Top mobile technologies to watch out for in 2013

I recently spoke with Mobile Marketer's Rimma Kats about 2013's top mobile technology innovations and why existing technology is here to stay.

You can read the full article below, as well as on Mobile Marketer.

Let me know what your predictions for mobile technology in 2013 are in the comments below.

Top mobile technologies to watch out for in 2013

Augmented reality brings content to life

It is evident that mobile has captured the attention of many top brands, and technologies such as QR codes and augmented reality have helped pave the way. Now, marketers are looking for the next big trend that will drive customer interactions and, ultimately, sales.

Mobile is becoming the go-to medium for many companies and marketers are integrating it into their day-to-day initiatives. In 2013, marketers must make a bigger investment into the space and look at new technologies to help develop deeper relationships with consumers.

“Mobile provides marketers a wealth of creative opportunities to get their messages in front of mobile subscribers – for example, geo-fenced advertising, scanable codes, Shazam, and interstitial ads on music and video apps,” said Tim Richie, vice president of North American sales and account management at Open Market.

“Ultimately, each of these technologies aims to do the same thing: drive consumers to action by putting a powerful message in front them when they are open to receiving it,” he said. “This trend and the technologies that support it will gain momentum in 2013, helping marketers deliver more value.

“Businesses are facing many technology challenges today – sharing data across systems and teams, managing multiple vendor solutions, and increasing user demands. This year, companies will look to consolidate systems, and leverage cloud-based solutions for cost savings and improved SLAs. Technology that is modular, flexible and enables a number of use cases will be most attractive to enterprises.”

Key message
To be most effective, marketers need to deliver a message that resonates with the consumer at a relevant time via the appropriate messaging channel.

The extent to which a marketer can execute on this objective dictates their success, per Mr. Ritchie.

Marketers should aggressively seek out flexible messaging systems that facilitate their communications to consumers across multiple channels.

“Over several years, marketers have struggled to identify how mobile fits into the marketing mix,” Mr. Ritchie said. “Initially, it was an interesting experiment, then Apple ushered in the age of mobile applications which became a key mobile strategy.

“Increasingly mobile has become a business-as-usual communication channel alongside more traditional communication and advertising methods,” he said. “The real growth in mobile adoption for businesses in 2013 won’t be sexy.

“Businesses will find ways to leverage mobile to replace or augment existing systems and processes to become more efficient and reduce costs."

Mobile payments
Last year, many were speculating that 2012 was going to be the year of mobile payments and near-field communication.

That proved to not be the case.

However, mobile payments and NFC are seeing a great outlook this year.

Mobile payments will no doubt play a big role this year.

Consumers are becoming more comfortable making purchases using their smartphones and companies such as Starbucks, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts are making it easy for consumers to order their favorite meals and beverages and pay for it using their mobile phone.

Furthermore, Apple has helped in making mobile commerce a success through its recent Passbook implementation, which helps build on loyalty.

"We should see more mass availability of mobile payments,” said Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer of Hipcricket, New York.

“While its ridiculous to think that the mobile wallet will make cash extinct by Tuesday, businesses will successfully compete if they make the in-store buying experience painless through Square and the like,” he said. “The wallet hype will continue but is years from becoming a mass activity.

"Overall, mobile will get more of the marketing spend with those who succeed being more pragmatic than groundbreaking with brand new mobile products. SXSW will get lots of headlines, but it’s not the place to go to build a foundational mobile program."

Integrated experiences
According to Wilson Kerr, vice president of business sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston, 2013 will be all about mobile-triggered consumer interactions.

“Now that having an integrated mobile commerce site is established as essential, my prediction is that the next big trend will be around tracked mobile-triggered consumer interaction, at the point-of-sale,” Mr. Kerr said.

“Brands and retailers can drive incremental, secondary, add-on sales and tracked consumer engagement by tapping real-world mobile ‘triggerpoint marketing’ opportunities,” he said.

“QR codes mean adding mobile triggerpoints at point-of-sale is easy and economical. NFC will start to become ubiquitous in smartphones in 2013 and, as such, is something smart marketers are learning about now.”

While most brand and retailer marketing departments lag behind, consumers are thirsty for more ways to interact and engage via mobile.

“The potential of mobile is no longer the story,” Mr. Kerr said. “The story is now the day-to-day reality, regarding the fact that mobile is poised to drive the lion share of tracked consumer interaction and related purchases.

“PayPal saw a 250 percent increase in mobile payments in 2012 and expects to process $20 billion in 2013,” he said. “Additionally, 15 percent of all ecommerce in 2013 will be conducted via mobile and tablet commerce is growing faster than mobile did.

“A mobile site is no longer something that can be covered by a screen scraped derivative of an ecommerce site. Mobile and tablet commerce sites should be powered by an API ecommerce integration, so they can be distinct channels with distinct mobile marketing opportunities.”

Existing technology
This year we’re going to see companies take the technology that exists and make more use of it, per Vanessa Horwell, chief visibility officer of ThinkInk PR.

“I don’t think we’re going to see an explosion of NFC, but we’re going to see more utilization,” Ms. Horwell said. “Also the key things we’re going to see will revolve around data and analytics.

“We know that consumers are engaged, but how are businesses and marketers going to use that data?” she said. “They have to do something actionable with the data.

“That’s going to be the challenge for any types of marketers. Taking action with all that information. That’s a key thing this year.”

Say Goodbye to the Chance Encounter: Because Pretty Soon They’ll Be None Left

Ambient sound...ambient lighting…ambient social networking….ambient what?!?!?

Aaaannnd screech goes my mental brakes. As a PR professional and one who’s in the business of crafting quality wordplay, I’ve come across many expressions and turns of phrase (excluding the one I’ve just employed and the one I’m about to use) that cause me to do a double take. But here’s a few really obscure inside-industry ones, just for laughs: “Monetizing the purchase continuum,” (five points to anyone who knows what that means), “Technologizing,” – a term that Microsoft Word underscores in bright no-idea-what-that-is red, or does anyone know the “Importance of having enough bandwidth to update ones content management system?” I sure as hell don’t.

So with these beauties (unfortunately) already in my verbal toolbox, the term “ambient social networking” had me on one hand annoyed – here we go with an other pointless phrase, but on the other hand, more than mildly intrigued.

Last week, CNN, in its article “The Scariest Tech Trend of 2012?,” chose “ambient social networking” as the scariest. For the uninformed, “ambient social networking” is the continuous broadcasting of an individual’s location via their smartphones. While older social media apps required you to “check in” in order to activate their location discovery function, a new breed of apps in 2012 will always be on in the background, hence the “ambient” terminology. Instead, you’ll have to remember they’re on in the first place in order to turn off or pause their friend-finding abilities. Some of the apps to look out for include: Sonar, Glancee, Ban.jo, and Highlig.ht, according to the article.

While technologies such as this raise important privacy issues, the development of ambient social networking shouldn’t come as too much a surprise either, and really might not be deserving of the “Scariest Tech Trend” title. Rather, for all the lip service given to concerns over privacy and hyper information sharing, a growing body of data suggests otherwise. Jeff Jarvis, author of Public Parts How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way we Work and Live, rightly points out in his newest book that history is filled with examples of ground breaking communication advances –from Gutenberg’s press to the camera – that in their own time, in their own way, threatened to upset the prevailing social order, raising similar privacy fears in their wake.

What’s more, a recent study by McCann Truth Central, a subsidiary of McCann World Group, a global communications company, found that while 84% of people feel they have some or a total right to privacy, it also found that 71% are willing to share their shopping data online, 86% agree that there are major benefits in allowing that sharing, and less than half (49%), seek direct control of which parts of their personal data they share. In other words, in today’s internet-savvy world, privacy is no longer getting the top billing it once enjoyed.

So is ambient social networking likely to take over the world, turning us all into text-addicted and smartphone-suckered losers? I don’t think so. And maybe the chance encounter really will be in jeopardy before too long. But just think how many times a day, week, month, year etc. you find yourself saying something like, “I can’t imagine how people lived without a cell phone or the mobile internet.” Remember too, that for the bulk of the people making such exclamations, they’ve still spent the majority of their lives without that ability.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly we all adapt?

Seen in this light, the scariest tech trend of 2012 – and the years that follow – would be if something like ambient social networking didn’t come to pass. Neat communications expressions aside, we’ll have to see what other “scary” tech trends CNN comes up with next. As for me, I’ll be technologizing my bandwidth for future developments.

Empty Hands and Open Wallets: Amazon’s Amazing Little App

Don’t pay us, we’ll pay you.

That’s pretty much the simple genius behind a new marketing gimmick in the form of an app being launched today by Amazon, the online shopping goliath, and growing threat to brick and mortar stores everywhere.

Starting today, smartphone users will be able to use the company’s free Price Check app (available on iOS and Android platforms) to scan the bar code of items in stores, take their mug shots, and report their price comparison findings back to Big Bro….I mean Amazon. But here’s the best part. Even if customers walk – or click – away with nothing, Amazon will still give its faithful participants $5 or 5 percent of the value off up to three Amazon purchases.

Now, I don’t want to oversell this, but I have to say, I think this is a really great idea. There’s been growing buzz this year in marketing and consumer circles alike that mobile technology is finally coming into its own, maturing from being a cool toy to an everyday necessity. Tech blogs and mainstream media outlets salivate over the inching upward smartphone penetration rates, which stands as high as 63 percent in some US demographics and is approaching 30 percent as a global average. But dry statistics only tell part of the story. Anecdotes like Amazon’s promotional plan really underscore the rapid changes reshaping the mobile landscape.

Think of it like digital democratization. Consumers are being empowered to essentially do the marketing hard work that’s at the core of any successful company: finding out what your competition is offering and what they’re selling it for. Amazon’s approach turns this effort into an almost scavenger hunt or game. The dollar award amount is trivial, yet I’d suspect that at the height of holiday season shopping, it’s high enough to get shoppers to notice, and seek to save a few bucks on items they were already likely to buy for themselves or others on their wish lists. It’s also a very good way to till the digital soil for future, more expansive campaigns, or ones that rely on detailed message marketing tailored to specific shoppers and their typical buying habits.

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and Amazon’s Price Check App $5 promotion will be over almost as soon as it begins, ending shortly before midnight. I’m sure everyone from Mom and Pop stores to the Big Boxes and everything in between will cry foul over Amazon’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers-like consumer takeover. But as a communications professional, and one who tries to keep her fingers on the digital pulse of the people, I can’t help but sing Amazon’s praise for an amazingly simple idea, made possible through some amazingly cool technology.

Happy hunting! The clock is ticking.

My big fat mobile app/from Mobile Marketer

As the marketing clock inches closer to Thanksgiving and the holidays, it seems that the rush is on to bring out yet another mobile application – which has become almost as ubiquitous as the mobile device itself.

There are roughly 250,000-plus applications in the Apple App Store, ready and waiting for download to the more than 30 million iPhone subscribers.

But it is not all about Apple.

The average Android user has, at any given moment, about 25 applications on that device, and the number of applications downloaded by any smartphone user across any platform – BlackBerry, iPhone, Android – has increased almost 23 percent since December 2009.

However you slice or dice it, that is a lot of applications.

For advertisers and marketers, that is a lot of impressions and interactions. And those, of course, are worth a lot of money.

What led me to explore the explosion of applications in this column was actually my last opinion piece, “5 arguments on why mobile is indispensable to marketing plans”.

No sooner had my column come out than a surge of mobile application developers began contacting me. Some admitted to openly copying others, and they all wanted help in promoting their next best thing.

So this trend of marketers and their client companies rushing into the mobile apposphere is hardly surprising. In fact, it is to be expected based on the above numbers. This is the future of marketing, right?

As with many trends – even viable, sustainable ones – the impulse to anoint The Next Big Thing is quite irresistible....

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