As an advertising professional, I’ll admit it: watching commercials prior to a feature presentation in a movie theatre is what I would call a slight agitation of mine (others may call it harassment).

I’m forced to unwillingly gaze up at these advertisements commanding my attention on a gigantic movie screen. Hurray.

Yet marketers have found a new way of beating the boredom and irritation of movie goers with social mobile marketing. Perhaps no longer will people have to squirm in their seats at the site of yet another hair mousse or energizing drink commercial (have we not seen enough of those already?).

TimePlay Inc., a Toronto-based company, is appropriating a push strategy towards such captive audiences and encouraging engagement with products and services. TimePlay Inc. is placing interactive ads throughout Cineplex theatres based in the Greater Toronto Area that screen before feature presentation.

TimePlay Inc. hopes to encourage smart phone users to download apps onto their phones or call a number on the movie screen that allows them to participate in a company’s or agency’s marketing plan.

For example, Ford asked the audience to text in their vote as to whether or not they should incorporate more male or female leads in the movie industry; nearly 18,000 downloads were made of the interactive app in the first month of the campaign launch.

According to Susan Krashinsky of the Globe and Mail, interactive advertising has become a trend and advertisers are all about reaching people at a “dead time” with their smart phones through contests, coupons and other incentives.

This all sounds like a pocket full of roses, but most advertisers seem to be approaching this opportunity all wrong. The idea of connecting with people with their companion mobile device that goes everywhere with them is a smart tactic, yet customers may feel vulnerable that marketers can reach them day or night and bombard them with messages to interact with a company’s product or service.

Thus the question of where the motivation is to encourage interaction remains. There is no guarantee that customers will be motivated or feel “energetic” enough to engage just because marketers can now reach them through clever means.

Additionally, not everyone can participate. Mobile interaction requires smart phones, something a little more sophisticated than the regular flip phone. According to Krashinsky, 40% of mobile users in Canada own a smart phone, meaning fewer than half are unable to respond. Lastly, not all mobile users are aware of how to utilize apps.

The first step for advertisers is therefore to motivate audiences to interact in spite of conditions that may seem too complicated or time-consuming to do on their phones. Marketers then need to teach people how to interact with companies on a clear, step-by-step process. And hopefully, this move will make social mobile marketing more of a good thing.

During AdWeek in Toronto, Google’s own Jesse Haines, Group Marketing Manager at the big media mogul, introduced “How to Go Mo in 2012″ to emphasize the importance of utilizing mobile.

Mobile is a market that every marketer should be appropriating in their campaigns, as mobile technology is becoming the fastest growing technology among consumers.

Haines took the audience through four steps in how to mobilize mobile:

1. Embrace the Nonline World

Android and iPhone apps act as brand extensions to deepen relationships and build loyalty. QR codes act as silent salespeople. Google Wallet is handling your credit card information to complete transactions. All of these new gadgets have become the new and hip way of communicating brand identities and messages.

Several airlines, including Delta for example, places QR codes as passengers plane tickets to be accessed on their mobile devices, without the need to print a boarding pass. Mobile is making it easier for consumers to access information on the fly, without the hassle of performing monotonous, everyday tasks.

2. Cover the Basics

According to Google research, 79% of large advertisers do not have mobile optimized landing pages. What these advertisers do not realize is that mobile search is exploding and has increased by five times in the past few years.

Haines shared some other interesting statistics: 30% of restaurant searches are made on mobile devices and 25% of search on mobile is movie-related. Moreover, 40% of users who visit a mobile-friendly site go to a competitor’s site, while 11% screamed at their phones from having difficulty accessing a website.

One way to analyze and evaluate a business’s website on a mobile device is through howtogomo.com. Google offers a measurement tool called the gomometer, where users can type in their business website and see how it renders on mobile devices. The gomometer caters to both small and large businesses and at different prices and can take up to merely 30 minutes to upload.

3. Make meaningful connections

Haines contends that mobile offers another route for clients to connect with their customers. Through interactive click-to-calls and an emphasis on hyper-local content, engagement has become a desirable feature for mobile display.

Take the Angry Birds game as the more popular example. This interactive game became so entertaining for consumers to play with on their iPads that the company extended the brand connection to make plush toys and sell them in stores.

4. Access more than one screen

Tablets have also become a desirable commodity in the mobile realm. According to a PEW Internet research study, tablet ownership doubled over the holidays. The tablet is the fastest growing technology used for entertainment purposes as opposed to work purposes, since it is not often taken outside the home (except for travel).

According to another Google study, tablets and mobile usage increase during prime time hours (whereas desktop usage peaked in mid-morning and dropped during prime time hours).

In the same study, Google found that 46% of mobile users searched for content that was not related to TV. What this means for marketers is that they need to be on all sorts of platforms (both TV and mobile), combining the best communication platforms to increase interactivity.

Mobile usage is growing at a fast pace. It is up to marketers to solidify the companionship between mobile devices and the people that carry them. Marketers need to provide multiple outlets to accompany users wherever they are going, and mobile delivers in every category.

If you want more information on how to appropriate mobile devices for your marketing plan, do not hesitate to ask for our help.

The company is also helping small businesses create a lightweight version of their Google sites for mobiles. Within a week of the launch of this service, more than 3,500 lightweight mobile landing pages have been developed by businesses.

These simple mobile sites also make SEO marketing via mobiles possible for small businesses. Apart from providing information on products and services, businesses can also encourage potential customers to call them for further details with click-to-call features. Businesses can actually sell their products through mobile landing pages using Google Checkout payment platform.

Google Wallet is another M-commerce product from the search engine giant. A yet to be released offering will make mobile payments possible with the help of a NFC reader at seller’s checkout and a NFC chip in the buyer’s phone. Google is also exploring ways of using mobile ads to encourage customers to make a purchase either from a physical outlet or via mobile. Through mobile sites, ads, payments and more, Google is trying to fulfill all the requirements for successful mobile marketing.

There is a significant difference between search on desktops and that on the mobiles. On the former, searchers are usually in the early stages of the purchase funnel, while users conducting mobile search are often in need of immediate information for store visit or purchase.

A study conducted by Ipsos OTX MediaCT and Google proves that users conducting search on smartphones are usually in late stages of purchase funnel and are more likely to take action. Visit to a business, either online or a physical store was the most common action to follow smartphone search. 68% smartphone searchers visited a business, 67% continued research, 59% discussed the matter further and 53% made purchases.

The study also highlighted that smartphone searchers looking for local services or businesses were very likely to act. 61% of such serachers called the business, 59% visited a business, 58% looked for directions, 54% visited the business website, 36% made an in-store purchase and 22% made a purchase online. Mobile ads were found to be very effective in encouraging users to conduct mobile search.

Take the first mover’s advantage

Mobile marketing is still in its initial stages. This does not mean you need to wait and watch. By acting now, you will have the first mover’s advantage. Experiment and optimize you mobile marketing campaign. Capturing a significant share of the market now will be much easier than in a few years, when the market becomes highly competitive and aggressive.

Make use of customer history

Knowing what exactly your customers want will help you offer better user experiences. You can make use of customer history for this purpose. For instance, if you sell ebooks online, customer history can help you find out customer preference. In case a customer prefers science fiction, you can suggest the latest books available in that category and shorten the purchase cycle.

This is especially important in case mobile transactions, as mobile users are usually on the go and may not have much time. Also, the download speed on mobile may be low, so you need to ensure that the transaction is completed in minimum possible number of steps.

Design simpler, faster apps and gratify instantly

One of the important reasons for huge popularity of social networking is the instant gratification provided by it. Today users expect instant gratification. Although difficult, you should strive to provide this. It is a good idea to design specifically for each device to ensure that your apps are fast and easy. Give greater importance to usability than visual appeal.

Mobile phone penetration in Latin American region is growing. The percentage of Latin American population using mobile phones in 2009-10 and the projections for 2011-15 are; 57.3% in 2009, 60.6% in 2010, 63.4% in 2011, 66.2% in 2012, 68.6% in 2013, 70.7% in 2014 and 72.9% in 2015. With so many people using mobiles and having access to mobile internet, the area presents a big opportunity for marketers.

Latin American region is considered under a single heading in most marketing campaigns, but CTIA Wireless 2011 panel, ‘The New Frontier: International Perspectives’ emphasized the fact that every country in the region is unique. According to the marketers operating in the region, each country has a distinctive culture, which responds in its own way to marketing campaigns and the key to successful marketing lays in fragmentation.

The panel agreed that call to action campaigns that integrated text message short codes with the traditional media were the most effective. A great example is the usage of TV ads with mobile short codes made by TIM w.e., a Portugal-based interactive marketing firm, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Use of such effective marketing tools and proper fragmentation can help marketers improve their ROI.

Usage of location sharing services with a social base, like Gowalla and Foursquare, among US internet users is comparatively low. The results of Pew Internet and American Life Project’s September 2011 survey indicate that only 4% of the US internet audience used such services.

Although the usage of social location sharing services is low, location based mobile services, which include tools like GPS navigation, store locators and location based weather alerts, are widely used. December 2010 Microsoft survey indicates that such services were used by around 50% Americans with location aware mobile devices. Among these, one third people made use of such services for shopping or coupons.

According to the survey, which covered countries like the US, the UK, Germany, Canada and Japan, GPS navigation is the most popular location-based mobile service, being used by around 70% people. Services like weather updates, traffic updates, restaurant information, locating nearest convenience services and shopping/coupons were used by 46%, 38%, 38%, 36% and 33% people respectively.

Marketers can capitalize on the growing popularity of such services by taking help from an internet marketing firm. According to the RIS News and IHL Group November 2010 survey, 43% retailers planned to partner with a service like Foursquare, while 24% were thinking of teaming up with Shopkick or similar service in the next two years.

You can use the Google keyword tool to get an idea about the keywords being used for mobile searches. The tool offers volumetric data for the keywords being used by your target customers. The data is based on the mobile searches conducted on the Google search engine. The tool is easy to use. You just need to enter your keyword in the ‘phrase’ box, and you can negate undesired words for better results. Google keyword tool can provide a lot of useful information but for an unbiased picture, its best to use multiple keyword research tools.

When considering PPC advertising on mobile, you need to take the differences between mobile and desktop searches into account. You need a separate mobile internet marketing plan. You can’t expect good results just by using the same ads and keywords that you used for PPC advertising on desktops. The ads and keywords need to be tailored to suit mobiles. You can never overdo testing as far as PPC advertising on mobiles is concerned. You not only need to test your ads on different devices, but also test different ad element combinations and effects of different browsers on your ad display.

Keep it short and simple

Concise and to the point content is recommended, whether the emails are directed at desktop audiences or mobile users. But this is especially important when targeting mobile internet users, as these users are least likely to go through lengthy articles. Short, simple and to-the-point emails work best on mobiles.

Avoid Images

Graphically visual content may give you great results from desktop users, but the same cannot be applied for mobile internet users. It is best to avoid images, they increase loading time and they may be displayed in uncomplimentary fashion in some devices. If you must, ensure that the images included are as small as possible.

Test every aspect of email delivery and display on mobiles

Testing is recommended when directing emails to PC users as well, but in case of mobile, its importance cannot be overemphasized. You need to test all the aspects of delivery and display on different devices. You not only need to test innumerable devices, but also the effects of different email clients and addresses on your emails.

Email marketing is an essential part of internet marketing. Ensuring that your emails are mobile friendly can increase your reach many fold.

A survey was recently conducted by Yahoo! and the Nielsen Company to find out the qualities most preferred by consumers in mobile ads. The survey collected information from US mobile internet users about the features they consider to be most important in mobile ads for different categories like personal care, apparel, home, food and beverages, automobiles, travel, technology, health, entertainment, mobile digital, dining and financial. In all the categories, the ad being informative was given highest importance by respondents. Relevance was the second most important quality desired by consumers in mobile ads. Surprisingly, users gave least importance to graphical and multimedia elements of ads. This is in contrast with the preferences of iPad users who gave high importance to these elements of ads.

Ipsos Observer conducted a survey for Advertising Age to find out percentages of internet users liking and disliking ads in different advertising media. Most internet users preferred ads in magazines and newspapers with 41 percent people liking them while mobile ads were least preferred with only 15 percent users liking them and 63% disliking them. According to the findings of InsightExpress, heavy mobile users found full page ads annoying but the response was more favorable for mobile banners.

Keeping mobile ads informative and relevant will be the best strategy for marketers interested in mobile internet marketing.