Deloitte study highlights the growing amount of money companies are spending on mobile marketing

The amount of money being spent on mobile marketing is expected to grow quickly over the next few years, according to a new study from Deloitte. The study shows that more companies are beginning to focus on engaging mobile consumers. In order to do this effectively, they are investing more heavily in mobile ads, which are specifically designed to connect with those using their smartphones and tablets on a daily basis.

Mobile commerce encourages companies to focus more heavily on mobile ads

The study from Deloitte shows that mobile marketing spending will grow by as much as 20% by 2020. Currently, mobile ads represent up to 4% of total media expenditure. The rise of mobile commerce has shifted the focus of several companies, pushing them to become more mobile-centric in an effort to connect with a new generation of consumers. Telecommunications companies, in particular, are fueling the growth of mobile marketing, with some companies highlighting the expanding availability of the mobile Internet as the best way to engage new consumers.

Companies continue to look for effective ways to engage mobile consumers

Mobile commerce has become quite popular among consumers, with many people using their smartphones and tablets to make purchases online and in physical stores. Companies are finding it easier to engage these consumers through mobile marketing, though advertisements are not guaranteed to be successful at capturing the interests of consumers. In the past, consumers had considered mobile ads somewhat intolerable, which has pressured marketers to change the way they create such advertisements.

Mobile marketing may unlock new opportunities for companies

The continued expansion of the mobile Internet means that mobile marketing will likely become more important for companies throughout the world. If companies cannot find effective ways to engage mobile consumers, they may miss out on promising opportunities that could lead to financial success in the future. They will, of course, have to ensure that these advertisements are not intrusive, as annoying ads have been something that mobile consumers have hated for some time.

While people are using smartphone based wallets more often, it doesn’t appear to be reducing cash use.

According to the most recent digital money index issued by Citigroup in partnership with the Imperial College of London, mobile payments are rapidly becoming more popular in the United States and the United Kingdom, but the least developed countries worldwide aren’t able to use this technology to reduce the use of cash and checks every year.

The hope has been to replace cash and checks with mobile transactions because of the cost reduction.

Transactions in the form of cash and checks cost billions of dollars to maintain every year, which explains why developing nations are placing a considerable focus on mobile payments. The hope is that they will replace a large portion of the use of cash and checks; and the costs associated with those transactions. However, while mobile wallets are becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. and the U.K., they’re not having the desired impact on cash and check use in the developing world.

The report showed that there is a growing gap between the countries that are most and least ready for mobile payments.

According to Sandeep Dave, the head of global digital strategy at Citigroup, “What we found this year is actually pretty stark.” He explained that “The incipient countries that have a long way to go, they almost showed a zero improvement against 2014 scores [while] the materially ready countries showed the most improvement.”

At the highest end of the index, Finland has found itself in the top spot for the third year in a row. Singapore is in second place, followed by the United States. The United Kingdom jumped upward in the index by three places in 2015 when compared to its position in 2014. This brought the U.K. to the fourth spot in the most recent index.

Mr. Dave underscored the fact that, as a whole, progress was not rapid in 2015 in terms of the adoption of mobile payments in favor of cash and checks. He stated that the most recent research from the firm indicated that the primary barrier to the use of the digital transactions was consumer attitudes as the tech, market support and digital money products and wallet apps are all essentially available where they need to be.