If you are using mobile marketing in your business have you considered using augmented reality to engage your audience.

Here are a number of examples from the UK and Ireland of the use of Blippar a mobile app which integrates augmented reality - the first two links take you to the Android and iPhone app store to download the Blippar app to your mobile phone.

[View the story "Blippar Your Brand - Examples Of Using Augmented Reality" on Storify]

Golden Pages has added an augmented reality (AR) and a location-based deals service to its smartphone app as it seeks to better integrate its print, mobile and online services.

The AR function can be used along with the latest edition of the Golden Pages, with the cover becoming an interactive game when viewed through the app.

As you scroll through the physical Golden Pages you need to have your mobile App from Golden Pages open on your phone, click the AR symbol on the App then when you see an AR icon in the Golden Pages book, aim your phones camera at it.

The Irish Times reports that the latest Golden Pages directory has been delivered to more than 1.2 million homes and businesses in recent months, while the goldenpages.ie Android and iOS apps are installed on 160,000 devices in Ireland.

Telecoms company Imagine.ie also has an AR-enhanced advert on the directory’s front cover, which among other things allows customers to check their WiMax coverage through the app.

In addition to AR, the new app features a location-based deals service - users will either be alerted when a deal is available nearby or will be able to search to see everything that is on offer in their location.

You will also find Golden Pages on Facebook and Twitter.

In my personal opinion the AR feature is an interesting addition but I can not remember how many years it has been since I used a physical Golden Pages as I am more likely to phone directory enquiries or search online for a number.

And I wonder how many times the Golden Pages mobile App is used daily? The introduction of deals if promoted well and if good deals are to be found could increase it's use - it's an app I have on my iPhone but have not used probably since it was installed!

Do you use the Golden Pages mobile App regularly? In terms of metrics it seems to me that the number of installations of an App is only one initial measure to look at if you are a mobile marketer. What is more interesting is how many times it is used and what features of your App are used the most.

Top 10 Mobile Internet Trends (Feb 2011)

This is truly awesome if you are interested in research about mobile marketing. Google has released it's statistics relating to their global research which they did in partnership with Ipsos and the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) where they were exploring insights about the mobile user and its mobile usage.

The website is called 'OurMobilePlanet' and provides information into the penetration ofuse of smartphones, how people use their smart phones, mobile commerce and mobile advertising.

What is particularly helpful is that you can look at the data set and compare it against different markets and you can also look at the research by gender and age profile. the data also includes useage of smart phones in relation to social networking.

The research was carried out between March and July 2011 and the target population were the private smartphone user, who accessed the mobile internet on their device in each country surveyed. Unfortunately Ireland was not included in the research.

Samples in each country surveyed were aimed to be representative of the target population - n=6,000 in the US, n=2,000 in Germany, UK, France and Japan, n=500 in Indonesia and Malaysia and n=1,000 in each other country surveyed.

If you are interested in mobile marketing I highly recommend that you check out OurMobilePlanet. I hope the research is undertaken again in the future to help us explore trends year on year.

Some 10% of all traffic to ecommerce websites now comes from mobile, a new study by Screen Pages has found. But the study found that while users of mobile devices were increasingly likely to browse standard online shops, they were only half as likely to engage with the site or to buy.

That suggests that retailers should work to make their ecommerce sites more usable from a mobile, whether that means investing in dedicated m-commerce sites or taking steps to improve the way ecommerce sites are seen over a smartphone or tablet.

The study found that while 10% of visits to websites came from mobile devices, that proportion rose towards 15% for more upmarket brands.

The study also found that visitors coming to a site through a mobile device viewed 17% fewer pages than those viewing from a PC, while ecommerce conversion rates were 41% lower overall, on average.

However, average order values were slightly higher on average, with half of the websites studied showing an increase.

Comscore reports that In the EU5 region (which includes France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK) 4.6 percent of mobile users and 9.8 percent of smartphone owners scanned a QR or bar code during the month of June 2011.

Among mobile users who scanned a QR or bar code on their mobile devices in June 2011:

• 57.4 percent did so from home
• while 22.6 percent did so while at work
• 20 percent scanned a QR or bar code when outside or on public transport
• nearly 18 percent scanned a QR code while at a retail store
• 17.2 percent did so while in a supermarket
• and 5.7 percent did so while in a restaurant.

comScore reports that in the UK, 72 percent of PC users checked their emails online during June 2011 and nearly the same percentage of smartphone users accessed email services on their mobile device (67 percent).

Email access via PC had a wider reach across all age groups than it did between smartphone users.

In terms of gender, males (70.3 percent) were more avid users of email via smartphone than females (62.8 percent) although it was the opposite for PC access, with the service reaching more females (72.9 percent) than males (71.4 percent).

Email access via PC had the highest reach between the 25-34 year olds (80.3 percent) but it was the 35-45 year olds (77.4 percent) that made most use of the service via smartphones.

View "Marketing Your App" on Storify

Further to my article about the launch of Google Wallet I came across this research published easrlier this year by TNS - TNS Mobile Life 2011, which is aparently the largest ever global research study into today’s mobile consumer.

Their research website provides a way to review and compare useage of mobile phones in different markets.

Now into its sixth year, TNS Mobile Life is the result of more than 25,000 hours of interviews with over 34,000 respondents in 43 countries. It provides an overview of consumer experiences with mobility today and insights into how this will change.

In summary:

• The number of mobile web users visiting social networking sites grew from 30% to 46% globally, and from 26% to 50% in emerging markets, leapfrogging much of the developed markets.
• Only 18% of consumers globally upload photos or video directly to the web from their mobiles but a further 44% would be interested in doing so in future.
• Consumers in emerging markets are more likely to want to upload content (49%), but more than half (55%) do not have the ability to do so.
• Over 50% of consumers in rapid growth economies* want to use mobile phones for greater access to financial services.
• Mobile phones set to become the ‘virtual debit card’ in rapid growth markets where demand exceeds developed markets by 18%.
• In the UK the proportion of people using mobile banking increased from 9.7% in 2010 to 20.4% in 2011, while in the USA the rates from 11.4% to 21.9%.In Sweden it was greater still: 8.1% to 20%.
• While adoption rates increased, desire for mobile banking in areas where it is not widespread is strong, peaking in sub-Saharan Africa, where almost two-thirds (63%) of mobile owners expressed an interest in mobile banking.
• Developed countries such as the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong have made minimal progression in mobile wallet adoption over the past year. The USA moved from 6% in 2010 to 8% in 2011, Singapore increased from 10% to 13%, Hong Kong from 16% to 17%.
• Mobile wallet usage in Chile was below 1% in 2010, but has risen to 7% in 2011 - just one percentage point below the USA and higher than Australia (6%), France (5%) and the Netherlands (5%).
• The financial services that capture the highest interest in China are paying bills (25%), getting money out of the bank (15%), and receiving wages (15%). China’s usage of mobile wallet is already at 52% above the global average and fewer than a quarter (23%) of Chinese consumers say they are not interested in mobile wallet.

Find additional research about mobile marketing here.

You may also find this research by Google of interest in the US where over 5000 people were interviewed about the adoption and use of mobile phones - the research was commissioned at the end of 2010.

 

A really extensive review of the future of commerce - very timely given the launch of Google Wallet this week.

If you are a US retailer make sure that you are Google Wallet ready - check out this resource to help you.