Laura Marriott, former President of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), recently sat down with TMCnet to discuss what’s going on in the mobile marketing industry in terms of it’s progress thus far and predictions for 2010 and beyond.
One of the driving forces behind mobile marketing and its explosive growth is access to mobile data, according to Marriott. Five years ago, operators saw mobile data as an enterprise offering, without knowing the future value it would add for consumers. Now that the landscape has changed, and unlimited data plans are becoming commonplace, mobile marketing can thrive like never before.
In terms of mobile marketing seeing widespread acceptance, Marriott expressed that many hurdles have been overcome, but there’s still a long way to go. “I would say that we have overcome a large percentage of the basic hurdles, such as consumer protection and data pricing and availability of smartphones,” said Marriott. “But there are still some challenges to get to the next level, including consumer education about mobile marketing and advertising. While we have seen some great success stories by leading brands, I think that the majority of brands and companies are still on the sidelines.”
In terms of predictions for 2010 and beyond, Marriott is taking a wait-and-see approach to see what transpires at this year’s Mobile World Congress. “I\’ll be watching for what GSMA and other associations announce as an indicator for 2010 trends,” she continued. “The general trends are pretty clear; mobile commerce is taking off for sure and location services and mobile video will have an increasing impact. I believe this year will see a resurgence of 2D barcode applications, not just for marketing but for supply chain management and logistics applications for brands.”
It’s an interesting take on the state of the industry from an executive who’s had first hand knowledge from the beginning, to the point we’re at today. Head on over and check out the rest of Marriott’s interview here.