mocoNews.net - Brands Love Mobile Apps?Maybe Too Much

What's the next big thing in mobile advertising? Apparently, its not the oft-touted location-based ads, or mobile video, but mobile applications. Charles Henri Prevost, VP of Global Business Development at Phonevalley, the mobile arm of ad giant Publicis, told MobiAd, "Almost every request we get from a brand these days includes a mobile application." Scott Seaborn, Ogilvy Group UK's head of mobile, reported that three years ago, the ad firm was mostly doing WAP banners, while for the past several months, it has been doing applications.

But why an app? Because it allows brands "to engage consumers and plunge them into a branded environment in which they will be more sensitive to the brand messages," Phonevalley CEO Alexandre Mars told MobiAd. Seaborn believes the apps represent a step forward for mobile marketing. Past efforts such as mobile banner ads, he says, were usually an attempt to copy what worked on the wired internet and slap it on the mobile internet. Mobile ad applications can, however, be created to take advantage of a phone's specific function. For example, Carling's iPhone app?iPint?makes use of the phone's accelerometer and lets users pretend they're drinking a beer. (The phone's screen fills up with a virtual beer, and when tilted looks as if it's being emptied). Currently, the branded app is number eight in the AppStore's free apps, ahead of both Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Earth and Facebook.

Brands and agencies are optimistic that apps will be the way forward for the coming months, but while the number of platforms and app stores have grown, so have the number of applications, all vying for a user's attention. So now that brands have figured out a way to appeal to consumers, the next big problem is figuring out how to let consumers find them. As MobiAd notes, "With such a wide variety of platforms, stores, and applications, discovery is actually becoming the big problem these days."

Photo Credit: Gustav H