Mobile Predictions for 2012 – Part 4

Anita Moorthy, Senior Director of Product Marketing

LOS ANGELES, CA January 23, 2012 – It’s that time of year again: the time to take stock, look back at the year that has passed and look ahead to the New Year and all of the promise that it holds. What does 2012 have in store for the mobile world? No one knows for sure, but in this series of posts, the experts at July Systems identify the top mobile trends and make predictions about what will take place in the ecosystem surrounding tablets and smartphones over the course of the year to come – and beyond.

Prediction #4: Investments in mobile will pay dividends in 2012.

Across all verticals, July Systems clients are making investments in people and solutions to align their multichannel strategy with consumer behavior, which is characterized by ever-increasing adoption of mobile devices. Usage of mobile websites and apps continues to increase. Mobile is not part-time – it is always-on, and it is becoming central to any engagement strategy that includes a digital component. A stable, profitable and scalable mobile enterprise is the emerging expectation for companies of all shapes and sizes. Tolerance for failure of mobile initiatives is decreasing. Brands, retailers and publishers realize the importance of an effective mobile strategy and are determined to get it right.

A March 2011 study by ROI Research and Microsoft found that nine out of 10 American mobile users conduct searches on their mobile handsets and two-thirds are “very interested” in mobile coupons. More than 40% of digital coupon recipients are more likely to visit bricks-and-mortar retail stores for apparel, consumer packaged goods (CPG), consumer electronics and entertainment products. That is one way that mobile helps boost brands’ and retailers’ sales.

The same study found that mobile advertising exposure also drives visits to bricks-and-mortar retail stores, which often result in purchases. Nearly eight out of 10 mobile consumers went to an offline apparel store after seeing an ad on their mobile device. In addition, 60% of mobile consumers used their mobile device during the purchase of entertainment-related products.

In 2012, better handsets and services will mean more access for users, meaning there is more potential for increasing engagement and usage. In terms of client expectations, scale, reliability and the experience rule.

Within the retail sector, the focus is on finding the recipe for effective brand-building, engagement and loyalty leveraging all that mobile has to offer. Mobile content and services centered on driving transactions – whether online, in-store or on the handset – are key offerings that savvy retailers will use to differentiate themselves and drive revenue in 2012.

Slowly but surely, mobile is becoming mainstream for most companies. In the year to come, organizations of all kinds will seek greater control over their mobile strategy. Chief information officers, IT departments and mobile-savvy personnel will take on added importance. Large enterprises will expect their current systems integrators to work with various mobile technology providers.

In response to demand from clients and prospects, in 2012 July Systems will fine-tune its current platform for the broader mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP) market, open up our platform to enable systems integrators to develop on top of it and make our platform compatible to run with various “infrastructure as a service” (IaaS) and cloud-computing vendors.

In 2012, brands’, retailers’, publishers’ and other content providers’ monetization strategies will evolve to embrace mobile advertising, sponsorships and transactions more than ever before.

The effectiveness of a mobile monetization strategy should be measured by value created around the one-to-one relationship with the consumer – that dialogue drives behavior such as loyalty and demand. Ultimately, the relationship between a brand and consumers manifests itself in-store or online and translates into revenue.

Monetization will be driven primarily via two channels, mobile commerce and mobile advertising. Those two areas continue to grow in importance for companies across a wide range of business verticals.

The monetization of content will be primarily through mobile advertising, which will make great strides toward closing the gap with its counterpart, online advertising, in terms of market share in overall digital advertising industry.

The bottom line is that all of the investments that brands, retailers and publishers have made in the mobile space will really start to pay off in 2012.