Image via CrunchBase

According to the Chinese calendar, we’re in the year of the rabbit.  I guess that makes sense, because things sure are hopping right along in the mobile world.

A Nielsen Company report from October 2010 shows that 29.7 percent of mobile subscribers in the United States have a Smartphone.  The two most popular at the time of the report were the iPhone and the Blackberry.  Twenty-two percent of users were running the Android Operating System.  What does this mean?  Not much unless you’re looking into the joining the wave of marketers using Smartphones to sell their wares!

How are people using their Smartphones and what difference does it make in marketing?

Take a look at this poll posted in The New York Times back in September:

A survey of 4000 people determined that most people wouldn’t even THINK about leaving home without their mobile phone.  And what are they doing with their phones?  The majority of them are playing games, checking the weather, and surfing the internet.  More and more are performing daily work tasks, but the majority is still using it socially.  How are they doing this?  They are using applications (or “apps”).  An application downloaded by the user is where your marketing strategy comes in to play.  Sixty-one percent of Smartphone users buy and play games regularly.  People load the game, they see an advertisement, and they are likely to click on it.  Sometimes users click on an advertisement accidentally.  That’s ok. It still puts your business in front of them and that is the ultimate goal.

Think about it using your own usage as an example.  As time passes web surfers (a.k.a. potential consumers), have learned to tune out the advertisements they see on webpages, as they have the commercials on TV.  We’re too used to seeing them.  Insert a new method of advertising here … via games and other apps that are being downloading and used daily on Smartphones.  This method of advertising is still fresh and new!  People are seeing it.

With Smartphones, a whole new set of opportunities has opened up for the marketer.  User location data is more readily available, which means more targetability.  All advertising is “opt-in” because the user has made the first point of contact by downloading the app.  And most users are on their phones every day so it’s more in their face and personal.  It’s a great opportunity!

So get out there!  Get to work on that marketing plan, updating it to include mobile phone application advertising!

Interesting fact:  In a poll taken by the Nielsen Company in September 2010, it was determined that when thinking of getting a new phone, women will likely choose the iPhone, which uses the iOS, whereas men will prefer the Android system.

A recent Comscore article shows that Facebook and Twitter Access via Mobile Browsers has Grows by Triple-Digits in the Past Year, which really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. I don’t know about you- but it seems that everyone I talk to these days has an iPhone, Droid, or Blackberry.

The rise of mobile technology has some neat (and somewhat frightening, in the Big Brother-sense) implications for how we can be targeted by marketing/advertising. Applications like Foursquare publishes your location to the world, which could allow a monitoring application to watch for anyone who “checks-in” at specific locations.  Think about the implications of checking-in on Beale Street in Memphis on a Saturday night, and then getting a reply that offers you no-cover entrance, or 2-for-1 on your first cocktail at a nearby blues club?

Consider what that technology could that do for restaurants: giving them the ability to offer location-specific specials for lunch or dinner?  What about B2B organizations (a lot of whom seem to be struggling with ways to use social media tools) who want to target locally?  It would be relatively simple for an application to cross-reference someone’s check-in location (like in your company’s office complex, for instance) with specific keywords in a Twitter profile data.  I could then send a message to anyone who is listed as a CMO or Director of Marketing that checks in at Memphis’ business incubator, Emerge Memphis, a message that said “Good to see you in our neck of the woods. If you’ve got 10 minutes, stop by and we’ll show you something neat that we’re up to”.

Alright, I may want to put a little more thought into that message itself, but the point is: I can get hyper-specific with who I am targeting and what messaging I send to that person.

A Better Mobile Web
My other thoughts on the rise of mobile are nothing new – I love that mobile technology gives us so much freedom and instant access to information, but I hate that web site (not app) developers are not catering more to mobile users.

Web sites need to get smarter!  This presentation from Razorfish’s John Petengill points out how mobile users do not want their Internet experience to be watered down. Check it out – very short, but powerful (plus its a really cool presentation).

Valeo is proposing an optional, mobile-friendly version of every with every new site project that we have pitched in the last 6 months.  Why wouldn’t you want a mobile site if you’re developing a new web presence?  Give mobile users a better experience, because their numbers will continue to rise.

There’s a lot of hype about having a mobile app, and there are some great companies who have developed an application that will build mobile apps for you. Our neighbors, Resolute Interactive, has developed their Appanda software that allows you to design and publish your own iPhone and Android app through a web interface. (Shameless plug: check out Valeo’s app on iTunes that was built using Appanda)

This is a break through for anyone who doesn’t want to hire someone like Resolute or Valeo to build you a custom app, but don’t forget about your website, which still has the power to drive far greater amounts of traffic to your online presence. Having your own mobile app is great – but between a mobile app, and a mobile-friendly version of your site, which do you think has more potential?  I’ll give you a hint- mobile apps are not showing up in search engine results…

Looking to the Future
Not huge in the States yet, but sure to be crossing the oceans and coming here soon, I think QR codes will play some part in the mobile future.  I’m not quite ready to talk about that yet – but we’re working up some ideas, so I’m sure we’ll have something for you sometime this year.  Stay tuned…

Some interesting reading about Foursquare:

• Facebook About to Drop a Bomb on Foursquare? (socialmediatoday.com)
• foursquare fascination (timesunion.com)
• Putting Foursquare-esque Technology to Work… at Work (socialmediatoday.com)