Emerging trends in marketing

Major household brands are launching or extending mobile marketing campaigns, according to the report by analyst house Juniper Research - lured to the small screen by the potential for targeted and cost-effective ad campaigns.

"Retailers, merchants and brands are... becoming aware that the mobile device is being personalised more and more and therefore is becoming an opportunity for unique, individual personal marketing programmes," the Mobile Marketing & Retail Strategies report notes.

"The mobile channel offers merchants the opportunity to differentiate from their competition and acquire customers that become loyal."
Juniper cited the example of online supermarket Ocado as a UK brand using an integrated mobile marketing and direct sales approach through its Ocado on the Go iPhone app
Smart posters, while growing faster than mobile coupons and advertising, will remain a comparatively niche market over the next four years - not even exceeding one per cent of the total market by 2014, the analyst added.

Juniper predicts mobile retail opportunities in coupons, smart posters and advertising will collectively create a market worth more than $12bn by 2014 - up from $4.1bn in 2009