Coming into its own
Google's $750 million acquisition of AdMob in November of last year brought renewed attention to the mobile marketing and advertising sector. The momentum continued with Apple's takeover of Quattro Wireless in early January and, more recently, Amobee's purchase of RingRing Media.
Consolidation among mobile ad networks is clearly lining up to be a major theme in the year ahead. Even so, achieving scale in display advertising on mobile devices is just one piece in a much larger puzzle -- that of using mobile to showcase full-blown marketing and commerce experiences.
Marketers often talk glowingly about mobile's flexibility and how effective it is at activating other media. However, mobile has traditionally been a less effective vehicle than other media for end-to-end consumer experiences. In order for mobile to reach mass adoption among marketers, the medium has to develop beyond its core strengths in communication and messaging.
Fortunately, startup activity is rife across many keys areas of the mobile sector, and the next 12 to 18 months should see many of the missing pieces fall into place. The continued fusion of mobile and social and the appetite for apps (among both consumers and brands) will facilitate more involved marketing experiences. In fact, location- and social-aware apps and utilities will be a key avenue for brands looking to engage consumers on the go.
Mobile advertising will likewise grow more sophisticated, with improved targeting capabilities and richer, more engaging options across multiple channels, from apps to browsers to SMS. Augmented reality (AR) seems destined to generate more ink than activity or revenue in 2010, given the limited number of mobile handsets that support it, but AR is worth keeping an eye on nonetheless because of what it portends for the future of mobile marketing. It represents an innovative way of creating a virtual overlay to the physical world by combining and maximizing on-board device features (e.g., camera, GPS, accelerometer, broadband connectivity).
With the rise in mobile broadband access and the proliferation of multimedia smartphones, video viewing (and consequently, video advertising) is set to become a more integral part of the mobile experience. Paid content models such as iTunes will continue to expand to mobile devices, but the growth in mobile web and application usage will also create opportunities for marketers to engage with viewers in both professional and user-generated video content.
On the commerce side, mobile has been used more for product and pricing research than for actual purchases, and 2009 in particular was notable for the uptake of barcode scanning among smartphone users. Now, the migration of couponing to mobile devices, combined with the integration of offers within social networks and an increase in payment mechanisms designed specifically for the medium, will help marketers to take their programs one step further.
Finally, it's worth remembering that the recent M&A activity in mobile display has been about analytics as well as advertising. Building an effective ROI case for mobile has long been a stumbling block for many marketers, especially when it comes to multi-channel campaigns running across the mobile web, apps, and messaging platforms. Given that consumer uptake of mobile marketing, apps, and commerce continues to be brisk, cracking the analytics nut remains more crucial than ever. Not surprisingly, entrepreneurs are rushing to fill the void, and mobile analytics figures to be a growth business in 2010.
With that context in mind, following are mobile categories and representative companies to watch in 2010.
