Tag: mobile marketing trends

Although the smartphone and tablet based shopping and advertising experience remains small, it is growing fast.

Mobile marketing and commerce are already growing at an explosive rate, but they remain a small fraction of the overall online space, except when it comes to couponing, which is clearly reaching mainstream levels.

This technique for advertising is driving revenues and is sending foot traffic back into stores.

Trends in mobile marketing are developing extremely fast, as end of year totals look nothing like what they had been at the beginning of the same year. Now, with the holiday shopping season once again approaching, retailers are looking to take advantage of the smartphone and tablet marketplace, particularly in areas that have become the most popular. That easily includes couponing.

A recent BI Intelligence report revealed that coupons, as well as catalogs, are leading the way in mobile marketing.

The report showed that among grocery stores, 41 percent are using mobile marketing couponing techniques, with the same percentage of department stores offering coupons for smartphone and tablet users, as well. Thirty nine percent of clothing stores were doing so, while electronics stores were using mobile coupons in only 29 percent of the cases (which is surprising, considering that they often sell those devices and gadgets in the first place). Finally, 26 percent of mass merchandisers were found to take part in this technique.

The role of coupons in mobile marketing is not only becoming increasingly popular, but the report has indicated that its importance is growing, as well, and that it will continue to do so. This is because the number of American smartphone owners who use these coupons has exploded. In 2010, 7.4 million Americans were using them, and by the end of last year, a tremendous 29.5 million Americans reported using them. By the year 2014’s end, the report has predicted that this will have continued to skyrocket and will reach 47.1 million people in the United States, alone.

Moreover, the report also indicated that among the mobile marketing coupons that were distributed, there was a far greater redemption rate over this channel than there had been at the same time with print coupons.

During the first half of this year, digital ad spending has spiked when compared to last year.

The latest estimates regarding digital ad spending and mobile marketing for the first half of the year have now been released by Kantar Media, and they have shown that the figures have grown considerably over last year at the same time.

The total ad spend in the United States increased 2.0 percent across the market, year over year.

However, eMarketer also pointed out on Monday that “But Q2 2013 was notable for an even faster rate of increase, at 3.5% over Q2 2012”. This included the figures for not only mobile marketing, but all online advertising spending.

In the first half of 2013, the mobile marketing spending increased notably.

The report also indicated that beyond mobile marketing, digital display ads experienced an increase of 5.3 percent over the first half of the year. However, it is important to note that this particular statistic does not include those displayed over smartphones and tablets, and does not include the results that were seen over video.

Video and mobile marketing are the two areas in which the largest increases in investment have been recorded. In fact, it is indicated that the growth for each of those individual digital spending areas rose by a great deal more than the figure recorded for the increases in display only.

It did not come as much of a surprise to the authors of the report that retail remained in the lead of the spending for mobile marketing and digital ad spending. However, the overall digital ad growth (not including video and smartphone and tablet ads) in the second quarter of this year was quite small compared to a year beforehand, landing at only 0.1 percent growth this year.

The report added that the fastest rate of increase was in the telecom industry, where there was a rise of 19.5 percent. Insurance and restaurants were also seen as rapid growth categories for mobile marketing as well as digital ad spending, as they each achieved overall increases in spending in the double digit percentages. It was estimated by eMarketer that the total overall ad spending in the United States will see a growth of 3.6 percent in 2013.