Who Wants Mobile Ads? Parents, Apparently.

By Sarah Perez

A new mobile marketing survey from Harris Interactive says that the demographic group most interested in receiving mobile advertising is mobile owners with children. This group is interested in receiving opt-in alerts from brands, says the study, and the adults in households with children are also generally more "promotionally active" than others, meaning more likely to take part in marketing promotions like couponing, discounts and daily deals. Those with children under 6-years old were the most receptive to this form of advertising, with 35% in favor of opt-in alerts that arrived via their mobile phone.

Parents Interested in Mobile Alerts

Those interested in opt-in alerts about new products, sales or promotions from their favorite merchants, stores or restaurants also included parents with slightly older children, those aged 6-12. In that group, 32% showed interest in this type of mobile marketing.

Meanwhile, 25% of those without children were interested. However, even if "only" a quarter of mobile users sans kids are interested in alerts, that's still an attractive number to those building services using this sort of technology, we would think.

No Shocker Here: Moms Like Coupons

Also of note, those with young children are the most active online coupon users (e.g. Groupon, etc.), with 36% showing interest. That's double the interest of those without children (18%).

Not surprisingly, if somewhat stereotypically, this group of engaged savers is comprised of more women than men. Twenty eight percent of women between 35 and 54 stated interest in mobile marketing initiatives, compared with only 22% of men.

Study Details

The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive in May with over 2,000 U.S. adult participants. Like many studies of this nature, it was commissioned by a company with an interest in the area, in this case, Placecast, makers of various real-time and location-based technologies for mobile alerting and ads.

According to Placecast's CEO, Alistair Goodman, these findings point to the potential for marketing to people with kids via mobile devices. "Mobile Moms and Dads may not have the time to open an app and search for information, but they see the value and ease of receiving text alerts," he says.

This survey is only one part of the research conducted by Harris Interactive that's attempting to identify trends in mobile marketing. More research is now available on Placecast's blog, where the company examines overall consumer receptivity to mobile marketing initiatives.

Here, for example, the study's findings state that one-third of Americans who have currently signed up for mobile marketing alerts indicate that such services impact their decision to go into stores, and 27% report that mobile programs have impacted their decision to buy products in physical retail locations.

Marketers Warned Off from Foursquare, Gowalla and other Location-Based Social Networks

Another figure that jumped out at us from this additional research was the limited impact of "check-in" services like Foursquare and Gowalla, findings that back up Forrester's recent research that essentially called the services "hype" (for now).

Placecast (via Harris' research) found that only 7% of men and 3% of women showed interest in these types of location-based social networks. In comparison, 40% were avid users of text messaging. "With check-in services only available on smart phones (which comprise roughly 21% of all mobile phones in the U.S.), reach for marketers through these platforms is still a question," notes the Placecast blog post.

Will Emerging Technology Improve Our Productivity?

Social Media Marketing Report 2010

Mobile Payments Set To Exceed $200 Billion By 2012

By Mobile Marketing Watch

Juniper Research has published a new study/forecast for the mobile payments and M-commerce industry that boasts some pretty strong estimates. The company predicts that the value of digital and physical goods that people buy with their mobiles will reach $200 billion globally by 2012, compared to just less than $100 billion this year.

Consumer intimidation and fear of overall security remain leading hindrances to its proliferation, but Juniper forecasts that those fears will continue to subside as the availability of secure, easy-to-use payment applications and industry regulation continue to evolve. Juniper also underlined that retailers and merchants need to communicate the cost of transactions clearly so that people are not discouraged from buying via mobile.

North America and Western Europe will lead the adoption of mobile commerce, the study suggests, and in that sense Juniper sees a “significant opportunity” for brands, retailers and merchants to increase their revenues through highly targeted marketing campaigns, using apps and mobile web payments as a convenience play for users. The study titled “Mobile Payments for Digital & Physical Goods: Players, Markets & Opportunities, 2010-2014,” can be downloaded here.

Consumers See Mobile Phones As Retail Tools

By Mobile Marketer.

It’s a safe assumption that never before in the history of cell phones have mobile users been more comfortable with using their handsets as a veritable retail assistant.

An recent online survey conducted by the Mobile Marketing Association asked 1,000 people how they use their mobile phones. 17% admitted using their handsets to purchase applications or other digital content. 6% acknowledged using their phones to obtain coupons or other promotional discounts. And another 6% purchased goods, services, and other “non-mobile” content from their phones.

“It’s taken a couple of years, but they’ve figured out the mobile phone is really a tool kit, and one of the tools it unlocks is this thing called the retail environment,” observed Peter Johnson, vice president of market intelligence for the MMA. “If we had done this survey two or three years ago, I would guess almost all respondents would have used it to purchase ringtones or wallpaper.”

The findings also indicated that the primary users of mobile commerce are adult owners of smartphones who are between the ages 25 and 34. Better than half of those smartphone owners used their iPhones or BlackBerrys to purchase content within the past month. And never before have so many purchases made from mobile phones been related to the aforementioned non-mobile content.

“This is a change not just in quantity, but quality, too,” says Johnson. “This strong and growing adoption highlights the reach, effectiveness and trustworthiness of the mobile channel for a wide variety of purchases, including physical goods and services.”