A new survey published by Compete.com indicates smartphone owners are very receptive to mobile coupons, especially when it comes to grocery coupons that are easily redeemable via barcodes scanned directly from the device.

The survey, which looked at the time of day most smartphone owners use their devices, as well as what mobile advertising concepts they’re most interested in, found that usage during commutes to work and while watching TV were the highest on the list by far.

To find out their receptiveness, the survey asked smartphone owners how interested they were in receiving various types of mobile advertising.  The results were quite interesting, indicating consumers were most interested in receiving grocery coupons (36%), scanable barcodes (29%), offers to save and pursue at leisure (26%), movie theater offers (26%) and ads via SMS when going by a retailer with a promotion / coupon (21%).

The fact that over 1 in 5 smartphone owners would be interested in these top-5 concepts is very promising for the mobile marketing industry, considering that it’s still in the early stages of mainstream adoption.  Given the nature of smartphones, adoption via this user-group will signal what works and what doesn’t- with concepts that do see mainstream adoption via smartphones making their way to feature phones eventually.

It’s not surprising that barcodes, coupons and other retail-oriented mobile technologies are the first to catch on with consumers.  It’s a concept that provides the most value to users, while not interfering with daily usage like some other concepts.

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YouTube is making a dramatic change to its mobile web presence. This week, YouTube revealed that it will begin incorporating advertising services throughout the mobile site.

Naturally, YouTube is optimistic that advertisers will find enormous value in placing adds for their products and services on YouTube’s mobile site – a mobile presence that realized a 160% traffic increase in 2009.

Adds will run across the home, search, and browse pages in both the US and Japanese mobile YouTube sites.

According to the YouTube Biz Blog:

The increased usage of high-end devices like the iPhone and Android is also making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers.

“Test campaigns” are already underway by L’Oreal and Land Rover. Initial results indicate promising rates of click-throughs, positive user experiences, and greater brand awareness.

We’ve already seen some early campaigns run on YouTube’s mobile site by advertisers like Sony (for the DVD release of “District 9″) and Kia, both of whom were able to easily reach their target audience, no matter where they were looking for video.

The addition of advertising space to YouTube’s mobile website is not only of great interest to mobile marketers, it also comes as a blow to rabid YouTube critics claiming that YouTube would falter in finding new ways to create profitable revenue models.

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If you’ve ever used one of the Location-based apps like Foursquare, Gowalla or Brightkite, you’ve gone through the steps of checking in to a location to earn some sort of reward for being there.

Now that these early-stage start-ups have proven the interest in Location-based Services, Twitter and Facebook want in (joining Google, Apple and Nokia in trying to figure out how knowing a users’ location can lead to major mobile ad revenue.) In 2010, in the least, we’ll see both Twitter and Facebook’s take on LBS, a smart move for both companies which are experiencing massive mobile access growth.

Facebook, which according to a new comScore report saw access to its mobile browser grow by 112% in the past year, is expected to add location sharing in its users’ News Feeds, which may more than just intrude on the smaller companies’ courts. An article yesterday in the New York Times cited sources saying that Facebook would announce the news at its F8 developer conference in April.

Meanwhile, Twitter, which saw access to its mobile browser explode 347% in the past year, is already testing out a geolocation feature, which some users have seen in various beta forms as they go about their tweets. Foursquare, still a solid player in the game, will offer a free analytics tool and dashboard to give business owners information and stats about their visitors. These days, there isn’t a company in the consumer mobile space that isn’t interested in Location-based Services, and the market is ripe for innovation.
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Not only are companies, developers, and entrepreneurs of all varieties looking to develop a mobile presence as part of a comprehensive marketing campaign, even US states are delving into mobile territory.

This week it was posted on the official web site of the state of Alabama, that a new (and free) iPhone application is being released courtesy of Alabama.gov. Available now from iTunes and Apple’s App Store, the state of Alabama is looking to boost everything from tourism to resident awareness about state happenings through the new app.

Alabama Interactive, which is the “official eGovernment solutions provider” for the state of Alabama, reveals that the aforementioned application will serve up a variety of tools and resources that will certainly prove of interest to both Alabama residents and potential visitors to the great state. Such features include: Full site and state employee directory searches, access to state maps (parks, educational references, public services) through Google maps, news feeds, alerts and – of course – Twitter.

According to the official announcement from www.alabama.gov, the state’s website generates in excess of 800,000 visitors each month. The mobile extension of the site via the new app “will provide another gateway for citizens to interact with government.”

What it may also provide is the inspiration for every other state to develop a similar mobile application to promote the virtues and values of their own state.

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As 2009 came to a close, I posed the question “Will 2010 be the year of the mobile coupon?” We saw a lot of national retailers test out mobile coupons in various US markets, but starting tomorrow, Target will become the first retailer to accept mobile coupons at all of its locations across the country. Customers will soon be able to redeem mobile barcode coupons with a quick scan at checkout at any of Target’s retail stores.

One of the biggest challenges for barcode-based mobile coupons systems is getting retailers to purchase (or rent) a point-of-sale kiosk which can scan specific coupon company’s mobile barcodes. It isn’t clear yet what technology Target will be using for their mobile coupons, but as soon as I find out I will let you know.

Last year, JCPenny began a mobile coupon trial with Cellfire on point-of-sale coupon scanning kiosks in 16 of its Houston-area locations, but a Cellfire contact confirmed that they are not behind Target’s mobile coupons. However, Dan Kihanya, VP of Consumer Marketing at Cellfire, has been getting a bit of press related to the Target news, and was quoted in the USA Today article providing stats that mobile coupons are redeemed at a 5% to 20% rate, compared with about 1% for print coupons. U.K.-based Juniper Research recently forecast that more than 1-in-10 mobile subscribers in developed regions around the world will use mobile coupons by 2014, generating nearly $6 billion in redemption value.

Shoppers interested in Target’s mobile coupons will need to opt in by registering at the company’s online or mobile websites, or by texting the word “COUPONS” to 827438. When a customer opts in, they will receive text messages on their phone with a link to a mobile Web page with different barcoded offers. Offers will expire once they’ve been used and on dates listed. If you use Target’s mobile coupons this week, let me know what you think about the experience using them in a comment.

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Mobile coupons will dominate the mobile retail market in the early stages of its growth spurt, according to a new Mobile Marketing and Retail Strategies Report by Juniper Research. The report finds that one-to-one marketing allied with the rapid proliferation of smartphones will lead the growth of the entire mobile retail market to $12 billion by 2014.

The mobile retail sector — which includes mobile coupon redemption values, smart poster fees and advertising spending in Juniper’s definition — will, however, see mobile advertising exceed coupon redemption values by 2013. Overall, the growth will be fueled by the adoption of high speed mobile broadband networks and SMS messaging giving retailers new opportunities to communicate with customers.

Report co-author Howard Wilcox writes, “Retailers have recognized that, even ahead of their wallets, people will usually make sure they do not leave home without their mobile device. The mobile channel offers merchants the opportunity to differentiate from their competition and acquire customers that become loyal.”

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With Ring-Back Tones (RBT) becoming more popular everyday, especially in areas outside the U.S., the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has published a new whitepaper detailing the appropriate opportunities and considerations when working with the concept.

Created with the help of MMA members 4play Digital Workshop, Comverse, Livewire Mobile, Ringco and Xipto, the whitepaper is designed to provide marketers with insight into the little-known and regulated concept of marketing via Ring-Back Tones, to ensure a positive, rewarding experience for consumers.

The concept of RBTs have been around for a while now, but only used by carriers in a very under-utilized environment.  Recently though, the possibilities have been introduced to third-party advertisers who recognize the unique opportunity and reach the concept has.

“Although ring-back tones have been repurposed by operators for almost a decade, it’s only recently that marketers are able to take advantage of this opportunity,” explained Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC, Mobile Marketing Association.  ”With more than 3 billion mobile phones in use worldwide, and approximately 12 billion inbound calls each day, RBTs offer a compelling new media platform for marketers today.  In line with MMA’s efforts to educate marketers and protect consumer experience, MMA members have put together this whitepaper to provide insights into harvesting the potential of this new emerging area of focus as a marketing channel.”

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