Smartphones: Taking Over the World in 2011

We talk and think a lot about mobile marketing. But frankly, only a small proportion of cell phone users have devices that are equipped for any substantial web interfacing. But that may soon change—Nielsen predicts that smartphones will make up the majority of the cell phone market in two years.

MediaPost reports that by mid-2011, half of cell phone subscribers, about 150M people, will be using smart devices. Smartphones are already showing a marked increase—Nielsen predicts that Q4 of this year will show that 40% of new phones sold are smart devices (as opposed to the Q309, slowest quarter in recent memory with smart devices accounting for only 25% of new phones).

I think that smartphone adoption will be crucial to mobile marketing finally taking off in the US. The fact that most phones today are still incapable of real web browsing has contributed to the slow start to mobile marketing. I’ve been saying for years that a better web browsing experience, like that of a smartphone, is crucial to the success of mobile marketing. And Nielsen agrees:

Nielsen also anticipates more users paying for video and premium content on their phones.

What do you think? Will smartphones reach this much of the market in another 18 months? Will 2011 be the year of the mobile?

GoogMob Deal “A Watershed Moment” For Mobile Advertising

Just as the introduction of the iPhone changed everything in the consumer world of mobile and helped usher in the era of the mobile internet, the pending Google acquisition of mobile display ad network AdMob is an almost equally significant event for mobile advertising. Over the past few years mobile advertising and marketing have been [...]

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Yahoo Search Ads Now On iPhone & Android Mobile Devices

The Yahoo Search Marketing Blog announced that your search ads will now automatically be displayed on iPhone & Android mobile phones. Yes, Yahoo said, this is an automatic opt in for all advertisers.
Yahoo said, “As of today, your ads should begin appearing immediately on these devices for relevant searches, if they have not already.” [...]

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SPONSOR MESSAGE: Webcast – Integrating Mobile Marketing into Large-Scale Marketing Campaigns

Mobile phones and their associated applications have changed the way we communicate and the way we live, presenting tremendous opportunities — and challenges — for marketers. In this webcast, mobile experts Greg Sterling and Cindy Krum explore how large-brand and multi-channel marketers can integrate mobile into an existing marketing campaign. Register now for this [...]

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Are Local Businesses Moving Away from Search?

Local search, much like mobile marketing, always seemed poised to ‘break out’ and experience the growth that so many predict. Whether it’s a real trend or just a result of our un-stimulated economic climate, local businesses that have tried paid search to attract new customers through the search engines like Google and Yahoo are not sticking with it. A report from Borrell Associates as covered in the Wall Street Journal suggests that churn and burn is as much a part of local search as is anything else.

A new study on local search advertising from research firm Borrell Associates finds that roughly 50% of businesses that buy search ads directly from Google and other Internet search companies don’t come back the following year. And the churn rate for businesses like Yodle, ReachLocal and LookSmart that purchase search ads on behalf of local advertisers is around 60%, according to the study, scheduled to be released Monday.

Google has been making some improvements to their local search data that is provided to businesses which is an indication that they are certainly interested in this surprisingly under represented section of the business environment. In these times though it’s the smallest players that are feeling a lot of the effects of a soured economy that is giving little indication of getting on track soon. Couple that with the fact that there are studies that show that just over 40% of the small businesses don’t even have a website and it looks like there is a long way to go for local search to truly have its coming out party.

There are many arguments that are thrown about as to why this phenomenon is occurring including affiliates marking up ads and the actual value of the clicks in general. Borrell CEO Gordon Borrell uses some pretty direct language when he states that “Search advertising has been over-hyped and over-sold to local businesses”. Ouch.

While not mentioned in the article one area that contributes to this turnover in advertisers is education. Most small business folks don’t understand the ability and need to track results religiously. They are under the impression that if you place the ad they will come. Start to talk about quality scores and the like and most SMB’s (small and medium business) glaze over. The search industry tends to talk over their head and act as if everyone knows the ins and outs or paid search. That is simply not the case most of the time. As a result, there is disappointment that could be avoided if there was appropriate knowledge of the medium and its potential.

Maybe Google and the other providers of paid search platforms are counting on the fact that there are so many smaller businesses that have yet to even stick their toe in the waters of pay per click that there will be enough new folks in line to back fill as the turnover occurs? Maybe local search just isn’t up to the hype it gets? Maybe we’re making a mountain out of a mole hill? Your thoughts?

Forrester Report: Here Come the Mobile & Social Media Ads!

OK, so we already know that online advertising spending in 2009 is likely to be lower than 2008, but where exactly will companies funnel their ad dollars?

According to Forrester, if you’re in the mobile marketing or paid social media space, the glass is either half-empty or half-full.

It’s a half-empty kind of world, if you consider that these two verticals are currently under-funded by companies of all sizes. It’s a half-full world, if you take the view that there’s plenty of growth left in these areas–and companies appear to be ready to invest in them over the next 12 months.

So, where does that leave email and search marketing? Are we close to topping out?

Mobile Marketing Bucks Trend with Predicted 26% Increase in ‘09

Ok class. What’s the most important word in the title of this post? What’s that? I can’t hear you? The word is predicted. We then turn to our training in the world of market research and look at the source, which in this case is the Mobile Marketing Association, and then draw our conclusions. Please note that I am by no means saying that this study that MediaPost brings us isn’t correct. I hope it is. We need good news and if there is a segment of new media marketing that is poised to take off it’s mobile (well, at least we have been hearing that for the past few years so it has to happen at some point right?)

So the MMA is taking heart that despite overall marketing spend being off 7% for the same period (which is another prediction so it could be higher or lower in the end when all the rubble is cleared away) there is a 26% bump in mobile marketing spend anticipated. It goes on to say

While mobile is bucking the downward spending trend resulting from the recession, the emerging medium is still only a small fraction of total marketing budgets, at 1.8%. The MMA projects that mobile ad spending will grow from $1.7 billion this year to $2.16 billion in 2010

Of the brands and agencies polled about half report doing some mobile work

with SMS text campaigns being the most common at 66%, followed by having a mobile Web site (53%), and mobile email marketing (33%)

Not everything has the rosy glow of optimism in it, however.

About half of agencies said they overall viewed mobile marketing as still being part of experimental expending, compared to 36% of brands. Both brands and agencies reported having “average” success with mobile efforts compared to other marketing channels.

There is a lot of room for improvement obviously. As we discussed recently maybe they just need to market to the cool kids with the iPhones (there’s my iPhone envy again, sorry). The mobile industry leaders are touting the tracking and targeting capabilities of mobile as the reason why spend is looking to increase despite the horrific advertising environment we are currently in.

One particularly interesting piece of data was the following

Not surprisingly, the study also showed that the Internet is the medium that advertisers are most often integrating mobile efforts with, at 70%. Less expected is that trade shows and other promotional events would be the next most popular type of marketing effort tied into mobile, at 36%.

Special event marketing and the mobile tie-ins that are available make good sense due to the captive audience and the ability to push users toward the offering at the event. This practically ensures a higher response and it will be interesting to see how that develops.

So it looks like mobile is the new hot thing but haven’t we heard that in the past? Maybe we should wait until 2010 and look back on how 2009 did before we say anything else. Just a thought.