2010 was the year the advertising industry looked up from their ipads and noticed that the Mobile channel needed to be taken seriously. 2011 is the year that brands genuinely invest in the space beyond apps. This is the reason why today’s announcement about Linking Mobile comes as no surprise, but points to a genuinely interesting future for the Mobile platform.
I’m pleased that David Fieldhouse, an ex-colleague at MediaCom, is leading this as he deserves all the success he creates. Having started Lucidity Mobile less than a year ago, Linking Mobile is a brilliant step and will hopefully mean mobile becomes a serious DR and Commerce channel.
Announcement below:
Linking Mobile, www.linkingmobile.com – a sister company of Lucidity Mobile, the independent agency formed in May 2010 – utilises a wholly-owned, bespoke platform, LinkMAX™, to serve, track and monitor mobile affiliate campaigns. The LinkMAX™ technology platform operates globally and across all mobile devices. It gives advertisers and publishers with mobile site and apps the ability to monetise their traffic while advertisers can acquire customers on a cost per acquisition (CPA) basis.
David Fieldhouse, co-founder of Linking Mobile comments, “We could see a growing demand for CPA deals which weren’t available in the market, so we decided to do it ourselves. The LinkMAX™ mobile technology platform we have built easily manages all serving, tracking and reporting for clients and publishers. It’s important for us to support advertisers through the process: mobile is different to a desktop PC due to different operating systems, devices, and consumer behaviour. We’ll be introducing new ad formats and also supporting platforms such as tablets shortly.”
Richard Diskin, Marketing Director at Ghost said, “Linking Mobile is delivering solutions that have so far been missing from the mobile advertising landscape. We’re very pleased to add this channel to our offering.”
Thanks to my good friend and future business collaborator David Fieldhouse for this five quick predictions for mobile in 2011. In all honesty, Dave could have written a list three or four times as long as this, yet managed to condense his fantastic knowledge into five simple points. These are the things that Dave, founder of Lucidity Mobile, believes will be happening for brands in 2011:
1) Domination of the smartphone
The smartphone will reach 50% penetration and drive the whole market. Android will dominate and overtake Blackberry and iPhone. Microsoft will ramp quickly and also overtake iPhone in the UK. Nokia devices will be the last choice for consumers and may be bought by Microsoft (maybe!). These handsets will generate more impressions, more interactions, more apps and more mobile friendly destinations.
2) M:Commerce
M:commerce is set to explode next year both in app and via mobile sites. Ebay sold $500m worth of goods in 2010 and now Marks and Spencer, Ocado, Tesco and John Lewis are now selling product via the mobile device. E:commerce sparked the web explosion and mobile will be no different next year.
3) Social Commerce
The holy trinity of location, social media and vouchering will be huge in 2011. Facebook Deals allow consumers to “check-in” to real locations and claim a free offer or discount. The scale of Facebook will change the way retailers use social media and mobile.
Matt – You can see more about our views on Social Commerce and location-based technology in the following presentation:
Brands have been experimenting already with AR but expect more on-pack and revenue generating campaigns next year. The technology will become more
immersive, more mobile and more ubiquitous in 2011.
Me – AR has always felt a bit gimmicky. Used by some agencies to show how creative they are with technology, but yet there haven’t always been the best uses for the long-term. I think AR will see break-throughs in multiple areas from education to gaming, to further developments of street level AR.
5) (Genuine) Near Field Communication (Finally!)
Want to pay for stuff by just swiping your phone? 2011 will see this happen primarily with Barclaycard contactless payments and Orange. Expect others to follow suit with Oyster on your mobile coming at the end of the year.
Me – The Barclays ads have highlighted that contactless technology is something that will make our daily lives a whole lot smoother/quicker/wetter? but the more brands that roll up NFC into their offerings the more we are going to be helped out as consumers. Oyster on mobile? That is something which would definetly help on those bleary Monday mornings.
For more from Dave Fieldhouse and Lucidity Mobile Click Here
2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 had more in common than you thought. Every single January of each of these years, mobile experts, advertising gurus, and the man on the street, have predicted that “this year will be the year of mobile”. Sadly, this can only genuinely be said for one of the four years and you guessed it, we mean 2010.
2010 has been a seemingly outrageously successful year for mobiles. Smartphones have grown significantly in use. App usage has therefore exploded. Apps I want to use, therefore, have also grown. However, with the acquisition of Admob by Google, even mobile advertising has seen stunning and noticeable growth. In addition, Location-Based services have proved that there is a bright future ahead for the convergence of augmented reality, social media channels, and your handheld mobile phone.
In celebration of this, here is a video about the mobile phone’s outrageous 2010…I’m sure he is uploading his pictures on Facebook as we speak…
I will be open about it. I am confused by the furore around FourSquare. It would appear I’m not the only one as certainly within the UK, the usage of FourSquare seems to be low. London is much talked about, yet doesn’t seem to be taking off. Comparisons with Twitter have been made, yet Twitter took off rapidly in London and continues to do so.
A quick review of the M:Football Conference for you. This event happened yesterday at the Emirates Stadium. As much as being at the home of Arsenal FC sickened me, the state of the mobile industry seemed to be quite good and the buzz was extremely positive.
Although some of the case studies and presentations weren’t exactly brilliant there were alot of great ideas that football brands and sponsors should take forward. I will highlight the highlights…
