By Ryan Laffler, Digital Director, and Rachel Hornay, Art Direction/Copywriting Intern

1. FORGET YOUR WALLET

Mobile wallets have become the new way to pay. Once companies proved that mobile wallet transactions were properly encrypted and secure, mobile wallets began to take off. Many top brands such as Apple, MasterCard and Android now offer mobile payment. The market is also benefiting from the rapid adoption of the mobile wallet among retailers as a means to ramp up revenues, reduce operating costs, avert fraud-related losses, and improve consumer satisfaction. So leave your wallet at home—everything you need is on your phone.

2. MESSAGING APPS

Messaging apps are becoming the new operating system. Facebook has made huge strides in the messaging space. In a public Q&A session in November 2014, Mark Zuckerberg explained: “Messaging is one of the few things that people do more than social networking.” The transition from public social media to chat apps could be the biggest change in Internet culture and marketing since social media itself. Marketers are now trying to figure out a way to leverage the messaging app platform. For example, you can now Facebook Messenger Uber for a ride.

3. SHORTER IS BETTER

A short video for any brand works for mobile advertising. Spotify and Universal Pictures are examples of brands that leveraged Snapchat campaigns of short videos that led to a successful increase in sales. Recent studies have found that short video ads can increase awareness and drive home key messages as well as convey brand imagery. On-the-go consumers are in constant contact with their mobile devices and are more likely to recall short ads than consumers who are viewing ads at home.

4. GPS YOUR CONSUMER

Marketers are adopting proximity signals, indicators of when users are close to a sensor, with mobile devices to target consumers. Say you’re scrolling through your Facebook News Feed down the street from a local pizzeria and, suddenly, you see an ad for the pizzeria. This is all possible with proximity signals and some careful engineering. It will be interesting to see how this service evolves over time and how accurate the location targeting will become.

5. INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT)

The “Internet of Things” is increasingly becoming a conversation both in the workplace and outside it. Simply put, the Internet of Things is connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or each other). This includes everything from microwaves to lamps to the phone in your pocket. But how will this affect you and your business? When all of these devices are connected, it allows for a plethora of processes to be optimized. For example, say your phone’s alarm clock wakes you up at 6:30 a.m., which communicates to your coffee machine to begin grinding coffee. This communication can be applied large-scale to city infrastructures, transportation systems, etc. We will be keeping up with Internet of Things as it develops, so if you want to stay on top of the latest news, check back in with TGA Insight often and sign up for our newsletter.

SOURCES:
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/22407.html
http://mobilefuture.org/issues/internet-of-things/