Nearly nine in 10 brands will use mobile marketing this year, and three-quarters (75%) will increase their mobile marketing spending, according to a survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). However, most are lukewarm about their own mobile initiatives, the industry groups said.
Sixty-two percent of marketers have some form of mobile marketing in place, and another 26% are planning to launch on-the-go efforts this year, bringing adoption of mobile marketing to 88%, according to the poll.
However, when asked to rate their efforts, a majority (53%) said they were only “somewhat” successful and only one-quarter (25%) said they were “extremely” successful. The marketers cited a shortage of metrics, an inability to prove ROI, and a lack of understanding of the medium within their company as obstacles.
“Everyone wants to invest productively. Obviously, there is so much unknown that advertisers are bullish but uneasy at the same time,” said Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA. “But mobile is an up-and-coming medium and marketers know competitors will be experimenting with it…They realize that with this relatively new media, there will be tremendous trial and error to find out what works and what does not.”
Marketers plan to hike their spending this year on mobile initiatives by 59%. The most popular efforts will be mobile websites, apps, messaging and SMS, display ads and search.
The two groups polled 97 client-side ANA members during September and October 2010.
