Mobile Marketing Forecast To Rocket Over Next Two Years

eMarketer’s new report, “Mobile Marketing and M-Commerce”, plots three potential scenarios for the spending growth for wireless advertising and marketing over the next five years. Each starting with the supposition that in percentage terms, wireless advertising is roughly at the same level relative to interactive advertising that online advertising was in relation to traditional advertising expenditure in the mid-to-late 1990s.

In each of the scenarios eMarketer predicts that the buzz surrounding mobile marketing will hit a high in 2005 and 2006, with firms keen to join in the new advertising channel. eMaketer forecasts that the environment will be fairly hit or miss, resulting in a short period of disenchantment with wireless in 2007.

The analysts estimate that, although spending rates on the medium will continue to climb, growth rates will dip briefly before resuming upward momentum as the medium grows to maturity towards the end of the decade.

Commenting on the new research, Dr. Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer said: “Although companies have been burned in the past because they rush to embrace unproven technologies, the time to start integrating mobile strategies into the marketing mix is now. Wireless marketing will be used to effectively reach, acquire and retain customers and ultimately generate sales by way of direct response contests and promotions.”

Juniper Research estimated in September that the global mobile commerce market, comprising of ticket purchases, mobile entertainment downloads and POS transactions, will grow to $88 billion by 2009 (see Ticket Purchases Via Mobile Phones To Boost M-Commerce).

The report stated that ordering and paying for travel, cinema, theatre and car parking tickets via a mobile phone would be important factors in the development of this market, which is set to generate $39 billion by 2009. The UK, Finland and Germany are expected to be key drivers in rolling out plans for the mobile ticket ordering market.

Already trials are under way in the UK to turn this in to a reality. In a recent test, mobile phone solutions group, Mobiqa, sent a ‘mobi-ticket’ which is bar coded message to the mobile phones of particular car park users. The mobi-ticket was then redeemed at the car park entrance by simply scanning the mobile phone display against a standard scanner.

Juniper Research predicts that on average, Western Europeans will conduct around 28 transactions per year using their mobile phones by 2009, with each transaction valued at an average of approximately $3.00.

Nick Wiggin, executive director of the mobile marketing association agrees with industry predictions that 2005/2006 will see a dramatic uptake of mobile marketing technology. Speaking to MediaTelINSIGHT he said: “We see 2005 as a tipping point for mobile marketing, going to the next phase with the increased penetration of smart phones enabling advertisers to reach a significant proportion of the population with rich media content.”

He added: “With over 50% of mobile handsets now receiving picture messages the penetration and reach of pictures on handsets is a more attractive proposition, and advertisers and agencies are asking more questions and getting excited about the emergence of these new handsets.”