Nine Mobile Marketing Trends for 2014: The Year of Turning Ideas into Marketing Magic

2013 was a yearwhere many businesses started to prioritize their effort on emerging serviceslike mobility, cloud and analytics. Tablets and smartphones are more popularhan desktops and mobile devices have surpassed desktops in enabling people todo more on the internet regardless of physical location. The growth in themobile sector and ecosystem within the past two years has been impressive. Withhe total value of mobile traffic having already increased multi-fold thisyear, mobile advertising has gained huge prominence and become hot tech topic.

Mobilecommunications will further evolve as mobile operators continue to investheavily in next generation mobile infrastructures. The number of mobile phonesubscribers is expected to outgrow the world’s population in the coming yearand this is expected to impact business models, empower consumers, and improvecollaboration and marketing.

With so manypeople using smartphones and tablets, mobile strategy is going to be moreimportant than ever in 2014. A new year is a time for change and another chanceo do things the best way possible. It’s important to look back at the waybusinesses were marketing to customers in 2013 and how they can improve in thenew mobile year. Let’s take a look at the top mobile trends for 2014. This iswhere business can start looking at innovative mobile marketing strategies toride the mobile wave and improve their positions in global marketing.

1.ProgrammaticBuying – The latest ad technology is geared around automated buying andselling as ad exchanges, supply side platforms and mobile ad networks reach forscale. Programmatic ad buying and selling is changing the mobile landscape andis growing in fast in developed internet markets. Advertisers have been quicklywon over by the ability to bring together the combination of historical intentcombined with profile and behavioral data in real time through these newautomated technologies. Mobile already accounts for 19% of all programmaticspend in the U.S. With mobile display ad spend set to grow much faster thanonline worldwide, mobile programmatic will quickly become the norm.

2.WearableTechnology – Wearable technology is changing the way we interact with technology anddaily life. This advancement is providing businesses with opportunities neverbefore imagined with new products to market on, such as Google Glass and smartwatches. As wearable technology gains popularity and becomes integratedinto everyday life, marketers who take advantage ofwearable technology’s ability to make interactions effortless forconsumers can benefit in establishing a strong connection and provide uniqueexperience.

3.ImprovedLocation Targeting – There is a lot of excitement aroundlocation-based mobile marketing and the strategy has grown tremendously overhe last few years. In 2014 location-based targeting will only improve further.Reaching consumers where they are and converging both digital and real worldsmeans the right ad at the right place and at the right time. It brings value toconsumers helping them find products and services where and when they need.Marketers can use location patterns with existing customer data to delivercustom messages by serving relevant, time bound offers based on their profilesand travel patterns.

4. Mobile Ad formats – As mobileadvertising grows, new ad formats are likely to come up. Facebook’s insertionof native advertising into news feeds, Twitter’s promoted tweets, and Instagram’sin-stream ads are a few examples of the new, successful ad formats introducedhis year. 2014 will see brands and developers discover more creative adsinvolving innovative rich media formats. Continuous growing networkconnectivity speeds will enable brands to test new creative formats, includingmobile video, moving away from the standard mobile banner ads.

5. Mobile Big Data– Big data is said to anchor the next revolution in mobile industry.Spending on big data has risen tremendously over the previous few years and2014 will see further growth. Mobile big data comes in many forms, smartphonepenetration, consumer usage patterns, mobile apps and other services working inhe background. As the mobile penetration grows, the data from mobile becomeseven more important and this data can be used to optimize and personalizemobile experiences. Location data is the primary component of mobile big datawhich differentiates mobile from online helps transform the mobile advertisingindustry. The ability to deliver real time, local targeted advertisingrepresents a significant evolution in the mobile ad market. These data pointsprovide mobile app marketers with a wealth of knowledge on user behavior thatwasn't previously available.

6.Mobile Video – According toresearch firm YankeeGroup, 2014 will see mobile video viewing levels equaling PC for the firstime. Faster wireless networks, better devices and affordable data plans willenable this change and will result in people spending increased time watchingvideo content on mobile devices.Mobilevideo ads are expected to become the top ad format in the coming year alongwith new mobile ad formats discussed above. Facebook’s introductionof video on Instagram and thesuccess of Twitter-owned Vine has created new avenues in mobile marketing viasocial networks. According to eMarketer, US adspending for mobile video is set to quadruple from this year’s $518 millionestimate to nearly $2.1 billion in 2016. This represents tremendous opportunityfor marketers to tie in video ads as consumers are active on both social mediaand mobile as second screen.

7. Rising Mobile Currency – Thewidespread adoption of smartphones hasseen a rise in the adoption of mobile wallets. Instead of paying cash or creditcard the consumers now can use a mobile phone to pay for wide range of goodsand services. As mobile continues to grow at huge pace in developing nations,mobile payment solutions are being deployed as a means of extending financial services to the unbankedcommunity. This is bound to create enormous demand for mobile advertisingservices and technologies as brands seek to target existing and prospectivecustomers.

8. Mobile Messaging – Mobile-focusedsocial messaging apps such as Snapchat, Pheed, WeChat, WhatsApp etc. aregrowing their monthly active users at tremendous rates meaning consumerinterest in communicating on these platforms and mobile devices in general ishigh. These apps allow users to communicate with text, images, video and othermedia in real time on simple, visually appealing platforms. Although this isn’ta trend, it still represents the growing number of customers for these apps onmobile phones today. This data presents a massive opportunity for businesses toget in front of their customers and take an active role in discovering the bestmobile marketing messages for these platforms.

9. App Marketing –Overhe last few years, app promotion was all about reaching the top positions inhe chart through incentivized download generation. This year the strategiesshifted toward a more CPI (click per install) sensitive approach throughnon-incentivized downloads. As mobile advertising continues to evolve, themetrics used to gauge the effectiveness of campaigns have also evolved. 2014will see new metrics with a clear focus on generating ROI based positivecampaigns. New metrics such as consumer lifetime value (LTV) and averagerevenue per user (ARPU) are evolving and these will be analyzed carefully inaccordance with the business model of the app.

Every yearanalysts predict that the coming year will be ‘the year of mobile.’ While thereis no doubt that the last few years have seen a tremendous growth in mobileecosystem, newer developments and evolving mobile business models promise 2014o be a huge year for mobile business. In 2014, businesses will need to beresponsive and quickly adapt to changes in the ways consumers communicate.It will also be essential to adopt technology-driven strategies toengage consumers. While mobile will remain high on everyone’s prioritylists in 2014, there will be growing pressure from both brands and publisherso extract more value and accountability from mobile advertising.

All in all,2014 is definitely going to be an exciting year for mobile advertising.

Have a safe and healthy New Year!