Mobile Groove

The holiday numbers are in, the mobile user surveys are done, and the implications for brands, retailers and marketers are profound. Mobile has become an integral part of the shopping routine, with the vast majority of consumers admitting to using their mobile phones to search and purchase gifts. John Stevens examines this mobile megatrend and shares eight tips for creating and executing a successful mobile strategy.

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Shopping will never be the same. A number of reports show that people rely on mobile every step of the consumer journey. Equally mobile search continues to play a huge part in our lives. A recent Performics survey of 502 U.S, residents who use mobile phones to search the web at least once a week revealed that a whopping 75 percent of consumers report mobile search makes their lives easier. Specifically, 63 percent said access to mobile search has changed the way they gather information, and 32 percent said they use search more on their mobile devices than they do on their personal computers.

Every week over at m-pulse we discus the companies and concepts rocking the industry and my pick was Scoopshot, a mobile crowdsourcing app (and ecosystem) that allows media companies to post location-aware photo ‘assignments’ to the community of app users. The upshot is user-generated content that impresses on two counts: media (newspapers, magazines, online) have fresh content and people earn money for their photos. What’s more, the app is plugged into an ecosystem that manages right and makes payments.

It is refreshing to see such a well-executed strategy and end-to-end ecosystem, so I caught up with Niko Ruokosuo, the brains behind Scoopshot, which is also owned by Helsinki-based P2S Media Group Inc. Niko — acts as the CEO of the company and is in charge of the company’s internationalization efforts, business development operations and marketing — has a long track record in the media industry and held executive positions in companies including: the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, one of the largest media organizations in the Middle East, the Finnish magazine publisher Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet and the Los Angeles Times.

Who are the big-spenders in mobile advertising? In Q3 2011 the financial services sector jumped from third place in Q2 2011 to become the leading vertical in the U.S., ranked by mobile ad spend, followed by Entertainment, Retail & Restaurants, Telecoms and CPG (consumer packaged goods). Globally, finance placed number four.

This massive growth, with ad spend increasing over 356 percent year-over-year, confirms banks, insurance companies and credit card companies are aggressively usin…

People are increasingly relying on mobile for assistance to make a wide variety of product and purchase decisions, a seismic shift in behavior that spells opportunity for brands across all industry verticals, including automotive, retail, travel, finance, entertainment, pharmaceuticals and telecoms.

But there’s a catch. Marketers must develop solid advertising strategies that understand who their customers are, how they use their mobile devices and where campaigns can reach the…

The willingness of people to interact with brands on their mobile phones (and their growing reliance on mobile devices for shopping advice and assistance on the move) has jumpstarted a new phase in mobile marketing growth driven by retail brands and advertisers.

From department stores to computers & electronics retailers to luxury fashion brands, marketers are investing in mobile advertising to reach and influence people throughout the purchase funnel (awareness, engagement,  cons…

In brief: Steve Ives, Taptu CEO, recounts the key takeaways of the new report showing the growth of Mobile Touch Web sites outpaces the growth of apps in the Apple and Android app stores why commerce rocks on the Mobile Touch Web PLUS a look a the Virtual Roundtable and what mobile industry entrepreneurs, authorities and pundits think about the Mobile Touch Web and the potential impact on how we live, work and shop.

Taptu, the search and discovery engine that indexes touchscreen content, reports that the Mobile Touch Web – websites and destinations created specifically for access via touchscreen devices such as the Apple iPhone – has grown 35 percent since last quarter. Unlike other mobile Web content, this content stands out through finger-friendly layouts and light-weight pages that are faster to load over cellular networks. The report, which covers January 2010 thru April 2010, also shows Mobile Touch Web sites rose to 440,100 from 326,600 in January.

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