Marketing beyond mobile devices

It’s probably time to add the term upwardly to mobile marketing. Researchers from eMarketer predict that the global market for mobile marketing and advertising will grow from $1.5B this year to $13.9B in 2011. This is just marketing. As the world continues to go mobile, the real opportunity is in helping to transform user economics and expectations for the medium.

To innovative marketers, the sky is really the limit. Beyond exploring great ideas like offering OCR-ready coupons to be scanned and redeemed at stores or integrated emergency services linked to local insurance agents, or custom traffic updates, companies like Helios and Boost Mobile (www.boostmobile.com, a subsidiary of Nextel and Sprint) are taking charge. Boost offers unlimited minutes for a single low price and a built-in youth community. This is an idea of significance that at its most basic seeks to capture and own untapped ad and marketing revenue.

With so much to gain, upwardly mobile companies like these wisely see the upside of offering more today to attract and retain customers and prospects. They also recognize the need to keep it simple: both the value proposition and the interface to offer sustainable usability. Generous use of plain English and active voice is a critical requirement. Users, especially on mobile devices, need to see progress on each and every screen the more intuitive and action-oriented the better. And they also need a reason to click forward without fear of mortgaging their next big ticket purchase.

If eMarketer is right, companies have about $12.4B reasons to think about charging less, offering more value, and building the next great brand on the back of today’s burgeoning marketing and advertising budgets.experiences). Competitive reviews can help establish a baseline against which to compare.

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