#InspiredMarketing Predictions: @BHieggelke, @UrbanAirship

Over the next several weeks, we will be sharing predictions on the future of marketing from 25 industry thought leaders. These predictions have been compiled in our new whitepaper, Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013. Today, Brent Hieggelke of Urban Airship shares his thoughts.

Mobile Apps Become a Strategic Imperative

Let’s just get this out of the way and proclaim 2013 as another “Year of Mobile.” In fact, global PC sales were outpaced by total smartphone sales starting in 2011, so it’s probably time for us to just agree that this is the decade of mobile. The fact is that mobile changes things more than anything we’ve ever seen.

In 2013, we’ll see mobile advertising spend grow at an increasing pace. We’re not going out on a limb to say that mobile ad budgets will at least quadruple in 2013 as brand advertisers seek to be where consumers are. We’re already seeing evidence of this with Kraft Foods Group (now Mondelez) moving 10% of its media budget to mobile. In addition, the Mobile Marketing Association’s recent MXS mobile study recommended that marketers in 2013 should spend 7% of their budget on mobile advertising.

In 2013, mobile apps will move from being a brand’s playground to a strategic imperative:

• Smartphone users worldwide will download more than 45 billion apps this year—nearly twice the number of apps that were downloaded in 2011. (Gartner, August 17, 2012)
• Mobile apps are a $6 billion market today, growing to $55.7 billion by 2015. (Forrester, February 13, 2012)
• Consumer spending on mobile app stores and digital content will increase from $18 billion this year to $61 billion by 2016. (Gartner, July 12, 2012)

And now with push messaging, apps have a direct voice with all of their best customers and can reach out anytime, any place—without the app even being open. Push establishes direct-to-consumer communications with the future potential to steal advertising budgets from other channels as brands find higher response rates and a much lower cost—for example, sending Rich Push videos versus having TV ads being skipped over on DVRs. And there’s already growing evidence that push messaging is a primary reason that consumers keep some apps on their smartphones.

In 2013, location will become apps’ trump card. Apps will leverage location to offer more value and innovative features to users. Location insights will enable apps to attain an unprecedented level of messaging precision—not only knowing where you are right now, but where you’ve been…where you live, work, and play.

Brent Hieggelke
CMO
Urban Airship
www.urbanairship.com
@BHieggelke

Brent Hieggelke is the CMO of Urban Airship, which helps the world's top brands grow mobile engagement through push notifications, in-app purchases, and subscriptions. Previously, he spent a decade helping brands optimize digital marketing initiatives in executive marketing posts at WebTrends, TouchClarity, and Omniture. Most recently, Brent started and ran Second Porch, the first Facebook-integrated social vacation rental site sold to HomeAway, Inc. in May 2011. Early in his career, Brent co-founded New City, a media company in Chicago. Brent has been awarded multiple marketing awards, and is a frequent speaker at both marketing and digital conferences.