Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

By many accounts, growth in the local mobile ad market was by hurt by the recession. Last year, marketers spent $491 million on total mobile advertising. Of this, $213 million was spent in local markets. Consumers are increasingly shopping with their smartphone in hand and marketers are realizing they can reach shoppers who might be right outside the pet food store or beauty salon. As a result of the rapid growth in technology adoption, BIA/Kelsey has issued a report with new predictions on the value of the mobile ad market and which points to a dramatic uptick in local spending.

The argument between marketers and regulators with respect to online privacy and behavioral targeting is heating up. But what do consumers think about this topic? Burst Media just published the results of its survey on behaviorally-targeted web advertising and it gives us a good insight into consumers attitudes.

The trade show, exhibition and event industry is struggling to remain vibrant in a changing world. Budget cuts during the Great Recession trimmed many corporate travel budgets. At the same time, new technology has increased the appeal and popularity of virtual meetings. But industry operators hope to remain relevant by incorporating technology into events and at the same time they are employing more digital media to market themselves.

Marketers have been busily educating themselves and designing online ad campaigns to behaviorally target consumers who might be interested in purchasing their products and services. At the same time, industry watchdogs have been publishing articles about the dangers of this marketing practice. Several ad industry associations have endorsed a new self-regulatory program that was announced earlier this year. But that action may not be enough to prevent possible regulatory activity by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The agency has already solicited comments from consumers and industry officials and plans to release an additional report on this topic on January 31, 2011.

Last week I blogged about how consumers expect apps from well-known marketers to deliver something unique. When apps fail in that respect, consumers ignore them and use their mobile devices to access a marketer’s website. Another study, this one by Moosylvania, gives us more insight into app use by the average consumer and therefore indicates where opportunities may be found for marketers who want to launch an app

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the ways that marketers are improving the look of their display ads. It turns out there’s a lot going on behind the scenes before an online display ad appears in a consumer’s browser. Marketers want to deliver their content to a specific audience for the best possible price. And the media space owners want to maximize the profits for delivering that audience to marketers. This situation has given rise to a real-time bidding market for display ad space. By many accounts, this bidding business model will continue to grow in 2011.