According to the survey, nearly 40% of respondents used mobile devices in response to TV ads and 45% estimated that they spent 30 minutes or more on their mobile devices during the game.  Interestingly, the survey showed that almost twice as many respondents used their mobile devices during the first half of the game compared to the second half – a powerful take-away for advertisers indeed.

“Mobile is an amazing channel for reaching consumers when they are in a lean-back entertainment-oriented mindset,” explained Anne Frisbie, Vice President and Managing Director, North America, for InMobi.  “Savvy advertisers will allocate more dollars to mobile advertising, either in conjunction with TV ads or through mobile-only advertising campaigns during similar sporting events and key holiday weekends throughout the year.”  Other takeaways from the survey include:

• 39% used their mobile device in response to a TV commercial during the game by doing one or more of the following: discussing commercials, getting more information about an advertised product, or watching TV ads again.
• 30% reported using their mobile devices most during commercials.
• 27% downloaded a Super Bowl app.

Mogreet

Dubbed “moShare,” the new mobile content sharing service is built on top of Mogreet’s rich media messaging platform and allows any type of media, including video, photos, articles, etc. to be easily shared to any mobile device, regardless of wireless carrier or device type.  For publishers, integration is as easy as installing a button on your website or blog, similar to social sharing buttons from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others.  In addition, moShare includes robust analytics and reporting capabilities to allow publishers to see exactly how their content is being shared via the mobile channel.

When a user clicks a moShare button, a small window appears asking the user to enter their name, mobile phone number, a short message and the phone number of the person they want to share the content with.  The company said that during a beta test period with some top-tier publishers, moShare garnered an equal percentage of total sharing volume to that of Facebook and Twitter.  ”By enabling mobile sharing across online and mobile properties, publishers have the opportunity to increase the sharing of their content by 25 percent, grow their mobile audience, and drive the highest quality of referral traffic back to their websites and applications,” Mogreet said in its press release.

“We’re very excited, because moShare is the world’s most powerful sharing technology,” explained James Citron, CEO of Mogreet. “Facebook and Twitter are great when a consumer wants to send a message to hundreds of acquaintances, but when publishers and brands are looking to harness the power of intimate 1:1 relationships with over 95 percent open-rates on the content being shared, moShare is their only option.”

To give moShare a test drive, Mogreet has setup a demo page to test how users can share videos, images, music and articles.  For you publishers out there, they’ve setup a page to offer a variety of ways to integrate moShare into your website or blog, including a plugin for WordPress, a widget for Blogger and HTML integration for any other site.  For custom integration, there’s even the possibility to utilize Open Graph tags and custom moShare tags.

BlueTrain Mobile

The map covers 130 resources in 23 different categories and covers nearly everything spanning the mobile marketing ecosystem, including industry news, blogs, mobile emulators/tools, mobile advertising, mobile SEO, QR code generators, stats, ad networks and much more.  ”We’re excited to unveil the Mobile Marketing Map and we think it’s going to be a great resource for any marketer interested in mobile,” said Andy Komack, VP and Conductor of Marketing at BlueTrain Mobile.  “We added a note within the Map key asking for feedback so that we can continue to evolve the Map.”

The map is available for download here.

Launched this month, the MMRA was founded with the mission of uniting and serving the industry by developing professional standards and ethics to advance the use of mobile devices for marketing research.  According to its press release, the MMRA says it’s an “action-oriented organization designed to establish mobile research guidelines and best practices for sustainable growth, develop research and advocate for issues that grow the industry, provide quality education and evangelize the mobile marketing research channel for use by clients, researchers and participants.”

Why does the industry need a trade organization dedicated to mobile marketing research?  First a little background on where the MMRA got its start.  There was a conference held last year in both Berlin and Atlanta, GA called “Market Research in the Mobile World,” which was organized by the Merlin Institute.  The event turned out to be relatively successful, with over 170 attendees at the Atlanta event alone.  Following the conference, Jasper Lim, founder of the Merlien Institute and Mark Michelson, a veteran in the marketing research industry, discussed how this so-called  ”fast developing and complex industry” needs a unifying body, a single voice, and a place to exchange the best and most innovative of ideas.  In September 2011 they decided to work together to create the MMRA, which is making its formal debut this month.

As mobile marketing and advertising continues to gain unprecedented momentum, there’s a variety of issues stemming from what information and data is collected from mobile users, how it’s used and how the entire process should be regulated.  ”Consumer privacy is a concept that research participants seem willing to sacrifice, at least in part, to receive valuable offers that are tailored towards their likes and interests,” explained the MMRA.  ”Millions of consumers have already downloaded smartphone apps that use GPS to track their location so they can obtain discounts, coupons or cash incentives for answering a few questions about their experience when they are in specific stores. These apps are becoming more popular every day.”

Among other initiatives, the MMRA wants to design studies that take advantage of  new mobile technologies and changes in respondent behavior, explore ways to make sense of complex data and set guidelines for ethical use of personal information.  The MMRA said it will accomplish this through the “cooperative efforts of the best professionals in the industry who want to make research more meaningful for clients and enjoyable for participants.”

Launching just this month, the MMRA is putting a call out to relevant organizations to join its cause.  The first 300 member companies to join will have special certification recognizing their permanent status as a founding member.  “The business world recognizes innovators and leaders who get in on the ground floor; that kind of foresight is recognized, repeatedly and in so many ways,” said Michelson, who has founded and worked with other marketing research related trade associations in his career. “Founding Members stand out to their prospects, their peers and others key influencers in the business world.”

Following the launch of the latest iteration of their SMS marketing platform, dubbed Tatango v3.1, the company launched both an affiliate program and a referral program.  For those unfamiliar with how affiliate programs work, it’s the ability to drive traffic to a certain company (in this case Tatango) and earn a commission on any sales your traffic generates.  For Tatango’s program, you earn a healthy 20% monthly commission for the life of every new customer you bring on.

In addition, the company has launched two new tools; the ability to create SMS autoresponders and SMS marketing flyers.  The SMS flyer tool allows anyone to quickly and easily create an advertisement for their SMS marketing campaigns that are both well-designed and, most importantly, comply with all SMS marketing best practices.  Tatango is offering the new tool free of charge, and it’s even available to non-Tatango users regardless of their SMS marketing provider.

The company’s new SMS autoresponder feature allows people to request information immediately to their mobile phones via text message.  Each SMS autoresponse you create allows you to use all 160 characters to include things like click-to-call phone numbers and even links to websites, social media profiles, videos, surveys, etc.  The company is offering the new feature with unlimited messaging credits for $49/mo.  To celebrate the launch, the company is even holding a text-to-win contest using its new SMS autoresponders for a chance to win one of 10 Clingo Universal Car Phone Mounts.

Blue Bite

Blue Bite teamed up with RMG networks — a provider of Out-Of-Home (OOH) TV & video networks — as well as mobile advertising provider Amobee to launch the campaign for HotelTonight across a handful of major U.S. markets.  HotelTonight’s mobile app allows users to book same-day hotel reservations.  To jumpstart the campaign, Amobee utilized RMG Network’s locations outfitted with Blue Bite’s mTAG Platform to reach HotelTonight’s core demographic.  These RMG network locations included eight major U.S. airports and hundreds of “busy downtown cafe locations across the country.”

As people passed by one of RMG’s digital screens, they saw a 30-second video clip promoting the app.  If interested, users then had the option to tap their NFC handsets on Blue Bite’s mTAG located in the venue to immediately download the HotelTonight app.  Those without NFC on their mobile devices were also able to download the app using a QR Code, Bluetooth or WiFi.

In the six-week campaign period, Blue Bite recorded over 15,000+ unique mobile engagements, with more than 5,000 unique handset engagements from iPhone and Android devices.  In addition, 50 percent of all Blue Bite interactions resulted in the user downloading the HotelTonight mobile app.  This is substantial given NFC’s recent entry into the U.S. market and the fact that’s only now beginning to be used as a marketing tool.

Blue Bite has had a lot of success with unique marketing campaigns that leverage new-age location-based technologies such as Bluetooth and NFC, and this campaign is no exception.  “This groundbreaking campaign demonstrates the combined power of digital place-based media and mobile technologies to activate customers in meaningful ways,” said Mikhail Damiani, CEO and Co-Founder from Blue Bite.  “As people rely more heavily on their mobile devices, digital place-based media has become the front line for marketers looking to engage active consumers who are on the path to purchase,” said Chuck Strottman, Sr. Director of Marketing from RMG Networks.

“Innovative digital players like HotelTonight understand that mobile plays an invaluable part in the brand experience and consumer engagement,” said Mark Strecker, COO of Amobee. “Many merchants are starting to use Amobee’s leading edge mobile advertising technology to interact with the physical world, whether it be through NFC, QR codes and Bluetooth technology, to provide an engaging customer experience and maximize revenue.”

The multi-platform news and information company has officially released its app for Amazon’s new tablet with Volkswagen as the launch partner.

According to the venerable news titan, the USA Today App for Kindle Fire features a custom look and design specifically for the tablet with the same content structure and tone readers recognize.

The app provides eye catching photos while delivering the latest award-winning USA Today news in a convenient interactive package designed to take advantage of Kindle Fire’s seven inch color touch screen.

“Part of USA Today’s mobile strategy is to be the first news source on emerging technologies. We develop and design our apps for each specific device to provide the optimum experience to our customers. We couldn’t be prouder to have Volkswagen as our launch partner today,” said Dave Hunke, president and publisher of USA Today.

“We are pleased to partner with USA Today on the launch of this cutting-edge app. Innovation is a strength of both USA Today and Volkswagen and we’re delighted to be a part of the excitement around this launch,” added Charlie Taylor, general manager of digital marketing at Volkswagen of America.

USA Today is now available on all major platforms and devices including Android (phones and tablets), Google Chrome Web Store, iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), Windows-based Tablets, Windows Phone, and now, Kindle Fire.

For more information, check out www.usatoday.com/kindle-fire.

According to the data, over 1.2B apps were downloaded across iOS and Android devices alone, representing a full 60 percent increase when compared to early December.  Though a huge rise in downloads was expected as millions of consumers unwrapped their new iPads, iPhones and other mobile devices on Christmas Day, this year was by far the highest jump ever recorded by Flurry.

Most of the downloads came from the U.S. and a handful of Western countries, with China coming in at second place behind the U.S followed by the U.K, Canada and Germany to round out the top five.  China alone saw 99 million downloads, which is relatively small compared to China’s overall installed base and the fact that it’s the second largest mobile app ecosystem in the world.  Still, given the fact that Christmas isn’t widely celebrated in China, it shows just how accelerated the worldwide mobile app market is shaping up to be as we enter 2012.

The following is a guest post from Shane Neman, CEO of Web-based SMS marketing provider Ez Texting.

One of the most consistently exciting things about working in the SMS Marketing business is watching how quickly things change. When I got into this business, six years ago, text messages were just beginning to catch fire, there was no such thing as an iPhone and my BlackBerry was the ultimate in cutting edge mobile tech. Every year brings change when it comes to the mobile industry, and 2011 was an especially busy year – which is why it’s important to look back at the past 12 months.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been looking at the many things that affected Ez Texting this year, internal and external.  What really stood out was the degree to which we are affected by changes in the broader world of mobile (outside of the mobile marketing ecosystem). Whether you develop platform specific apps, power mobile websites, run mobile ads, or provide text messaging services, as a marketer you cannot ignore the larger, external trends. After compiling our list and sharing it with our team here, we realized that a lot of other mobile-focused marketers would find the content interesting. So, we decided to put together a public review of 2011’s biggest stories in mobile.

Our list covers important hardware and operating system shifts, carrier takeover attempts (and failures), and important events in emerging technologies like mobile payments and location based services. This was, like I said, a very busy year, and some stories needed to be updated just this week (AT&T/T-Mobile), while others await conclusions (the fate of RIM and its BlackBerry). Other stories made our first draft, but ultimately got cut from the final list (more wireless device subscriptions than citizens) – again, showing what a wild year this truly was. So browse our top stories, read our quick bits of analysis on each event, and if you think we missed anything leave a comment here.

About Ez Texting

Ez Texting provides web-based SMS Marketing services to over 50,000 clients.  Since 2006, Ez Texting’s do-it-yourself service has been used by clients ranging from small organizations to Fortune 500 firms.  Text message marketing features like mobile coupons, keyword autoresponders, and efficient group messaging allow Ez Texting clients to reach their customers wherever they are, at anytime.  Follow the company on Twitter at @EzTexting and follow CEO Shane Neman at @ShaneNeman.

Dubbed “FreeMyApps,” the new solution was designed to help developers and marketers “overcome the notorious advertising challenge of cost-effectively driving download volume and profitable revenue growth of paid apps,” according to a company press release.  The solution works by leveraging what’s called Fiksu’s “Traffic Enrichment Layer,” which enables premium apps the ability to drive traffic, increase purchase rate and heighten word of mouth awareness.

Powered by the same proprietary algorithms of Fiksu for Mobile Apps, FreeMyApps targets and optimizes the best mix of advertising traffic from ad networks and real time bidding exchanges.  Through its Traffic Enrichment Layer, FreeMyApps drives higher conversion rates and volumes of app downloads by enriching the user value through engagement after a click on a banner ad but before presenting a link to download an app from Apple’s App Store.

“FreeMyApps was incubated in Fiksu Research Labs because our clients and the app development community have been searching for a viable alternative for marketing their paid apps,” said Micah Adler, CEO of Fiksu.  “With FreeMyApps, it’s a win for everyone – paid app developers can be profitable at scale without switching to a free or freemium model, free app developers can expand their reach and consumers can get paid apps for free.”

The new solution even includes benefits for consumers, as it provides the ability to access some of the most popular paid app titles for free.  Users can download and launch apps from a menu of free “sponsor apps,” which allows them to earn credits that can be redeemed for paid apps.

Fiksu has already managed to gain the attention of large-scale developers such as the makers of Skyfire, a popular mobile Web browser app for iPhone and Android.  “People who try Skyfire’s paid apps love them and tell their friends, but we are always seeking to grow even faster in cost-effective ways,” said Jeffrey Glueck, CEO of Skyfire. “We are excited to be a launch partner for FreeMyApps, to reach more users and grow revenue.”