, or services. Integrate store locators into your display campaigns to help your customers find stores nearest to them.
3. Consumers Want Offers: Google research shows that 70% of consumers use their smartphones while shopping. Why? Consumers love to compare prices while in a store. When we analyzed last year’s holiday search trends, we found a 250% increase over the previous year in searches related to offers and deals. Recommendation: Use Ads with Offers and mobile coupons in both search and display to drive consumers into your stores and keep them there while they are comparison shopping.  Include mobile to distribute promotional offers and time-sensitive coupons and designate custom mobile codes to track the return on your ad spend.
4. Consumers Engage with Mobile on Multiple Platforms: More than 165 million tablets are expected to ship in the next two years, and according to eMarketer, 41% of people say shopping is their sole purpose for buying a tablet.  As a result we’ve noticed a big surge in search on tablets which has prompted us to completely redesign and optimize the tablet search results page for a touch interface. This means retailers need to have a cross-platform strategy which includes tablets. Recommendation:  Test new ad formats and redesign experiences specifically for different types of devices. Target tablets within your existing desktop search campaigns or break them out to ensure appropriate coverage, especially during this holiday season.  Reach the tablet customer via new rich media ad templates that make it easy to execute a rich user experience resulting in extremely high engagement.  These templates take advantage of tablets’ larger screen sizes, high-res graphics, touch screens and multimedia capabilities to drive deep engagement with mobile audiences.  Take a look at our launch partner video here!
5. Mobile Is Incremental: Fifteen percent of all shopping-related searches are now on a mobile device. This spells opportunity for retailers to tap into search growth by specifically targeting mobile devices and tablets. When one advertising agency expanded their client’s business onto mobile, they saw some unexpected but very interesting behaviors. 20% of clients who conducted research on the desktop finalized their purchases on mobile devices. Seeing this incredible crossover data, they invested in mobile search advertising by leveraging Google’s Click-to-call ads to drive traffic to their call centers and also sent mobile users to an easy to use two-step ordering process on mobile and tablet sites. This investment led to a large increase of new prospects and also lowered the cost of a sale by 25% when occurring on mobile versus the call center. This is just one example of what can be achieved. Recommendation:  We see huge search spikes during the holiday season, as the above shopping query trend graph illustrates.  In fact, last year Google saw a 250% increase on Black Friday related queries vs 2009 during the week of Black Friday and we’re hoping for another banner year for mobile. This is a valuable time to get in front of consumers, so have specific mobile holiday strategies in place and establish appropriate budgets.  Below are two examples of how Target and Home Depot used Black Friday messaging during the week of Black Friday to capture the increased demand.
6. A Word On Measurement: Mobile acts as a bridge and impacts your in-store and online channels. The opportunity is huge, but it requires innovative thinking, adapting to new realities, and challenging the assumed models.  Our research shows that when consumers make purchases as a result of research conducted on their phones, 76% purchase in-store and 59% purchase online, while a smaller portion purchase on their phones. Recommendation: Measure mobile differently; don’t measure success solely on mobile sales broadly.  Think of conversions differently — metrics such as a store look-up, customer sign-up, redemption of an offer in store, or app downloads are important.  Tablets, on the other hand, have shown very strong eCommerce ROI, especially in retail, and can be measured more like desktop.

To learn more about the above recommendations, download the Full Think Retail Mobile Deck here.

For a quick snapshot of what’s available for retail in mobile now, check out our retail sizzle video.

Posted by: Alex Barza, Senior Account Executive, Mobile & Kacy Brod, Mobile Head of Display, Retail

Marketers often wonder which channel offer the best response rates. As it turns out, the real question may be “which device”? A recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Lightspeed Research says that 25% of consumers are more likely to respond to advertising, whether it’s print, online, or outdoor, “if they are able to do so via a mobile response,” according to BusinessWorld. The research suggests that mobile also offer more engagement than online with an average of 22% of respondents who were aware of a mobile ad,  5.4% had intent to purchase. Read more