The US is finally catching up to the rest of the world in terms of mobile technology adaptation. If you look at the industry five years ago it was almost non-existent and now it has exploded into the largest (and possibly only) growing marketing channels. TV, radio and newspapers have all been expected to decrease while mobile is projected to keep growing. Now, more than ever, it is important for American companies to create a mobile campaign in conjunction with another media.

My last post covered Smirnoff’s successful mobile campaign in the UK. But what companies in the US are creating these amazing campaigns? For one, our banks. Banks seemed to be the first into the recession and it seems like they are the first ones coming out. They’re creating mobile helpful applications for smartphones that help customers manage their accounts and creating mobile version of their sites. Banks can’t advertise their rates on sites like Twitter due to strict compliance laws but they are creating ways to get customers to their sites and offering mobile services is one of them.

In the future of mobile, I see a lot more visual campaigns. SMS is very common right now but as the technology changes, I think we’ll see a lot more media flying around and super speeds on our phones. YouTube videos, hopefully Flash components (if Adobe plays nice with Apple) and the magic that comes from HTML5 will open doors to content on mobile phones. Location-based services will also increase as well as in-text ad integration.

At first, I can see these changes being expensive to the consumer. The cost of 4G, 5G and G to the nth will be high while a large chunk of the country is still using 2G. Once more consumers make the switch, I think the costs will even out and we’ll be able to move forward and be able to offer competitive prices for data plans. Carriers such as US Cellular that don’t offer big 3G packages like AT&T and Verizon won’t have a place in the mobile world when they are only offering slow and unreliable data plans for the same price as a 3G plan at AT&T.

Sources:

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/3850.html

http://www.apptera.com/looking-ahead-to-2009-mobile-advertising.html

http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=4365

Diageo’s Smirnoff launched a mobile campaign to promote their leading vodka brand, Smirnoff last year. The mobile campaign included banner ads being placed on mobile portals and lifestyle sites which led users to the Smirnoff mobile site. The mobile site included helpful, informative and fun links such as “Pocket Bartender,” “Vodkapedia,” a nightlife guide, information about Smirnoff, and a lesson in proper partying.

These mobile pages were beautifully branded and designed with the consumer in mind. The Nightlife Guide helps consumers find the closest bars to their liking, by picking their location and the type of bar they are looking for.

They could have used more current technology that would automatically set the users location with the option to change it then display the best fits on a map, similar to how Google displays it’s search results from Google Maps.

They also included a “Pocket Bartender” which has ingredients and directions on how to create various drinks, which is great for hosts of a party or for the user to glance at while at the store picking up a few things.

Follow the link to view a Smirnoff.mobi ad unit: http://devpresident.com/smirnoffmobi-ad-units/

In the U.K., the mobile site received about a third of the traffic on the Web site, making it a very successful campaign that engaged its users with its content and builds upon the Smirnoff brand.

Source: http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=1326