Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Although $100 billion was purchased last year using mobile devices, brands are still facing a number of challenges that inhibit meeting consumers’ needs, according to a Forrester researcher at Mobile Marketer’s Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2015 conference.

During the “Forrester Research: The Mobile Mind Shift: Closing the Capability Gap” session, the most daunting challenge presented was that many marketers have approached mobile in the same fashion as they would a PC, by shrinking Web experiences onto a smaller screen. Although this tactic is not necessarily wrong, mobile strategies need to be retooled because there is a fundamental difference between the way consumers interact with smartphones and tablets compared to their PCs.

“Mobile is not a PC, okay, they’re not a PC. With that said, 62 percent of companies still treat mobile as a slimmed down version of what they design for a PC,” said Julie Ask, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research....

With marketers allocating more advertising spend to mobile, a number of recent campaigns highlight how brands are now going beyond basic apps and sites to prominently play up location.

Here are four interesting examples within the past few months that demonstrate what’s happening in mobile and where brands are investing most right now....