the waiting room blog

Fifty-six percent of parents surveyed said they gave their children a smartphone for safety and security reasons, according to a study from location-based system Life360.

Get effective use of geo-targeting without GPS services at

QuizGlass.com

The folks over at Microsoft Tag just published an interesting infographic that details the “rise and fall of advertising media,” which compares the top media channels for advertising and the vast differences in spend and overall growth (or lack thereof).

As you can see below, mobile continues to blow every other media channel out of the water in terms of growth.  In looking at the change in advertising spend between 2009 and 2010, mobile topped the list at 75% overall, followed by social media at 32%, Online advertising at 14%, TV at 11%, radio at 9%, outdoor advertising at 2% and magazines at 1%.  Newspaper advertising was the only medium with a decrease in ad spend, falling 7% between 2009 and 2010.

Another interesting tidbit is the fact that the average mobile app session is nearly 4 and half minutes, compared with just 1 minute for an average website viewing session.  This shows the power of mobile for user engagement and why mobile marketing and advertising is so effective.

Infographic presented by 2D barcode service Microsoft Tag.

Effective geo-targeting without the use of GPS services at QuizGlass.com

In a beginner’s guide style commentary in Tuesday’s online edition of Forbes magazine, Mike Tittel of gyro shared what surprisingly remains a secret to many advertisers and business owners – location is key to success in mobile marketing.

“Most clients are asking about mobile technology,” Tittel writes. “They have immediate concerns: Android versus iPhone or BlackBerry, apps versus mobile-enabled Web pages, Japan versus North America, GPS, QR codes, mobile wallet, mobile couponing, technologies and execution.”

“But often they need to take a step back,” he adds. “Mobile devices have for the first time ever made location and context the most critical things to consider in mobile marketing.”

Last week, however, we were reminded that while mobile ads rooted in location are important, catching a mobile user’s interest still involves much, much more.

A study from Upstream revealed precisely the types of mobile advertising that consumers prefer to receive. In a continuation of the company’s North American Consumer Attitudes to Mobile Marketing research, undertaken by Luth Research, survey respondents indicated that mobile advertisements that are tailored to their “tastes and interests” far out-perform other offers that are based on time, lifestyle or location.

Assaf Baciu, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Upstream says: “While location remains an important factor in delivering mobile ads, tailoring interactions via mobile to consumers’ ‘tastes and interests’ clearly presents much greater potential for driving higher response and conversion rates.”

“Interestingly, despite more sophisticated forms of mobile marketing out there, opt-in text alerts or messages still score very highly with regard to consumer responsiveness,” Baciu adds. “This data reinforces the very intimate, personal nature of consumers’ mobile devices, and the singular priority for mobile marketers to carefully manage and optimize their engagement and number of interactions with customers.”

Get effective use of geo-targeting without GPS services at

QuizGlass.com

On Wednesday, entertainment giant MTV published the results from its “Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em: Adoption, Abandonment and the App-Addled Consumer” study.

The research simply confirms that which we already suspected with regard to mobile app usage. Millions of Americans are essentially “addicted” to certain mobile applications.

A staggering 83% of daily mobile app users surveyed by MTV admit to being “addicted” to their apps. The research, which was aimed at studying the life cycle of apps, from how they’re found to why they’re ultimately cherished or deleted, prompted one participant to concede that some apps “are like Xanax in a phone.”

Drawing on a quantitative survey of more than 1,300 self-reported daily mobile app users, as well as qualitative, in-depth interviews with dedicated app consumers, MTVN found that apps are changing the lives of users by acting as a digital extension of their physical selves. Apps provide more pleasure, more free time and more new worlds to discover.

69% of men revealed that they would rather give up their favorite news source for a year than their favorite apps for that duration. Another 68% said the same for coffee.

Apparently, women are on the same page as men. 68% of females surveyed said they would rather go a year without soda than their beloved apps.

Among the other interesting findings of the research:

• 91% said apps expose them to new things.
• 87% said apps let them have fun no matter where they are or what they’re doing.
• 77% said apps are their personal assistant.
• 75% said apps give them time to relax.
• 73% said apps allow time to connect and interact with family and friends.
• 70% said apps make the rest of life better.

“Our brands live and die on buzz,” said Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer for MTV Networks. “But app discovery and adoption is just as driven by buzz as any other content that we create.”

Get effective use of geo-targeting without GPS or wi-fiservices at QuizGlass.com

Even the most aggressive smartphone sales estimates in the US are apparently not aggressive enough.

On Friday morning, comScore released some eye-opening data from its MobiLens service, which looks at key trends in the US mobile phone industry.

The latest research was performed during the three month period ending April 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 US mobile subscribers.

The findings show that Samsung is the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.5% market share. Google Android, however, led among smartphone platforms with 36.4% market share.

But perhaps the most noteworthy morsel of information gleaned from the report reveals that 74.6 million people in the US now own smartphones, up 13% from the three-month period ending in January 2011.

Other interesting findings include:

• In April, 68.8% of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device
• Browsers were used by 39.1% of subscribers (up 2.1% points)
• Downloaded applications were used by 37.8% (up 2.4% points)
• Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 2.7% points, representing 28.0% of mobile subscribers
• Playing games comprised 26.2% of the mobile audience (up 2.5 percentage points)
• Listening to music represented 18.0%.

To read the full report from comScore, click here.

Get effective use of geo-targeting without GPS services at QuizGlass.com

Executives from Apple and Google met with Congress regarding the issue, indicating that the privacy versus marketing debate will only become more heated as smartphones gain in popularity.

Get effective use of geo-targeting without GPS services at QuizGlass.com

The mobile revolution is being shown some motherly love, according to the findings of a new Greystripe study.

Based on the findings of the report by the mobile ad network, Greystripe says better than 66% of moms are plugged into their mobile devices while engaged in the act of shopping.

Greystripe collected the data from its expansive network of touch devices during a three-month period from November 16, 2010 to February 15, 2011.

And as it turns out, smartphone usage extends far beyond making grocery lists and simple organizational functions.

45% of connected moms use their smartphone to locate stores, while another 36% utilize some form of price comparison app or service.

“Smartphones have become the super tool for moms on the go,” said Dane Holewinski, director of marketing with Greystripe. “The majority of moms with smartphones are using those devices for their day to day tasks especially shopping, making them the ideal target for advertisers.”

31% of the moms surveyed revealed using their smartphones to research products, read reviews, and check product availability.

Perhaps most interesting, however, is the swelling number of moms who turn to their smartphones in search of discounts. Greystripe found that 57% of moms now search for mobile coupons via their mobile device.

To register and read the full report from Greystripe, click here.

Get effective use of geo-targeting without GPS services at QuizGlass.com