‘Tis the season for crystal ball gazing. As the year draws to a close expect every sometime mobile pundit and their dog to roll out their predictions for 2010. Most of this will be pointless drivel or marketing claptrap.
People who are allowed to make predictions for 2010:
a) Analysts – it’s their job.
b) Industry associations – they should know what they’re talking about.
c) er… that’s it.
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is one of those organisations that should know what it’s talking about. So here are its predictions for 2010.
There are no prizes for guessing what the MMA’s New Years resolution will be: find a replacement for Mike Wehrs, who is departing, despite only being appointed president and CEO earlier this year.
Apart from Wehrs’ departure, it’s been a pretty productive year for the MMA. It has introduced a Certified Mobile Marketer Program, which seems a pretty good idea, and continues to build on its wealth of guidelines and best-practice papers (these are all available to non members. Read them). The recent global awards highlights a lot of great campaigns – see the winners with links to the case studies.
MMA’s Top 10 for 2010
10. Hypochondriac? We’ve got an app for that!
Ongoing global pandemics and concerns about socialized healthcare warrant a prescription for mobile content geared toward the sick and the paranoid. Symptoms to watch for include apps that diagnose, doctors that text and medical reminders at hand. Mobile health is just what the doctor ordered!
9. Back to reality…
Oh, those boring old coupons – they get lost, forgotten, left behind or expired. Look for augmented reality to start playing a larger role in location-based advertising. Now, when you’re walking into your favorite coffee shop, the real-time mobile coupon you receive gives you instant gratification with your discounted daily grind.
8. I want my mobile TV
In the coming year, both the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2010 World Cup will heighten mobile video consumption. The introduction of new ad units, including interactive and partial screen, will subsidize free content.
7. Practice safe text
Governments and safety advocates around the world warned against texting and driving in 2009. We expect 2010 to bring about technology solutions that disable handset features when the owner is driving.
6. A guy walks into a barcode…
Proliferation of standardized technology and higher quality camera phones will not only lead to increased adoption of mobile barcodes and coupons, but will also offer a whole new access point to content.
5. Have you hugged your aggregator lately?
Look for aggregators to expand their businesses beyond shortcodes. Aggregation services in the areas of location, customer service and mobile commerce will begin to emerge.
4. Turn free in 1.2 miles
Free is a very good price. We’re keeping an eye out for no-cost turn-by-turn navigation applications rolling out on more devices in 2010. The end of stand-alone GPS is in sight. What great news for consumers…and McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and Dairy Queen.
3. Your Skype is showing
Services that enable video conferencing and the networks and handsets that support it (like cameras on the front of the phone!) will proliferate in the coming year. More consumers will connect via WiFi, offloading traditional non-wireless video conferencing services.
2. How does mobile measure up?
Moving into 2010 and beyond, campaign effectiveness will be measured in a variety of different and very creative ways: the number of eyeballs, shakes and finger swipes; the number of blogs, articles, tweets and digs; the number of acquisitions, conversions, calls, responses or purchases; total basket size, consumer recall, loyalty and recommendations; check-ins on foursquare and check-outs on Amazon.
1. Mobile’s sixth sense
Over the past few years, the mobile device has moved beyond standard technology inputs. We’re no longer [just] talking, typing and clicking. Now, we’re photographing, recording, touching, locating, shaking, accelerating and blowing. What’s next? We’re rooting for smell recognition.
So, how many of those do you think will come true? Comment below or email editor (at) mobiThinking.com.
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