The emerging mobile device market is a tempting one for marketing opportunities – what better than to have your brand message in the hands of people everywhere. According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald the “the global mobile advertising market is expected to surge to $US17.6 billion in 2015”. However, lift the lid and look beyond the obvious and somewhat advertising crowded places of Facebook, Twitter, and Google Adwords and the market becomes complex with many strands to consider. So, where do you go for the low down on your mobile internet marketing strategy?

Depending on your market it may be tempting to focus on one particular partner, such as Facebook, for simplicity however according to a recent article in The News Tribune “Facebook’s big problems, analysts say, is that its advertising technology, although powerful, is far too complicated for most marketers to figure out.”. There are legal issues too, in the US the Federal Trade Commission is looking into how advertisers should disclose advertising and incentives when utilising social media services. The FTC recently told USA Today that “The FTC’s advertising endorsement guidelines require compensation to be disclosed, as with Twitter hashtags such as #paid”.

If you are considering any of the above the infographic from MOBILE LUMAscape should help put things into context and provide some insights into which company/agencies focus on particular areas. Click the image to go to the infographic for more information.

When planning a mobile marketing opportunity there are a number of things to consider including:

• Whether to go it alone or engage a media agency
• If engaging a media agency should you go for a traditional agency, as part of your overall brand strategy, or a focused online media agency?
• Will you be planning to yield a return on the campaign or simply use it to build your brand image?
• Should you go for a straight mobile ad or a mobile app?
• If going for a mobile app which platforms will you target and which development platforms should you use?
• To which primary devices will you target the campaign (tablets, smartphones, browsers)
• When going for a mobile app how will you seed the app, which app stores will it be available from, and which app discovery mechanisms should you use?
• If going for advertising which mobile ad networks will you use and will you utilise video ads or traditional text/image ads?
• Will the campaign be supported by a mobile website platform and if so which one and which mobile browsers will you target?
• Will you be taking advantage of location-based services?
• Should you take advantage of any of the rich media opportunities – such as distributable widgets?
• Which of the mobile security options should you opt for?
• Which analytics will be most appropriate?