Wednesday, September 7 2011

Mobile marketing and advertising efforts are quickly catching up to their digital counterparts. A study of over 3 million respondents conducted by digital marketing firm 360i found that mobile campaigns impacted consumers more than traditional online campaigns in brand awareness, advertising awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent. In addition, the study found that mobile is more effective than digital advertising, especially in verticals like retail, technology and entertainment.

"When people aren't at their desks or at their laptops, their main device is a digital device," said Anne Frisbie, vice president and managing director of mobile advertising firm InMobi. 

Advertisers are clearly taking notice of the benefits of targeting potential customers via mobile. Global mobile advertising revenue, according to Gartner Research, is forecast to hit $3.3 billion in 2011, a huge increase from the $1.6 billion in revenue in 2010.

"Brand marketers who want to include mobile in their advertising initiatives should not delay their trials, and should have their budgets in place now to take advantage of mass consumer adoption of smartphones and media tablets," said Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner.

Mobile campaigns can deliver more interactive and personalized campaigns than other forms of digital advertising. Despite this, many ads miss the mark. A bad advertisement can leave a viewer annoyed, frustrated or misinformed. And with so many different types of mobile advertising--branded apps, banners, mobile bar codes, SMS/MMS campaigns, etc.--it can be tricky to discern which techniques work best, while taking advantage of new technology.

So which recent mobile campaigns have really hit the mark in terms of innovation and sales? FierceMobileContent takes a look at five of the best recent mobile advertising campaigns and examines how they are changing the game of the industry.

Red on.