The folks over at long-standing digital marketing agency White Horse have published an interesting new infographic that details the concept of “in-aisle” mobile engagement and it’s increasing growth in recent years.

The data used for the infographic stems from a report White Horse published last year called “The Future of In-Aisle Mobile,” in which the agency conducted a first-of-its-kind ethnographic study on consumer use of smartphones to aid in-aisle shopping.  The result was a dramatic picture of the gap between consumer mobile behavior in the aisle and retailers’ readiness to channel that behavior into customer loyalty and sales.

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Blue Bite, a mobile marketing company that specializes in location-based campaigns, has published results of a recent NFC-enabled mobile campaign for hotel reservation app HotelTonight that saw more than 15,000 unique mobile engagements in the first six weeks alone.

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.”

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It was announced today that mobile location-based infrastructure provider Location Labs has acquired two companies — mobile development platform Wirkle and group messaging provider Volly.

Location Labs has largely been known to provide an underlying location-based infrastructure for mobile apps, but has recently transitioned into a provider of specialized location-based services for niches such as family safety and safe driving.  Both Wirkle with its development platform and Volly with its group mobile messaging solution fit nicely with Location Labs’s future plans, making both acquisitions timely and relevant for the company.

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As part of its recent report on mobile usage, location-based ad-network JiWire put together an interesting infographic that details how the Millennial generation (those between 18 and 34) engage with their mobile devices.

The company found that Millennials own 2.4 connected devices on average, and of those who connect to JiWire’s free Wi-Fi networks, 62% percent are using smartphones and nearly a third are using tablets.  It was also found that twenty-eight percent use location-based apps multiple times per day for locating stores (54%) and points of interests (46%), as well as connecting with others (40%) and checking in (32%).

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Google Wallet has been updated to include a variety of new features, an improved UI for the transaction detail screen and several bug fixes, according to the search giant.

For those unfamiliar, Google Wallet is a new service that allows users to make mobile payments from their mobile devices using Google Prepaid Cards or a Citi MasterCard.  At the moment, the service is extremely limited — only available to users rocking Sprint’s Nexus S 4G — but availability to other phones and carriers should be announced in the coming months.

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The following is a guest post from Joe Marcallini, Vice President of Internet Strategy for SteadyRain. You can reach Mr. Marcallini via email at Joe.Marcallini@SteadyRain.com or via Twitter @JoeMarcallini.

Near Field Communication (NFC) has been a popular topic lately.  NFC is not a new technology, but it is new to most of the general public.  The primary premise of this technology is to allow users with compatible devices, such as smartphones, the ability to tap a similar device and transfer funds, files or specific data.  While this may not sound exciting, it is a huge step forward for mobile technology.  It is important to understand NFC technology and its many uses; it could benefit your business now and in the future.

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Nissan  Motor Company has begun slapping QR codes on vehicle window stickers as so-called “silent salespeople” according to the company.

You’ve likely waited to visit a dealership after-hours to look at a vehicle you’re interested in simply to avoid being hounded by a salesperson.  Nissan recognizes this and hopes QR codes can help provide the information potential buyers want, without having to suffer through a salesman’s pitch.

The QR codes link users directly to a mobile optimized page that includes videos, features, vehicle inventory levels and more.  The codes work with any smartphone reader app and is first being offered on the 2012 Nissan Altima and Sentra lines.  The company plans to roll out the solution to its entire fleet eventually.

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