Digital Media News

We have been told that ‘this is the year for mobile’ for at least five years now. But the ubiquity of 3G, the advent of 4G, along with an increase in smartphoneusage (around two thirds of Americans now have smart phones), suggest that the next few years really are all about mobile advertising.

The shift toward mobile is affecting how we spend our free time. In 2013, Americans spent an average of 34 hours per month using mobile apps and browsers; that's more time than they spent online with their PCs, which chewed up 27 hours. Social networking use is also declining on the desktop, while it's surging in mobile.

The critical thing for marketersduring this shift isn’t about diverting ad budgets to mobile, but about integrating mobile creatively into the bigger marketing picture. The importance of mobile advertising is here to stay.

As our lives become busier and hitting the high street seems more of a hassle than a pleasure, the lure of the Internet is hard to resist. Researching online before we buy is pretty imperative these days, and we head straight for our laptops, tablets and smartphones to get the lowdown on new products.

It’s nosurprise that savvy shoppers trust recommendations and reviews from their peer group far more than the “you’re worth it” spiel thrown at them by advertisers. And online shopping suits customers and retailers alike. The latter can showcase their goods with lower overheads and the worldwide web allows them to widen their reach. On top of this, online shoppersprovide brands with valuable data about their customers, and thisonline interaction allows for an ongoing relationship once the initial transaction has taken place.

Mobile marketing has become a highly targeted environment in today’s interconnected world. What started as simple text messages to customers offering money-off coupons, has evolved into apersonalized, real-time content delivery system. 

As mobile phones become a more essential part of people’s daily lives, it is important for businesses to look at ways of delivering more effective and targeted mobile marketing. This is where geomarketing comes in.

What is geomarketing?

GeoMarketing (or location based marketing) uses geographic information to gain a better understanding of how people in a certain area act or spend their money. This method of marketing creates maps all around the world and within each map there is information specific to how consumers act in that that area.

While geomarketing’s definition is the association of data and maps in the traditional sense, the emergence of social media, mobile marketing and new technologies also make it an extremely powerful marketing tool in the digital arena.