National Survey Says: Smartphones to Drive Marketing Efforts in 2012


Smartphone applications and mobile barcodes -- those funny-looking, pixilated squares appearing on everything from bus shelters to price tags -- will spur innovation and sales in the marketing world in 2012, according to a new survey commissioned by AT&T*.

Key Findings:

•88 percent of respondents expect their mobile marketing program to increase in the next 12 months.
•Mobile marketing strategies companies are interested in deploying in the next 12 months include:

◦Mobile apps rank the highest at 43 percent
◦Mobile barcodes - 41 percent
◦Banner ads - 40 percent
◦Mobile web - 35 percent
◦SMS messages - 34 percent
◦Digital signage - 17 percent
◦All of the above - 17 percent

•66 percent of respondents agree that mobile barcodes will drive innovation in mobile marketing in the next year.

•Consumer demand, security and cost are the three most important factors when considering mobile barcodes as part of a marketing program.

 
AT&T commissioned a survey of 501 marketing or advertising professionals working at U.S.-based companies to better understand the opinions and attitudes of marketing and advertising executives toward mobile marketing, specifically mobile barcodes, and the factors that potentially could accelerate their use in the future.

The majority of executives surveyed said they view mobile barcodes as innovative and rank mobile barcodes the second highest mobile marketing priority for the year ahead. Executives point to security, affordability, and consumer demand as key factors when considering mobile barcodes as part of their marketing programs, which can be easily scanned on smartphones and, in moments, link consumers to additional content via the mobile Internet.

"With the growing popularity of smartphones and the increasing dependence on mobile devices, it's only natural that marketing executives want to turn up the volume on their mobile strategies next year," said Chris Hill, Vice President, Advanced Mobility Solutions, AT&T Business Solutions.

Source: FierceMobileContent 

Read more about SMS Marketing and Text Messaging services 

For those marketers and advertisers still not sold on the power of mobile marketing and the need to engage their customers and prospects via a mobile website, a report issued by IBM showed that sales via a mobile phone/smartphone/tablet on Cyber Monday 2011 increased an incredible 192% over last year. And you can expect that number to only go higher next year. 

The IBM report also showed that the number of people using their mobile phone/smartphone/tablet to just visit a retailer’s website increased 177% from last year to this year on Cyber Monday. Clearly boys and girls we are living in a mobile world, but you already knew that, right?

So riddle me, this Batman and Batgirl, why are so many retailers NOT engaging their customers and prospects via a mobile ready website?

According to a survey conducted by Brand Anywhere and Luth Research:

• 51% of consumers more likely to purchase from retailers that have mobile-specific websites
• 4.8% of U.S. retailers have mobile-specific websites
• 22.8% of the top retail websites (ranked by Alexa®) have mobile-specific websites
• Web retailers could increase consumer engagement by 85% with a mobile-specific website

Take out the word “Web” in that last bullet for EVERY retailer – whether they also have bricks-and-mortar locations in addition to their “regular” website, should have… operative words “should have” an optimized mobile website.

Among all Interactive Marketing platforms, Mobile Marketing is expected to grow 38% over the next five years with an estimated $8.2 billion being allocated to it by the year 2016.

That was the opening line of another post I wrote on mobile marketing, Mobile Marketing Spending To Have The Biggest Increase Over Next Five Years.

So let me see if I got this straight… Most marketers and advertisers see the need to spend money via mobile marketing, mobile advertising, etc., yet many – only 4.8% according to at least one study, do not see the need to engage consumers via a mobile website, even though the evidence is clear that more and more consumers are going online via their mobile phone/smartphone/tablet?

The Social Media Factor…

One of the other key findings I wanted to share from the IBM report is this:

“Discussions on social media sites leading up to Cyber Monday increased in volume by 115 percent compared to 2010. Top areas of discussion focused on consumers sharing tips about using price comparison websites while avoiding cyber scams.”

Again, another opportunity for brand managers, product managers, marketers and advertisers of all shapes and sizes to engage their customers and prospects… that is if these same brand managers, product managers, marketers and advertisers of all shapes and sizes were monitoring what was being said on the social media sites then capitalizing where they could to converse and actively engage folks.

Sources: IBM Benchmark Cyber Monday Report 2011

Holiday figures point to this season being one of the biggest for mobile to date.

New data from NeoMedia supports this trend by revealing a huge rise in QR Code scanning during the Black Friday shopping frenzy.

Use of NeoMedia's NeoReader barcode scanning app jumped more than 240% on Black Friday compared to last year, according to a recent press release from the firm. 2D were the most popular barcodes scanned with 87% compared with just 13% for 1D barcodes.

"Retail is going mobile. People are not only using their phones to get more information on goods and services, both in-store and on-the-go, but also to purchase," said Laura Marriott, Chief Executive Officer of NeoMedia Technologies, Inc.

"This surge in usage demonstrates growing consumer awareness which will continue to create opportunities for all those in the mobile barcode ecosystem."

JC Penney has jumped on the QR Code bandwagon with an innovative "gift card" campaign. Free "Santa Tags" that are available with purchases contain a QR Code that the buyer can scan to record and attach a personal message. The recipient of the gift can then scan the tag to receive the voice message.Let's hope gift recipients aren't as stumped by QR Codes as the students that took part in a recent survey by youth marketing agency Archrival. Of the 500 participants just 21% managed to scan a QR Code example presented to them.

Source: Bizreport.com