Juniper Research: Mobile Advertising is on the Rise

Advertisers around the world will spend an estimated $105 billion by 2019 on messaging that reaches people via their mobile devices, according to a new study from Juniper Research (News - Alert), and Asia will account for 43 percent of that spend.

This points not only to the fact that most of us are obsessed with our mobile devices, but also to the shift of mobile as a central area of investment by advertisers, who increasingly want to leverage smartphones to reach people with more personalized and targeted messages.

The Juniper study also talked about how video is growing in ads of this nature, discussed how real-time bidding is driving digital ad growth, and mentioned there is concern about privacy in light of the rise of big data analytics, and a need to give consumers the join to opt in or out.

The prevalence of mobile device use, of course, can enable brands and retailers to reach out to consumers wherever there are.

For example, a company called Mobiquity Networks is  offering beacons as a service that also provides real-time contextual awareness to apps, and employing them in common areas like malls. Jim Meckley, chief marketing officer at Mobiquity, last month told TMCnet that the company already had 10,000 beacons in its network, on which it plans to launch commercial service this year.

The service will be in use in the top 240 Simon Mall properties, he said. While retailers or the brands in those stores will be able to leverage the Mobiquity offering to try to entice shoppers to visit their stores and check out their products, he added, movie studios that want to reach mall shoppers will likely be the first large-scale uses cases for Mobiquity.

Meanwhile, a company called Tapcentive is offering an in-store mobile engagement platform that CEO Dave Wentker says is a better alternative to beacons and QR codes because it is very easy to use.

Tapcentive’s white-label platform consists of hardware for use in stores and a software-as-a-service offering for which merchants are billed by the tap.

The hardware, which will initially be offered for $35 per device, looks like a buzzer you might find in a board game. A merchant could place one or more of the “magic buttons” at the entrance to a store, a store aisle end cap, or any other spot where it is trying to draw traffic. Shoppers are encouraged to lay their smartphones on top of the button (first to get the retailer’s app and subsequently) to receive store loyalty points, a discount, a gift card, or some other incentive.

“It’s like the blue light special of the old days. It’s simple,” says Wentker, referring to how Kmart used to deploy a blue flashing light and make an announcement over its public address system to get shoppers to rush to a certain part of the store to get a limited-time deal.