A new survey conducted by Luth Research on behalf of the MMA found that 17% of adults in the US utilize mobile banking, with usage growing to 22% by next year.  Mobile commerce in general is a hot topic at the moment, and consumer interest in the technology is growing rapidly.

The survey gathered input from more than 1,000 US-based adult consumers, a sample large enough to provide a statistically accurate snapshot of the entire US adult population, and found that 92% of respondents said they own a cell phone and 19 percent of that subset currently do banking with their phone- an amount equivalent to 17 percent of all US adult consumers.

How users interact with mobile banking came as surprise, with the survey revealing that most utilize a mobile Web browser (11%), followed by SMS (8%) and mobile apps (5.5%).  While most, including myself, think mobile apps would be the most common channel to access mobile banking, it’s the mobile browser that’s still on top.  Over the next year, however, SMS mobile banking usage is estimated to remain flat, while mobile-Web-based banking is expected to rise to 14%, followed by mobile apps at 8.5%.

From a marketing standpoint, having users gain interest in mobile banking — and becoming comfortable with the idea — means more opportunities for mobile commerce-oriented and transactional-based marketing techniques.  “The data provides clear evidence that mobile is becoming a viable platform for banking,” said Jacqueline Rosales, evp of business development and client service at Luth Research.  “The task at hand for marketers in mobile banking is to migrate consumers from engaging in primarily informational services such as checking account balances to using transaction oriented services.”

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Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is experiencing its highest weekly viewership since the professional wrestling outfit debuted in 2004. Now competing with rival promotion World Wrestling Entertainment, TNA is stepping up efforts in mobile marketing in an aggressive endeavor to do what the company still hasn’t accomplished – pinning WWE in overall viewers and popularity.

As a key component of its multichannel marketing strategy, TNA is giving mobile marketing a shot by utilizing Knotice Ltd.’s on-demand Concentri software. While many wrestling fans say WWE lags behind on a strong mobile presence, TNA is picking up the slack with this new effort which will allow wrestling fans to receive “text blasts” on their mobile devices regarding TNA events, discount codes for tickets or merchandise, interactive contests and promotions, voting for matches, and, most importantly, exclusive news and video content.

“It will create a better one-on-one connection to address our fans’ wants and needs,” says Dan Stevenson, director of marketing at TNA. For the promotion, this latest mobile marketing effort will help cultivate and further cement the loyalty of their user database, which is already believed to contain the names and contact data for greater than 100,000 TNA wrestling fans.

TNA Entertainment LLC, which recently acquired the performance services of legendary wrestler and former WWE and WCW star Hulk Hogan, produces Thursday night’s “TNA iMPACT!” on Spike TV.

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During a discussion at the OnMedia NYC event earlier this week, a panel of mobile marketing and media experts came to the conclusion that mobile advertising is “harder than ever,” citing extreme fragmentation and a plethora of new devices sporting varying technical aspects as the main culprits.

With a fast-moving and ever-changing mobile ecosystem, marketers are quickly realizing that building a successful campaign while wading through the complication of varying device OSs, app stores, methodologies and other levels of fragmentation is proving increasingly difficult.  On the other hand, the prospect of much higher click-throughs that mobile advertising promises is hard to deny, so where’s the middle ground?

Knowing your audience and trying not to over-complicate the issue is key in trying to develop a mobile advertising strategy.  Instead of having to worry about reaching your entire audience no matter the device or OS they’re using, determine what your base audience is and choose a strategy that reaches the majority of users without killing yourself trying to make sure your campaign reaches every single person.

Good examples of this are advertisers like Samsung, who’s targeting tech-savvy users on smartphones, as opposed to Western Union and Wal-Mart with SMS text campaigns focused on regular phone users.  Both brands recognize their audience and are utilizing the best strategy to reach them, without worrying about having a comprehensive strategy that reaches everyone.  When you shift your thinking, simplify and focus on the single best way to reach your target audience, the concept becomes much less complicated.

Instead of coming to the close-minded conclusion that mobile advertising is “harder than ever,” you should revel in the fact that it’s actually the easiest it’s ever been, with endless possibilities and potential that no other medium can provide.

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Roll out the red carpet. A top executive from Google will be on hand for a mobile marketing related event in New York next week.

The occasion will provide an opportunity for the Google big kahuna to delineate his company’s mobile marketing plans and overall strategies for the year ahead.

Alex Barza, the Google exec alluded to, oversees Google mobile ad sales. Supplementing his presentation on February 10th will be relevant case studies and a Q&A session with the audience.

Other speakers presenting or contributing to panel discussions will include officials from Bango, HipCricket, Ping Mobile, Impact Mobile, The Lustigman Firm, Amobee, Neustar, Sumotext, and Netbiscuits, to name only a few.

Among the most eagerly anticipated speakers is Michael Becker iLoop Mobile, who will deliver a presentation on the essential tools of the trade for effective and efficient mobile marketing.

As 2010 continues to give rise to countless new businesses and industries ramping up mobile marketing efforts, the practice of mobile marketing is, itself, rapdily becoming a “teachable lesson plan” that continues to turn up in educational settings, seminars, and even marketing classes across the academic landscape.

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Mobile apps, and especially branded apps, are all the rage now-a-days, but a resurgence in the lost art of sponsorship is making a comeback, and brands are shifting their thinking because of it.

Steve Smith of MediaPost published a great article recently that talks about sponsorships in terms of mobile marketing, and what benefits the concept provides over branded apps.  Marketers are increasingly realizing that not every brand translates easily into the kind of utility consumers really want on their phone, and thus sponsorships are becoming a more attractive option.

Publishers are getting a lot of interest from marketers who want to be sole sponsor of new branded media apps, in lieu of trying to go it alone.  Instead of buying up a new audience for their branded app, they prefer to align with a tool and a media source brand that’s already built an audience.

All-in-all, the concept makes a lot of sense.  Brands who are unsure how to tackle the mobile app explosion and ecosystem that’s continually forming around them, but who understand the need to get in on the action, can opt instead to partner with an app that’s already done the heavy-lifting in terms development and building an audience.

A perfect example of sponsorships in action, related to mobile apps, is Rodale’s collection of over 30 apps related to men and women’s health.  Unlike other media companies that put out a single branded news or magazine app, such as Esquire and GQ for example, Rodale has a more fragmented approach that focuses on mobile tools and references.  In the process, they have created a flexible catalog of available ad inventory that can be leveraged as sole sponsorships.

As the mobile app ecosystem continues to be flooded with new apps and techniques, sponsorships will undoubtedly become a favorable option for many marketers.  Instead of going head-to-head with an already established app, entering into a sponsorship and gaining an immediate audience simply makes more sense.  Whatever the case may be, sponsorships are set to make a comeback in mobile marketing, that’s for sure.

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JagTag, a mobile barcode startup that’s gaining traction in the US, has announced that it’s added T-Mobile and Sprint to the list of wireless operators who carry its solution, meaning together with AT&T, Verizon and Alltell, it’s now available to nearly 90% of US wireless subscribers.

JagTag is making progress in its attempt to bring mobile barcodes, a technology that’s caught on in other parts of the world, but remains a novelty in the US, mainstream.  To do so, it’s eliminated most of the barriers keeping US consumers away from the concept- mainly device limitation by way of requiring a barcode reader, which JagTag doesn’t utilize.

JagTag requires no downloads or special mobile apps to read barcodes, instead it uses MMS, which is universally available to almost all wireless subscribers.  Though it takes more time to read a barcode, it eliminates several steps required for consumers to enjoy the interaction barcodes provide.  You simply snap a photo of the barcode, MMS it to JagTag, and you’re instantly returned results based on the data stored in the code.  All the “heavy-lifting,” so-to-speak is done server-side, making the consumer experience effortless.

The only problem with JagTag, as GoMoNews has pointed out, is that utilizing MMS can be a costly practice for some subscribers without the appropriate data and messaging plans.  SMS is bundled with almost every wireless plan, but MMS remains a “premium” service and can cost a subscriber up to $.20 and beyond per message.

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A new consumer survey has found that large retailers’ mobile sites have been deemed slow, unresponsive and unstable by respondents- including sites from the likes of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Costco, Dell, Foot Locker, Musician’s Friend, Sears, Target and Wal-mart.

The survey, conducted by Keynote Systems, measured the performance of ten top retailers’ mobile sites, including Best Buy, Dell and Amazon, in three key areas; homepage load time, product search and product information requests.  In the end, it was determined that improvements need to be made across the board, even with those that performed better than others.

Availability and reliability of top mobile sites were areas of most concern, with Foot Locker’s mobile site earning the top mark with 97.6% availability.  Out of the ten surveyed, only one other mobile site achieved availability higher than 90%, with three sites even falling below 80%.  To put it in perspective, the study indicated that consumers expect around 99.5% availability overall, meaning all top ten sites fell well below consumer expectations.

Load times, in terms of homepage loading, product and site-wide search, etc. was another aspect under scrutiny, with consumers surveyed expecting a mobile site to load in around 1-2 seconds total.  Of the top ten mobile sites, the fastest homepage load time belonged to Best Buy, which loaded in 8.3 seconds, while Wal-mart had the fastest search results page, taking around 4.5 seconds.  Foot Locker performed the fastest product information request at 5.7 seconds, proving overall that its mobile site was the best of those surveyed.

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