Columns

UPS reports that 43 percent of mobile users prefer computer-based shopping versus mobile, because they cannot get clear product images.

No longer is there an expectation that anything and everything “mobile” should be part of the larger mobile experience and fully suited to “mobile marketing.”

The lowest hanging fruit in mobile marketing is the mobile banner. It is relatively cheap to make and the inventory is relatively cheap. But mobile banners have a fairly awful track record of ineffectiveness.

Unless executed with the right strategy, expecting a hashtag to influence consumer behavior is misguided.

While the bricks-and-mortar store will always be a part of the consumer’s repertoire, it needs to be refreshed to avoid the decline seen in music and video retail industry counterparts – who shunned rather than embraced the technological revolution.

Application developers and retailers with companion mobile apps, brace yourselves for what is expected to be the single biggest day for mobile shopping yet – and it is right around the corner on Nov. 28.

While brands and agencies work hard to identify narrow audiences, the limiting factor is the efficiency of producing numerous versions of ads and other information to address differences within narrow audience segments.

We are now in the “all about me” era in which well-informed and proactive customers demand personalization from brands across all touch-points.

On the smaller screen it will be harder to gain attention and spark engagement using tried-and-true methods of media buying and broadcast messaging.

With token technology, fingerprint security and major bank partners, Apple may have finally cracked the mobile pay code.

Marketing luxury online has notoriously been a tricky call for many brands. Perhaps it is because the medium is, by its very nature, proletarian.

Do you remember learning about Newton’s Third Law of Motion in high school? It states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In the past, brands and agencies have shied away from mobile advertising. It was too new, too unexplored, or too confusing. Even now, some brands simply do not know how to monetize these new media channels.

Recent stats from comScore and CivicScience report that Snapchat’s penetration is now at about half of 18-24-year-old smartphone users, up from less than one-third a year earlier. This puts Snapchat at the third-most-popular social media channel, but just barely.

We will never get to engagement if we do not eliminate friction. Friction in mobile experiences is deadly.

What we often forget is that the reason banner ads still work for marketers and publishers alike on desktop is the immense amount of ad tech infrastructure behind the scenes that makes everything work. Not so in mobile.

Nearly two years ago, a survey found that the top obstacle to the adoption and success of mobile marketing programs is “a lack of strategy.” Little has changed.

As consumer confidence in mobile grows, so does mobile-originating traffic to retail Web sites. In fact, according to a June 2014 comScore report, fully 60 percent of digital media time spent online by consumers is originating from smartphones and tablets, a figure that has increased 50 percent over 2013.

In the near future, you are likely to see a device identical to the tablet you use at home to browse the Web or watch a video at the cash wrap of your favorite retailer. The phenomenon is not limited to a select group of luxury or consumer tech stores.

Too often, designers and their teams are sprinting to finish a project before a deadline and then iterating quickly on the next version. But good design – especially product design – takes time, and it should not be rushed.

Research has shown that mobile video views have increased a massive 400 percent in the past two years, doubling in the last year alone.