Tag: mobile marketing

New report highlights prominent trends in mobile marketing

Mobile Marketing ReportMobile marketing report released by Millennial Media

Millennial Media, a mobile advertising firm, has released its latest 2012 SMART report, which highlights the trends that have emerged in the mobile marketing sector over the past year. Mobile devices are becoming more common, which has increased activity in the mobile marketing sector exponentially. More advertisers are looking to engage consumers through their mobile devices, and mobile marketing campaigns have been very successful in doing this in the past. Many advertisers are looking to maintain a strong presence in mobile marketing, but have been faced with significant challenges over the past year.

Advertisers using mobile marketing to maintain in-market presence

According to the report, 39% of advertisers around the world used mobile platforms in order to maintain their in-market presence. Mobile marketing is not only considered an effective way to engage consumers and encourage them to purchase new products; it is also an effective means of ensuring that consumers do not forget that particular products are available. Using mobile marketing to maintain in-market presence has proven somewhat successful for many advertisers, helping them sustain a constant connection with a wide range of consumers.

Brick-and-mortar store traffic on the decline

The report also shows that mobile marketing is being used to build brand awareness and drive traffic to websites. Relatively few marketers are using mobile marketing campaigns to promote in-store traffic. Those that are pushing in-store traffic are primarily operating within the restaurant and retail industries. While advertisers have found some success in driving consumer traffic to actual stores, many consumers prefer to shop using their smartphones and tablets, which has had a marked impact on the retail sector as a growing number of people opt to use their mobile devices to purchase products rather than visit an actual store.

Mobile commerce helping offset the decline of physical traffic for retailers

While physical traffic for retailers may be on the decline, the prevalence of mobile commerce has offset whatever losses retailers would see from this trend. Consumers are eager to purchase products through e-commerce sites, which has helped the retailer industry see impressive gains over the past year. Mobile commerce is expected to help retailers see promising growth in several sectors, as long as these retailers provide consumers with easy-to-use mobile commerce services.

QR codes used in Australian mobile marketing by Disney

Australia Disney QR Codes Mobile MarketingThe barcodes were used on a virtual shopping wall outside an Australian movie theater.

Disney partnered up with an Australian mid-market retailer called Target for a mobile marketing campaign using QR codes in order to reach children attending a screening of the classic animated film, Cinderella.

The barcodes were mounted on an interactive shopping wall to allow kids to learn about branded products.

The wall was located at a Sydney movie theater. It was geared toward children using their parents smartphones. It displayed a number of branded Disney products that may be of interest to those children and that were being sold at Target. The QR codes allowed the children to learn more about those products so that they could be purchased by their parents.

The QR codes were designed to simultaneously build on the child’s experience and display various products.

The Event Cinema virtual wall was at Sydney’s Castle Hill. This was where the Cinderella was being screened over the weekend. The QR codes were left up only for that one weekend as a deliberate temporary mobile commerce event, and not one that was designed to be permanent. Audience members were able to view various Disney products from Target, such as costumes and DVDs, and allowed them to order them online to be shipped to their homes.

“Like with everything else, young kids will be seeing the movie with their parents, so it’s expected they’ll use their parent’s smartphones to interact with the wall,” said a spokesperson from Disney. When the QR codes on the wall were scanned, they directed the user to the Target website page that was connected to the product next to which the barcode was displayed. They could be scanned either with any free barcode reader, or the Disney Princess Store app.

Disney has been taking several steps into the mobile commerce world, including augmented reality toys, shopping applications, and a number of other efforts. It has also used QR codes for several other purposes, for instance, to connect the user with different types of online content, like videos. However, this is the first time that the company has ever used these barcodes as a virtual store or to help to link consumers directly to a page where they can make a purchase.