Given time, low cost broadband mobile phones connected to the mobile broadband network have the best long term potential to ensure complete inclusion of all in the UK to the broadband internet,” read the recent Digital Britain report as it claimed that mobiles may be the key to realising the government’s Holy Grail – broadband internet access for all.

“The Digital Britain report is good news for businesses operating in the digital space,” says Fran Laws, marketing manager at mobile applications firm Mubaloo. 

“Notably for us as a smartphone app developer, we are encouraged to see proposals to work towards universal coverage in 3G and Next Generation Mobile. To date this has been held back by the differing agendas of the mobile operators and the Government propose to make licensing changes which will incentivise operators to move towards universality. This move will have a positive impact on the smartphone market.” 
In 2008 smartphone sales made up 14% of the mobile market, by the end of 2009 this figure is predicted to be 17%. However, with these proposed changes, figures can expect to rise to 20% and beyond.

Despite the influence smartphone applications currently have on mobile marketing, the higher cost of developing emerging technologies continues to be an obstacle for many agencies, claims Andrew Bowyer at Birmingham agency Clusta. “In development terms, this is still a very young market and one that, by its nature, relies on novelty and new creative ideas. This means that brands can be reluctant to commit budgets to a simple and effective iPhone app.

“Our project to develop handset enabled digital ad panels with CBS Outdoor has been initiated in direct response to marketers looking for new tools to help them execute their ideas. 

“Developing new platforms and Application Programme Interfaces will be essential to the extension of the mobile marketer’s armoury. The big challenge in developing these tools, though, is standardisation and flexibility across the emerging mobile platforms. Of course, we have the progress of the web to learn from.”  

Tony Stanton, MD at An Agency Called England believes that the real key to unlocking potential is to make communication fun or useful – brands can build relationships by giving consumers something back. “Mobile marketers must make the content compelling and add ‘value’. No-one wants valueless clutter. The smart marketers are already figuring out that the power of proximity, time and message can add several strands to segmentation, improving the targetting of the audiences. If we get appropriate messages to our mobile that are right for us by time and space, it won’t be intrusive, we will be grateful.”

In fact, James Barley, digital director at Iris’ Manchester office, claims that contextual geo-targeting, along with the other richer functionality, will help the mobile brand experience become a tool or service, rather than a one-way message. “Mobile marketing is becoming useful and a product in itself, from simple spirit levels to intelligent journey planners. The impact of mobile can spread further by reigniting more traditional channels.

“But creative thinking is needed more than aesthetic creativity; how can brands help their audiences? How can they provide something genuinely useful? How can they make people’s lives easier with tools and services? The current smartphone apps are just a starter for ten. However, brands need to be relevant – a knee-jerk ‘me too’ app could damage the brand as well as the marketing budget.”

Such is the speed of development within the mobile market, Rachel Wilkinson at SASS says that brands that aren’t investing in mobile marketing could quickly find themselves left behind.

“If budgets need to be squeezed, marketeers may concentrate on more traditional digital activity. However, with smart phones becoming widely available on contract (iPhone has over 30% market share in the US), we will see an exponential increase in use, which will allow the delivery of personalised brand engagement – something no other channel on or offline can compete with.

“Google’s Android platform is an excellent example of the marketing power of mobile devices – Google has given the operating system away free to manufacturers in the hope of dominating the market and capturing user information; so generating revenue through their advertising model. This demonstrates that internet giants are moving into mobile as this is perceived to be the future of connectivity to the internet. 

“If a brand is not investing in mobile, they could soon find themselves left out in the cold. After all, when an application is installed to a personal device, the user has made a conscious decision to engage with that brand, and so creates the opportunity to interact with a consumer one-on-one. This is very powerful and can provide personal engagement like no other channel.”

James Oliver, CEO of Shake Interactive, an agency that has been at the forefront of mobile development, adds: “Mobile marketing has been emerging, slowly, for years, but the current penetration speaks for itself. Our main areas of focus are now on developing .mobi sites that can be deployed quickly but are (importantly) tied into a huge database that tracks user interaction across multiple campaigns and multiple timelines. This hangs off the back of our mobile CRM platform.

“The .mobi sites are also being developed in a way that allows our SEO team to work with the mobile SEO algorithm – which is different from the standard web-based algorithm. We see this as a potentially exciting area mainly because if it tracks the web growth patterns, then .mobi sites will have to put usability and mobile SEO at the core of mobile strategies.”

Mobiles offer the perfect companion tool for marketing to be integrated into a campaign to connect with users on an impulse and responsive level, says Andy Nisbet of mobile marketing agency Deko. “Using shortcodes and keywords within traditional advertising is the perfect mechanism to push users to getting instant content no matter their location or the time of day. Creating mobile apps for brand awareness is key to creating loyalty or awareness, which could be creating a ‘Find your nearest sports bar’ for the World Cup using GPS or LBS, to social and health awareness content targeting the youth sector, where mobiles are second nature.”

* Mobile penetration in the UK is now 122% and there are now 76.1m mobile subscribers (Netsize)
* 80% of text messages are read compared with 10% of emails (Netsize)
* 95% of 16-24 year olds use text messaging regularly, each sending an average of 100 texts per month (themda.org)
* Over 1 billion applications have been downloaded from the iPhone app store since it launched.
As of December 2008 there were 17.80m active mobile internet users in the UK. (text.it)

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Jamie Laux, Bleep Purple
Phones didn’t grow up assuming the internet, television, mp3’s or cameras; just as they didn’t grow up assuming mobiles. So how did mobile end up as the all consuming media platform it is today? 

With the rise in the culture of participation came blogs, photo sharing and personal media. Tens of millions of people use these services just to be part of something and mobile extends this personal freedom. In an age of shifting social identities where the connected consumer may have several identities on the web, one for the office and more at home, mobile has the power to engage, capture and retain.  

Mobile allows digital to escape the PC. It allows one the opportunity to create, share and inform, we just need the right software to switch it on.

The advancement of advertising on mobile however, feels arrested and continues to lag behind the astonishing rate of development that mobile devices are seeing.   
So with this whirlwind of development how do we conceive a mobile strategy on top of our existing strategies?  The answer is we don’t!  Mobile is the great integrator of our time.  By integrating mobile into your existing strategy rather than defining a new one, mobile doesn’t present a business risk, simply a strong addition to a client’s marketing mix.

There are some amazing technologies out there but more often than not amazing technologies aren’t suitable for a mass market campaign. Whether the objective is to raise brand awareness, increase sales or promote goods and services nearby, companies should choose a mobile technology that characterises their user behaviour.  Only this way can there be a return on mobile advertising outside mobile web and SMS formats. 

With the economic downturn, agencies and advertisers will look to focus their marketing campaign as more scrutiny is placed on return on investment. The pressure points will be on “measurability” and “differentiation” in the recession and fortunately, mobile triumphs in both areas.

Mobile has the potential to play a leading role in the marketing mix of today’s campaigns. What we once could only enjoy on computers and TVs, we can now carry with us from the office, to the airport, and even onto the plane.

Total media convergence is here and advertising is now a two-way conversation. Fail to integrate mobile now and you could end up with digital divide in the future. If I was a gambling man I’d say the smart money’s on the smart phone.