Mobile Marketing Watch published a story on a report by Portio Research that again validates the continued increase in the use of mobile marketing technology. Whether to send coupons or alerts to communicate with prospects, customers, or members of an organization; mobile users are opting into these programs to receive this information at a “staggering rate”, according to the report.

Highlights from the story:

The report, focusing on the overall mobile messaging industry worldwide, indicates that in 2009 alone, the industry generated a healthy $150 billion in revenue, with a projected $233 billion by 2014.  The sheer reach of the technology is staggering, and has no signs of slowing down.  Due to SMS being a nearly ubiquitous feature on all cell phones produced and in use today, the technology has become the epitome of mainstream mainly because it’s cheap, convenient, easy to use, discreet and universally acceptable the world over.  In 2009, the report suggests, worldwide SMS traffic topped 5 trillion messages, and that figure is set to exceed 10 trillion in 2013.

Read the full story here.

NBC is taking full advantage of mobile software technology for the Winter Olympics beginning on February 12, 2010.  They’ve set up a whole system using mobile alerts that allows you to be alerted by TV schedules, your favorite sport, athlete, medal counts and more. Just select “Mobile, Alerts, Shop & More” from the home page navigation bar and select Mobile from the drop down menu, or click here to see the full menu of options available for the information that can be sent to you via mobile.   

This is a great way to keep up with all of the events and happenings on the go. Good luck to all of the athletes and let’s hope America brings home a ton of gold medals!

The other day, I listened to a Webinar given by Kim Dushinski from Mobile Marketing Profits.com. Kim is a mobile marketing educator and consultant, and she gave an informative talk about the opportunities in mobile marketing for those wishing to promote their business and or those who want to take advantage of the business opportunities in mobile marketing technology.

Highlights of the Webinar included:

Market Share per day of top communication methods:
Facebook – 350 million users
Email – 1.3 billion users
Text Messaging – 3.2 billion users

Mobile is not just for teens: 66% of people ages 30-49 use text messaging

Kim strongly advocates that mobile marketers need to ensure they offer relevant value to their users, otherwise your message will not produce results

A recent report in Ad Age taken “pre-holiday” 2009 revealed that shoppers actually wanted and were looking for mobile coupon campaigns or as Kim calls it “relevant value”

I was also impressed that Kim used a series of mobile contests to engage with the folks on the call. She asked that we text message a keyword to her short code 4 times during the Webinar to win her products and services. Nice use of mobile technology software to interact with her Webinar audience (and hopefully keep them on the call)!

Kim closed out the Webinar with the following information:

“Mobile marketing is really exciting and on the cutting edge right now, but it is really starting to be more and more available.  If you are interested in it, get started now and move your opportunities forward – Mobile Marketing Opportunities are Now!”

you can can listen to the Webinar here: http://mobilemarketingprofits.com/goldminerecording  or visit Kim’s website to learn more about her consulting work.

I came across this great report done by Marketing Profs in 2009 on the Fierce Market CommTech Website.  It’s a complete playbook for mobile marketing strategy and an excellent primer for marketing development and planning. There are several excellent case studies with the results and ROI included.  

From the report:

The Age of Mobile Marketing has arrived.
According to a recent Marist Poll, 87% of the U.S. population (more than 270
million people nationwide) report owning a cell phone. That number is closer to
3.8 billion worldwide. These figures eclipse the number of people globally who
own and use a computer. This is an excellent time to break into mobile.

Just consider these advantages:
∙Fewer barriers to entry
∙Growing user consent
∙Unmistakable immediacy
∙Tremendous targeting capabilities
∙Measurable data
∙Response tracking for traditional media
∙Killer response rates

Coupled with the Quantcast report in my last post, you’ll have quite of bit of solid information to make informed decisions about your mobile marketing strategy, agency, technology provider and the campaigns suitable for the medium and devices out there.

The recently released report 2009 Mobile Web Trends Report by Quantcast, an internet marketing research company highlights the overall growth trends, market share of web consumption across device manufacturers, operating systems and browsers, holiday trends in mobile as well as anticipated 2010 developments in the mobile arena.

You can read the full report here.  It’s  a great a primer for mobile devices and their operating systems — a complete view of the current ecosystem, with tons of detailed information. While still smaller than the overall market share of web pages, the rapid acceleration of mobile web consumption, as outlined in this report, provides mobile marketers with more evidence for the inclusion of mobile marketing into their programs.

Findings from the report include:

∙North American mobile web share up 110% in 2009 (Dec ’09 vs. Dec ’08)
∙Global mobile web consumption share up 148% in 2009
∙Apple continues to dominate, though market share has declined as increased competition emerges
∙Android supports over 12% of North American mobile web pageviews, overtaking RIM’s Blackberry
∙Motorola’s Android based Droid is the most impressive market entry since the iPhone and is largely responsible for a 10x improvement in Motorola’s North American mobile web share
∙Apple, Nintendo, Motorola and HTC saw the largest ‘stocking stuffer’ bounce this past holiday season, and
∙Pre-launch web visibility points to a wide variety of new devices from Motorola, HTC, Blackberry and others in 2010

For 2010, Quantcast predicts that mobile’s share of page views in North American will grow a whole percentage point to 2.3% by the end of the year.

An article on Mobile Marketing Watch yesterday cites a JP Morgan study outlining the growth for Mobile marketing and advertising in 2010.  Interesting read and spot on in terms of encouraging news for our industry in the coming year: 

According to JP Morgan’s 2010 Internet Industry Outlook released yesterday, online display ads are set to rebound, and the mobile advertising industry is on the verge of an even stronger return.

JP Morgan’s leading industry analyst Imran Kahn released the 328-page Interest Industry outlook which notes that total U.S. mobile advertising for 2009 is estimated at $2.6 billion, up 62 percent, with $2.3 billion of that from text messaging. Just 178 million was mobile search, and $140 million was display. Both of these were up 80 percent last year.

Turn to 2010, and mobile advertising is, according to Kahn, forecast to grow 45 percent to $3.8 billion ($3.2 billion SMS advertising, $253 million mobile display, and $31 million mobile search.)

It’s the first working day of the new year and so far all signs are pointing to a more optimistic view of the economy this year.

We’re excited to be working with all of you and expect great things for mobile marketing in 2010. So far, the Beta of Mobivity 2.0 is going well, don’t forget to check it out when you get a chance (the login in is located on your Mobivity 1.0 control panel) and provide us with your feedback. We are planning new webinars and support tools to keep you up to date on the latest developments and keep the lines of communication open with all of you.

Stayed tuned for announcements on our new programs and we wish you all the best in 2010.

It’s been a great year in mobile marketing and we are looking forward to a great year in 2010.  We want to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a healthy new year. 

In late 2009, we launched the Beta version the new Mobivity 2.0 dashboard and thank you to those of you who provided feedback to us on the new features.  Keep checking back as we are adding and updating it every week, and keep letting us know what you think.  If you’re a current customer and haven’t yet tried it, we’re still accepting testers and feedback. You can  access the Mobivity 2.0 Beta from your login page on Mobivity 1.0 (or use the URL here and your current login information!).

We truly value your input and feedback, please contact us at anytime at info@mobivity.com.

We have great things to look forward to in the new year, and in 2010 you can expect more support and more features to be added to the platform. Our aim, as always is to make Mobivity the most versatile and easy to use mobile marketing platform in the business.  Here are some of the things we’re working on now:

-Monthly Webinars
-Reseller Round tables
-Support Forums
-On-demand Video Tutorials
-New features for our SMS API
-Updated FAQ’s
-New mobile marketing modules such as the Drip Campaign module

Remember too, it’s not to late to run a holiday campaign by offering your customers a mobile coupon for last minute deals, holidays specials, a free gift with purchase or just to thank them for their business.

Thanks again for your business this year!

If you’re planning on doing any shopping from your mobile phone for the holidays this year, check out CouponAlbum.mobi to find discounts and deals for your favorite online stores.  The site lists featured coupons on the landing page, and you can search for deals by the store name.

I found the site easy to use and it includes major retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Aeropostale, Home Depot, Kohls, Macy’s, Barnes and Noble, The HP Store and many more.

Happy Shopping and Happy Holidays!

I am seeing encouraging reports about holiday shopping and mobile phone usage. I totally agree with Mobile Marketing Watch that this is a strong indicator for the mobile marketing industry – the new data supports a greater opportunity to target and reach our customers via mobile devices.

From Mobile Marketing Watch:

Black Friday Sees Mobile Shopping Explosion 

“On Black Friday 2009, mobile online payments through PayPal were up nearly 650 percent year-over-year, according to the eBay-owned payment company, in data reviewed by Dow Jones.”

Cyber Monday or Mobile Monday

“The rise of Cyber Monday and growth of mobile shopping is significant for mobile marketers. With more consumers turning to online and their mobile devices to shop and purchase items, there is a greater opportunity to target customers with marketing and advertising messages via mobile devices.”

From Online Media Daily:

Shop By Phone: Mobile Makes Dent In Cyber Monday Sales

“Mobile phones will also have an impact on retail sales this year. Cyber Monday shoppers are reaching for their mobile phones more frequently to make a purchase or research products. In fact, 3.8% will shop from a mobile device such as an iPhone or a BlackBerry, according to Shop.org.”

Remember, it’s not too late to run a SMS holiday campaign with a  mobile coupon – that’s the great thing about mobile marketing – it only takes a few moments to set up and distribute your messages!