Many will (again) predict 2012 to be the year of mobile, but it turns out some of its biggest opportunities will be in complementing other activities, particularly TV viewing and shopping.
Retailers are already seeing value in mobile both from an m-commerce and in-store perspective, as highlighted by strong mobile-related consumer activity over the Thanksgiving weekend. According to predictions from Digitas, that area will see even stronger growth in 2012, though, as both online and brick-and-mortar retailers do their best to enhance consumers’ shopping experiences through tablets and smartphones.
“Retailers are combining the features of e-commerce with the immediate gratification of buying it in-store. More and more shoppers will use their smartphones to support all aspects of their shopping journey,” Chia Chen, the agency’s mobile marketing practice director, forecasted.
SapitentNitro agreed, saying companies should “aim to provide a single, cohesive experience in-store, at home or on the go,” to match consumer behavior and expectation. Its Insights 2012 report, however, suggested the in-store mobile experience still has “great opportunity for improvement.”
In addition, the relationship between mobile and TV continues to strengthen, and marketers are seeing increasing opportunities there, particularly around tablet devices. Digitas estimates 80 percent of smartphone owners use their devices in front of the TV, for example, opening up a range of possibilities for personalized or contextual content and advertising.
“We believe 2012 will be the year that it becomes practical for brands to fully participate in the multi-screen world,” Chen said.
Razorfish appears equally bullish on the relationship between mobile and TV. Speaking with Digiday this month, the firm’s mobile practice lead, Paul Gelb, said it’s seeing “huge opportunities and appetite from advertisers to market to consumers in the context of watching television.”
More in Media
Digiday+ Research: Publishers’ growing focus on video doesn’t translate to social platforms
Major publishers have made recent investments in vertical video, but that shift is not carrying over to social media platforms.
Technology x humanity: A conversation with Dayforce’s Amy Capellanti-Wolf
Capellanti-Wolf shared insight on everything from navigating AI adoption and combating burnout to rethinking talent strategies.
How The Arena Group is rewriting its commercial playbook for the zero-click era
The company is testing AI-powered content recommendation models to keep readers moving through its network of sites and, in doing so, bump up revenue per session – its core performance metric.