Ian Carrington, Google’s Mobile Sales Director, says: “There’s benefits for both traditional applications and mobile websites and I think both ecosystems will have a part to play, but advertisers we want to influence have to grow up and realise the mobile web is just as important to their business and should very much be a consideration for what their mobile strategy should be.”

During the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Rikard Steiber (Google) presented together with their Mobile Director and states that:

– Today 9 out of 10 mobiles sold are smartphones

– By the end of 2013 mobile internet usage surpasses traditional internet usage

According to Google:

– The number one usage on Mobile is searching for local info.

– Users take action because they have a need for something at that moment.

– A large group of users buy online and around 70% uses it to compare prices.

– 57% users who had a bad mobile experience will not recommend the brand/business.

– Globally 10% of businesses today have a mobile site.

Only 1% of Google ads are currently for Mobile which indicated a huge growth market and a fantastic opportunity for companies taking advantage of this now.

Download the 2012 GOOGLE MOBILE RESEARCH REPORT >>

Jason Sparrow, Chief Mobile at Google presents the Mobile Trends for 2012:

1. More than 1 billion people use mobile devices as primary access point.

2. During 10 days (specific holidays) in 2012 mobile will represent >50% of trending search terms.

3. Driving people in to physical locations: a large part of business visitors will come from mobile searches.

4. “Mobile driven spend” will grow fast.

5. Driving a new consumer behaviour: people research, compare, act and buy differently.

6. Tablets will take their place as the 4th screen (after Mobiles, TV and PC).

7. New industry standards will make mobile displays easy to run.

8. 5 new companies will reach the Angry Birds level of success (media power house brands).

9. ROI on mobile and tablet advertising will increase as a result of the unmatched relevance of proximity. Mobile will become more valuable to advertise than other media within the next few years.

10. The intersection of mobile and social will spark a dramatic new form of engaging consumers in advertisement (engage one another).

11. 80% of the largest 2000 publishers will have an HTML5 mobile site.

12. Local phenomenon: one million small businesses will go mobile with a mobile website because they need to be ‘found’ physically.

What do we do about it? How do I invest in mobile? How to organise myself?
“Get going or get left behind”
1. How does mobile change your Value Proposition? Who are you and how does this relate to your customers?

Example 1: hotels.com – they recognise how mobile has changed their business model. Same for priceline.com: more than 50% of their reservations happened from within 36 kms from their next stay, more than 1/3 within 1.5 km and more than half of them happened within 1 day of the stay. This shows a new behaviour that needs to be served.

Example 2: banking. On-the-go banking changes the entire industry. The way we consult accounts as well as how we make money move between accounts.

Example 3: grocery store (ASDA UK). Full online ordering from mobile on-the-go. People order on their way to the grocery store so they only have to pick it up.

Example 4: amazon.com. 39% of walk-outs influenced by smartphone usage (people quiting store to find better deal on mobile) due to access to product and pricing information. How to keep the prospect in your store? Rethinking your value proposition because you may not be able to beat the price of (online) competitors. Also means marketing to differentiate. Blending of physical and online worlds.

2. How should your marketing adapt to mobile?

a. think about a search term: who shows up & how do they represent themselves? Dramatic differences between PC and mobile representation and messaging.

b. Call-to-action: find business physically.

c. Using Call Extensions: call-only ads or phone numbers added to ads, based on location of the user (click-to-call).

d. Branding: smartphones are personal and are touchscreens. Multi-screen ads are more effective in driving brand awareness. A study Google did with Nielsen showed that the impact of brand awareness through mobile was significantly higher than any of the other existing mediums (TV, PC and tablets).

3. How does your organisation prepare for mobile?

You need to make Mobile main part of your mainstream activities within your business.

4. How does mobile change your web presence?

Make sure your mobile website is ready for different smartphones with different screen sizes.

57% of visitors abandon businesses with a poorly-designed mobile site forever.

40% have turned to competitor’s sites after a bad mobile experience.

5. Who can help you building your Mobile Website?

Contact OptimaSit today and become one of their success stories enabling you to benefit from the latest technologies and experience we have.

Watch the presentation at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona: