Mobile

Telenovelas on Spanish-language TV networks, Latin American music on local radio stations and Spanish-language versions of popular magazines—all are mainstays of US Hispanic-focused programming and media that remain important channels for marketers looking to reach this growing segment of the population. But it’s also where many efforts to connect with Hispanics often end. In their quest to reach this market—especially its large millennial and preteen populations—brands are failing to understand how and where Hispanics are consuming media, according to a new eMarketer report, “US Hispanics’ Media Usage: A Mix of the Trendsetting and the Traditional.”

The report examines a range of complex campaign considerations, including apps versus mobile-optimized websites, pre-roll versus banner ads, inline versus native players, operating system capabilities, third-party tags, and advanced interactive capabilities.

As Brazil prepares to host the world’s largest sporting event this summer, Briabe Mobile has created a curated mobile soccer content platform “ROAD TO RIO”.

Sure, dogs have been well-established as man’s best friend for some time now, but according to the January 2014 Local Watch Report, Americans have a blossoming love affair with another trusty sidekick—the mobile device.

Focusing on African Americans and Hispanics, the report takes an in-depth look at the mobile advertising ecosystem, including data related to mobile advertising trends, habits, spending power and more. It shows the importance of multicultural marketing for mobile advertisers, with African Americans and Hispanics showing tremendous growth in population and spending power. The report also emphasizes the significance of accounting for these cultural groups’ unique attitudes and beliefs when implementing mobile video and rich media campaigns.

eMarketer expects 4.55 billion people worldwide to use a mobile phone in 2014. Mobile adoption is slowing, but new users in the developing regions of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa will drive further increases. Between 2013 and 2017, mobile phone penetration will rise from 61.1% to 69.4% of the global population, according to a new eMarketer report, “Worldwide Mobile Phone Users: H1 2014 Forecast and Comparative Estimates.”

Mobile apps have proven to be a new tool that businesses can use to engage with customers in a variety of ways: providing information, as a customer relations management tool and to build a brand—to name just a few.

(Think green: please save the headline above for reuse over the next decade.)

How many years have been “the year” mobile advertising finally catches up to the massive growth in consumer time spent on mobile? As you marinate on that question, take a second also to reflect on how often you’ve read the headline that “this is the year” digital advertising dollars finally catch up with the amount of time consumers are spending with digital media. It’s become a cliché at this point.
(Spoiler alert: digital advertising still hasn’t caught up with the amount of time people spend there.)

“Who cares!?! Have you seen how fast mobile usage is growing!??!?!!”

Sigh…

Mobile migration is probably the story of 2013. Everything from news consumption to social media to porn eschewed the static and generally inconvenient desktop experience for the convenience and flexibility of devices. The data and targeting industries will be spending years catching up with the accelerated pace of this move.

In the past year alone, the number of US mothers using smartphones increased nearly 34%, BabyCenter reported in September 2013. Of this number, 46% of survey respondents said they felt addicted to their smartphones, always keeping them at their sides as “backup brains” while on the go.

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook have quickly built significant mobile revenue streams—on the basis of significant mobile user populations.

Both smartphone and tablet use saw a large leap among US teenagers ages 13 to 17 between 2012 and 2013, according to an October 2013 survey from the nonprofit Family Online Safety Institute (FOFSI) conducted by Hart Research Associates.

Mobile has attracted a sizeable bulk of US consumers, but the vast majority use desktop and laptop computers along with mobile devices, according to a new eMarketer report, “Redefining ‘Mobile-Only’ Users: Millions Selectively Avoid the Desktop.”

Digital has complicated the path to purchase. The orderly progression from discovery to consideration to purchase to loyalty is now more of a tangle of paths, with multiple channels available for consumers to follow. However, the broad model of the sales funnel is still a useful metaphor, and it helps frame the role of mobile advertising in the retail industry, according to a new eMarketer report, “Mobile Advertising in Retail: Tracking the Changing Purchase Path.”

“Mobile-first” is becoming quite the buzzword, but not every marketer is taking a mobile-first approach to better target and engage consumers. Johnna Marcus, director of mobile and digital store marketing at Sephora, spoke with eMarketer’s Rimma Kats about the importance of reaching customers on devices that are personal to them.

Multiply the $2.5 trillion of purchasing power controlled by mothers (BSM Media) by the 50% of moms who used a mobile device to make or influence purchases last year and what do you get? Okay, I know you can’t multiply unlike terms, but work with me here. You get a plethora of spending power funneling into one channel to buy, or influence the buying of, a wide variety of goods and services.

As the market for beverages continues to fragment and brand extensions grow, brands are jockeying for position on store shelves and competing for consumers’ attention in social media, according to a new eMarketer report, “CPG Focus—Beverages: Emerging Mobile and Social Strategies.”

According to the IAB, mobile advertising spend is growing at an unprecedented rate, doubling in 2012 alone from the previous year to reach $3.4 billion. But research is just beginning to tap into what makes this new advertising medium tick, and there is much for marketers and the industry at large to learn about leveraging mobile channels most effectively.

eMarketer estimates the number of US mobile phone gamers will reach 125.9 million in 2013. By 2017, that number is expected to grow to 191.3 million. It’s no surprise that the video game industry, including marketers that target their audiences through gaming, now views mobile as a primary platform.

In a new survey of user habits, lead researcher Praveen Kopalle of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth discovered, to no one’s  surprise, that people interact with the desktop and mobile Web quite differently.