Today at BIA/Kelsey’s SMB Digital Marketing conference, Agendize announced a smart watch app for managing appointments on the go. The new online scheduling software brings scheduling and CRM capability to the wrist — particularly fitting (excuse the pun) for service SMBs out in the field.

“Scheduling is a productivity application accessible from anywhere,” Agendize sales & marketing head Davy Bour told us, “so professionals can spend more time doing what they love and what ultimately grows their business: spending time with their customers. The Smartwatch app brings this connectivity, productivity and mobility to a brand new device.”

Look out for a longer conversation and video interview with the Agendize team next week to delve further into implications for watch appointments/alerts.

The post At Leading In Local: Agendize Unveils Smartwatch Scheduling App appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

This week has been all about Apple. That’s included some decent analysis, and a whole lot of overblown adoration that “they’ve done it again.” Larger iPhone screens are great but I’m not sure they’ll fit into the skinny jean pockets of the millennial target audience.

In all seriousness as an Apple fanboy, longtime user, and industry watcher, I see implications for larger screens to jumpstart lots of cool app development. I’m bullish on what this will do for content and ad delivery, but downright skeptical about Apple Pay.

Building on our pre-launch analysis, let’s take those one at a time, putting aside the Apple Watch for another post.

Size Matters

Larger screen iPhones are important for lots of reasons. But let’s be clear that this is one of the cases where Apple isn’t leading but following. The SamDroid world is way ahead on this one. Regardless, the marketplace demands larger screens so that’s where we are.

This is also interestingly one of those times when Apple is going back on a vehemently drawn line in the sand. Few people remember Steve Jobs’ fastidious stance that 3.5 inches was the canonical sweet spot for a smartphone (size of original iPhone through the 4s).

Part of the marketplace demand for larger screens goes back to other macro factors such as better connectivity and Moore’s law-driven hardware improvements. These have converged to enable the age of social sharing through Instagram, Snapchat, etc..

Capturing and sharing multimedia via increasingly powerful optics is commonplace. So larger screens to consume that media is a natural progression that aligns. And we’ll see the app development community do some cool things to utilize a larger screen.

The Ad Angle

For the same reason, the ad ecosystem just got a lot more interesting. As we discussed in our last video roundtable, and Peter Krasilovsky’s post earlier this week, larger screens have lots of implications for ad delivery.

But importantly, this won’t just mean more real estate for larger banners. Successful ad strategies will take more of a holistic approach to delivering brand messaging in ways that are more native to a bigger screen… rather than making existing banners larger.

And the ad implications go back to the social sharing point.  We’re moving past mobile advertising’s first few phases which were all about banners. Content marketing is gaining lots of steam from the above cultural and technological trends around social sharing.

This translates to advertisers sharing multimedia to communicate a message. For brands, that’s Instagram images (cold beer against a sunset, etc.); For SMBs, it’s capturing experiences in and around their locations via Instagram, Vine or Yelp’s new video feature.

The point is that larger iPhones are cohesive with these macro trends so it should play well. Again, Samsung is already there, but a larger iPhone is notable given its  leading share of ad impressions — despite a disproportionately lower share of device ownership.

Hucksterism at its Best

Here we go again with the overblown excitement over mobile payments, and the inability to learn from recent events. Perhaps there’s the implicit feeling that Apple will do what others have failed to do — which it has done numerous times (tablets, MP3 players, etc.).

I don’t believe payments is going to be one of them, and for one simple reason: It continues to be a solution in search of a problem. Generalist tech media (and mobile payment providers), continue to contrive a problem that doesn’t exist: plastic credit card use.

Even Apple’s video to pitch Apple Pay had a comical “before” rendition of consumers fumbling with credit cards. It was the stuff of bad infomercials that show pasta sauce spattering all over the counter and walls; enter the magic snapping lid to solve all problems.

As I keep saying, the value proposition for mobile payments has to be something greater than reducing my wallet by the atomic mass of a credit card. Those could include tangible benefits like skipping store lines, saving time, or substantial monetary rewards.

We’re talking about deeply entrenched payment habits for which there are high psychological switching costs, due to inherent security concerns. And that might be the only place Apple went right in its Apple Pay pitch: leading with the security advantages.

As background, Apple Pay is encrypted at the point of sale, not revealing payment information. That’s more secure than plastic credit cards, given that store associates or restaurant servers absolutely can see that info — the number one source of credit card fraud.

But not sharing and tracking that information is also one of Apple Pay’s downsides. This eliminates one of the often-repeated endgames for mobile payments… to facilitate rewards programs via shopping history. That isn’t going to the the case, at least for now.

What Came First?

Finally, my reticence about Apple pay comes straight from NFC. We’ve seen this technology’s implementation struggle for years due to one main factor: the chicken and egg problem.  Merchants won’t invest in costly POS terminals without a critical mass of usage.

The thought is that Apple has jumpstarted the latter. But has it really?  We’re at least a year from ubiquity of NFC enabled iPhones — at least a level that’s going to cause a dent in retailers’ business case to upgrade POS terminals. It’s a compatibility issue.

The mismatch in this two sided marketplace — needing scale and network effect to get over that compatability hump — will be further dampened by the original argument above… no one is clamoring for a digital solution to an analog problem that doesn’t exist.

In fairness, Apple has signed on lots of retail partners already. But that’s the classic Apple halo effect… the same reason iAd had top brands lining up to run campaigns after the first shiny announcement. We all saw what happened when that died down.

Apple Pay will be a ghost town for at least several months, during which you can expect to see more than a few YouTube videos capturing POS mishaps and confusion. That won’t be quite as good for PR as the sparkling keynote address that launched it.

And Why?

Whether or not they work, let’s get straight Apple’s intention for launching these features.  It’s not ads, payment processing revenues, or anything else as others have speculated. It’s all about selling more iThings.

Apple’s core revenue stream is hardware. That is how it makes money and how it has positioned itself to derive massive margins and a stratospheric market cap.  All moves it makes are to protect and grow that revenue stream.

Making its devices more attractive via greater functionality and gadgetry is the reason for this week’s announcements (the same argument applied to its mapping acquisitions). That’s where iWatch comes into the picture. But again, that’s a post for another day.

The post Payments, Screen Size and Skinny Jeans: Apple’s Local Angle appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

This week has been all about Apple. That’s included some decent analysis, and a whole lot of overblown adoration that “they’ve done it again.” Larger iPhone screens are great but I’m not sure they’ll fit into the skinny jean pockets of the millennial target audience.

In all seriousness as an Apple fanboy, longtime user, and industry watcher, I see implications for larger screens to jumpstart lots of cool app development. I’m bullish on what this will do for content and ad delivery, but downright skeptical about Apple Pay.

Building on our pre-launch analysis, let’s take those one at a time, putting aside the Apple Watch for another post.

Size Matters

Larger screen iPhones are important for lots of reasons. But let’s be clear that this is one of the cases where Apple isn’t leading but following. The SamDroid world is way ahead on this one. Regardless, the marketplace demands larger screens so that’s where we are.

This is also interestingly one of those times when Apple is going back on a vehemently drawn line in the sand. Few people remember Steve Jobs’ fastidious stance that 3.5 inches was the canonical sweet spot for a smartphone (size of original iPhone through the 4s).

Part of the marketplace demand for larger screens goes back to other macro factors such as better connectivity and Moore’s law-driven hardware improvements. These have converged to enable the age of social sharing through Instagram, Snapchat, etc..

Capturing and sharing multimedia via increasingly powerful optics is commonplace. So larger screens to consume that media is a natural progression that aligns. And we’ll see the app development community do some cool things to utilize a larger screen.

The Ad Angle

For the same reason, the ad ecosystem just got a lot more interesting. As we discussed in our last video roundtable, and Peter Krasilovsky’s post earlier this week, larger screens have lots of implications for ad delivery.

But importantly, this won’t just mean more real estate for larger banners. Successful ad strategies will take more of a holistic approach to delivering brand messaging in ways that are more native to a bigger screen… rather than making existing banners larger.

And the ad implications go back to the social sharing point.  We’re moving past mobile advertising’s first few phases which were all about banners. Content marketing is gaining lots of steam from the above cultural and technological trends around social sharing.

This translates to advertisers sharing multimedia to communicate a message. For brands, that’s Instagram images (cold beer against a sunset, etc.); For SMBs, it’s capturing experiences in and around their locations via Instagram, Vine or Yelp’s new video feature.

The point is that larger iPhones are cohesive with these macro trends so it should play well. Again, Samsung is already there, but a larger iPhone is notable given its  leading share of ad impressions — despite a disproportionately lower share of device ownership.

Hucksterism at its Best

Here we go again with the overblown excitement over mobile payments, and the inability to learn from recent events. Perhaps there’s the implicit feeling that Apple will do what others have failed to do — which it has done numerous times (tablets, MP3 players, etc.).

I don’t believe payments is going to be one of them, and for one simple reason: It continues to be a solution in search of a problem. Generalist tech media (and mobile payment providers), continue to contrive a problem that doesn’t exist: plastic credit card use.

Even Apple’s video to pitch Apple Pay had a comical “before” rendition of consumers fumbling with credit cards. It was the stuff of bad infomercials that show pasta sauce spattering all over the counter and walls; enter the magic snapping lid to solve all problems.

As I keep saying, the value proposition for mobile payments has to be something greater than reducing my wallet by the atomic mass of a credit card. Those could include tangible benefits like skipping store lines, saving time, or substantial monetary rewards.

We’re talking about deeply entrenched payment habits for which there are high psychological switching costs, due to inherent security concerns. And that might be the only place Apple went right in its Apple Pay pitch: leading with the security advantages.

As background, Apple Pay is encrypted at the point of sale, not revealing payment information. That’s more secure than plastic credit cards, given that store associates or restaurant servers absolutely can see that info — the number one source of credit card fraud.

But not sharing and tracking that information is also one of Apple Pay’s downsides. This eliminates one of the often-repeated endgames for mobile payments… to facilitate rewards programs via shopping history. That isn’t going to the the case, at least for now.

What Came First?

Finally, my reticence about Apple pay comes straight from NFC. We’ve seen this technology’s implementation struggle for years due to one main factor: the chicken and egg problem.  Merchants won’t invest in costly POS terminals without a critical mass of usage.

The thought is that Apple has jumpstarted the latter. But has it really?  We’re at least a year from ubiquity of NFC enabled iPhones — at least a level that’s going to cause a dent in retailers’ business case to upgrade POS terminals. It’s a compatibility issue.

The mismatch in this two sided marketplace — needing scale and network effect to get over that compatability hump — will be further dampened by the original argument above… no one is clamoring for a digital solution to an analog problem that doesn’t exist.

In fairness, Apple has signed on lots of retail partners already. But that’s the classic Apple halo effect… the same reason iAd had top brands lining up to run campaigns after the first shiny announcement. We all saw what happened when that died down.

Apple Pay will be a ghost town for at least several months, during which you can expect to see more than a few YouTube videos capturing POS mishaps and confusion. That won’t be quite as good for PR as the sparkling keynote address that launched it.

And Why?

Whether or not they work, let’s get straight Apple’s intention for launching these features.  It’s not ads, payment processing revenues, or anything else as others have speculated. It’s all about selling more iThings.

Apple’s core revenue stream is hardware. That is how it makes money and how it has positioned itself to derive massive margins and a stratospheric market cap.  All moves it makes are to protect and grow that revenue stream.

Making its devices more attractive via greater functionality and gadgetry is the reason for this week’s announcements (the same argument applied to its mapping acquisitions). That’s where iWatch comes into the picture. But again, that’s a post for another day.

The post Payments, Screen Size and Skinny Jeans: Apple's Local Angle appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

For the past few years, a debate has raged throughout tech & media circles: Are tablets “mobile devices”?

This of course depends on whom you ask; you’ll get different answers from a CMO and a CTO. For BIA/Kelsey analysis at least — covering content delivery and advertising media — I’ve taken a stance that tablets shouldn’t be lumped in with “mobile.”

The topic came up at last week’s Mobile Media Summit. Forrester’s Julie Ask pinpointed the differences in usage that compel separating device classes (graphic below). My colleague Rebecca Weingartner even started a LinkedIn thread on the topic.

Given that the debate seems to have gained steam, including a chorus of online voices, it’s a good time to outline my own analyst take on why tablets and smartphones should be analyzed separately. I’ve done just that in mobile analysis and market sizing.

— Though smartphones and tablets can be thought of as mobile in a general sense (similar operating systems and portability), their use cases are decidedly different. Therefore ad campaign strategies should be devised differently for each.

— The modes of connectivity and context are different for each. For example, most tablet use is at home and wifi-only, thus not carrying the “on the go” intent that we usually discuss and analyze around smartphone use.

— Because of of these varying use cases and corresponding nuances in ad strategies, any forecasting of the market opportunity in each area should be separated out.

— That’s for the sake of our clients and conference attendees that specialize in tablets or smartphone content. Or maybe they’re doing both… but different campaign dynamics compel the market sizing to be likewise parsed.

— Google and most other ad networks differentiate ad formats, targeting strategies and reporting between desktop, tablet and smartphone. Google’s Enhanced Campaigns bundles devices in terms of campaign inclusion, but the options available to target, manage and evaluate campaigns are separated out.

These are indicators that smartphones and tablets are different animals. They therefore require different analysis and market sizing from research firms like us (eMarketer conversely includes tablets in mobile ad forecasting). Deloite Agrees.

But denying tablets’ inclusion in mobile is not to say that they should be lumped in with desktop. They should be their own third category, emblematic of unique user behavior and hardware capabilities that drive content delivery and advertising strategies.

Of course from the perspective of hardware enthusiasts, the two device classes (and the expanding device continuum) could be known simply as “mobile”. But from an advertising and media perspective, combining them is exactly that… too simplistic.

The post Are Tablets “Mobile Devices?” For Media and Advertising, the Answer is Most Often ‘No’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

For the past few years, a debate has raged throughout tech & media circles: Are tablets “mobile devices”?

This of course depends on whom you ask; you’ll get different answers from a CMO and a CTO. For BIA/Kelsey analysis at least — covering content delivery and advertising media — I’ve taken a stance that tablets shouldn’t be lumped in with “mobile.”

The topic came up at last week’s Mobile Media Summit. Forrester’s Julie Ask pinpointed the differences in usage that compel separating device classes (graphic below). My colleague Rebecca Weingartner even started a LinkedIn thread on the topic.

Given that the debate seems to have gained steam, including a chorus of online voices, it’s a good time to outline my own analyst take on why tablets and smartphones should be analyzed separately. I’ve done just that in mobile analysis and market sizing.

— Though smartphones and tablets can be thought of as mobile in a general sense (similar operating systems and portability), their use cases are decidedly different. Therefore ad campaign strategies should be devised differently for each.

— The modes of connectivity and context are different for each. For example, most tablet use is at home and wifi-only, thus not carrying the “on the go” intent that we usually discuss and analyze around smartphone use.

— Because of of these varying use cases and corresponding nuances in ad strategies, any forecasting of the market opportunity in each area should be separated out.

— That’s for the sake of our clients and conference attendees that specialize in tablets or smartphone content. Or maybe they’re doing both… but different campaign dynamics compel the market sizing to be likewise parsed.

— Google and most other ad networks differentiate ad formats, targeting strategies and reporting between desktop, tablet and smartphone. Google’s Enhanced Campaigns bundles devices in terms of campaign inclusion, but the options available to target, manage and evaluate campaigns are separated out.

These are indicators that smartphones and tablets are different animals. They therefore require different analysis and market sizing from research firms like us (eMarketer conversely includes tablets in mobile ad forecasting). Deloite Agrees.

But denying tablets’ inclusion in mobile is not to say that they should be lumped in with desktop. They should be their own third category, emblematic of unique user behavior and hardware capabilities that drive content delivery and advertising strategies.

Of course from the perspective of hardware enthusiasts, the two device classes (and the expanding device continuum) could be known simply as “mobile”. But from an advertising and media perspective, combining them is exactly that… too simplistic.

The post Are Tablets "Mobile Devices?" For Media and Advertising, the Answer is Most Often 'No' appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

xAd today launched a new product called Footprints to better measure and visualize traffic (of the analog variety). This will be a tool for marketers to better research foot traffic patterns and make informed decisions about localized ad targeting strategies.

The company positions Footprints as a tool for marketers to view real time mobile visits at more than 14 million U.S. businesses. This will happen to the tune of 30 million local business visits per day, which will fuel 1.5 billion daily location-aware ad requests.

The time for this is right. In fact, this was a big theme at our recent Leading in Local conference in Atlanta. Given that 94 percent of U.S. retail spending still happens offline, how can we utilize mobile devices and embedded sensors to bring online-style analytics (i.e. traffic) to the real world?

In that sense, xAd’s Footprints is reminiscent of my interview on day 3 of the conference with LBMA President Asif Kahn. He characterized the developing art of location tracking as the new “cookie” for the real world. xAd in fact uses similar phrasing in today’s launch of Footprints:

As consumers go about their day traveling from one place to another, they engage with their phones regularly. Through this engagement, they often share their device location information with their favorite sites and applications. This data exchange normally occurs in an effort to make their mobile experiences more efficient or relevant to what they may be doing at any given time or place. It is through this anonymized location data that a product like Footprints™ is possible, essentially turning a device’s location data into a new kind of digital cookie.

The ways this is used by marketers will evolve. For now it appears to be a powerful tool, similar in some ways to the offline tracking tools we covered in our Attribution white paper. Those include PlaceIQ’s Place Visit Rate, Placed’s Panel approach and Verve’s Foot Traffic Index.

Footprints of course has many unique attributes to differentiate it from those offerings, but its generally speaking a continuation of the utilization of location data to devise more informed location based ad campaigns. This is the “big data meets local” trend we continue to track.

Speaking of which, we’ll soon have the chance to do a deeper dive with our friends at xAd and report back about Footprint’s product-level attributes. Meanwhile, check out the product page here and video below.

The post xAd Launches New Visualization Tool for Real World Foot Traffic appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

According to Dr. Fratrik, Hispanic consumers surveyed showed “a greater use of digital devices and using them for local shopping behavior. One driving force for this overall result is the younger age distribution (in our sample and in the U.S. overall) of the Hispanic community, as compared to the non-Hispanic community. I was also particularly struck by the percentages of Hispanics (vs. non-Hispanics) who use these digital devices every day for local shopping.”

As you can see in the chart above, Hispanic consumers are more likely to have adopted mobile devices and use them daily for shopping for local products and services than non-Hispanic consumers.

— Tablet: 23.6% Hispanics vs. 15.5% non-Hispanics
— Smartphone: 48.5% Hispanics vs 32% non-Hispanics

When using social media for local shopping, Hispanic consumers index higher than non-Hispanics on all social media networks, except Facebook, with 61% of Hispanics and 67% of non-Hispanics reporting they use Facebook for local shopping. Other social networks used for local shopping include:

— YouTube: 17.7% by Hispanics vs. 10.3% by non-Hispanics

— Yahoo: 16.8% by Hispanics vs. 16.4% by non-Hispanics

— Google+: 11.9% by Hispanics vs. 10.8% by non-Hispanics

— Twitter: 11.1% by Hispanics vs. 6.7% by non-Hispanics

Despite their heavy social media use, 83.2% of Hispanic consumers list family and friends as their most trustworthy source for local shopping information.

Webinar details and online registration for “Hispanic Consumers Buy Into Digital for Local Shopping” are available here.

Interested in learning more about Consumer Commerce Monitor? Check out BIA/Kelsey’s CCM page.

The post A Sneak Peek at “Hispanic Consumers Buy Into Digital for Local Shopping” Webinar appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

According to Dr. Fratrik, Hispanic consumers surveyed showed “a greater use of digital devices and using them for local shopping behavior. One driving force for this overall result is the younger age distribution (in our sample and in the U.S. overall) of the Hispanic community, as compared to the non-Hispanic community. I was also particularly struck by the percentages of Hispanics (vs. non-Hispanics) who use these digital devices every day for local shopping.”

As you can see in the chart above, Hispanic consumers are more likely to have adopted mobile devices and use them daily for shopping for local products and services than non-Hispanic consumers.

— Tablet: 23.6% Hispanics vs. 15.5% non-Hispanics
— Smartphone: 48.5% Hispanics vs 32% non-Hispanics

When using social media for local shopping, Hispanic consumers index higher than non-Hispanics on all social media networks, except Facebook, with 61% of Hispanics and 67% of non-Hispanics reporting they use Facebook for local shopping. Other social networks used for local shopping include:

— YouTube: 17.7% by Hispanics vs. 10.3% by non-Hispanics

— Yahoo: 16.8% by Hispanics vs. 16.4% by non-Hispanics

— Google+: 11.9% by Hispanics vs. 10.8% by non-Hispanics

— Twitter: 11.1% by Hispanics vs. 6.7% by non-Hispanics

Despite their heavy social media use, 83.2% of Hispanic consumers list family and friends as their most trustworthy source for local shopping information.

Webinar details and online registration for “Hispanic Consumers Buy Into Digital for Local Shopping” are available here.

Interested in learning more about Consumer Commerce Monitor? Check out BIA/Kelsey’s CCM page.

The post A Sneak Peek at "Hispanic Consumers Buy Into Digital for Local Shopping" Webinar appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

When Hispanics shop locally they use social media more than non-Hispanic consumers; and when shopping they interact more with social media, 46% vs. 41% (in the last 6 months). Hispanic consumers’ rank Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as the most used social media sites. When they use social sites for local shopping, Hispanic consumers rank Facebook as their top source followed by YouTube and Google+.

Despite Hispanic consumers relying on social media and mobile devices while shopping locally, recommendations from friends and family still ranked as the most trustworthy source of information on local products and services (83%), followed by Facebook friends (56%).

According to the survey, Hispanic consumers are more likely to have adopted mobile devices and use them daily for shopping for local products and services than non-Hispanic consumers.
— Tablet: 23.6% Hispanics vs. 15.5% non-Hispanics
— Smartphone: 48.5% Hispanics vs 32% non-Hispanics

Hispanic consumers report using mobile devices when shopping for local products and services more frequently than non-Hispanic consumers. 52.5% of Hispanic consumers reported using a tablet daily for local shopping, and 42.5% reported using a smartphone. In contrast, 29% of non-Hispanics report using a tablet daily for local shopping and 38% use their smartphone. “One driving force for this overall result is the younger age distribution (in our sample and in the U.S. overall) of the Hispanic community, as compared to the non-Hispanic community,” said Dr. Mark Fratrik, BIA/Kelsey’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist.

BIA/Kelsey will present data on Hispanic digital media usage and local shopping behaviors from its Consumer Commerce Monitor study during a free webinar this Thursday, February 27th.

Interested in learning more about Consumer Commerce Monitor? Check out BIA/Kelsey’s CCM page.

The post Social and Mobile Advertising are Vital in Reaching Hispanic Consumers appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Like we do every January, BIA/Kelsey analysts huddle to formulate predictions for the coming year in respective areas of domain expertise.  Earlier today, we released a report that highlights picks across local media coverage areas, and Thursday we’ll do a webcast.

For more color on the predictions that pertain to mobile, below is the “director’s cut”. These are areas I’ve been watching most, and where I think they’re moving. It’s pretty clear from the momentum in these areas that it’s going to be an action packed year for mobile.

1. U.S. Mobile Ad Market Exceeds $10B

We expect the U.S. mobile ad market to exceed $10 billion this year. And the location targeted portion of that ad spend will approach 40 percent. This includes all mobile ad formats including developing areas like social native ads (i.e. FB mobile news feed ads).

Our figures also take into account the growth of search ads (currently the largest share of mobile ad revenue) and what Google’s Enhanced Campaigns will do. This was one key growth driver in our forecast, as Enhanced Campaigns will accelerate mobile advertiser adoption.

The more populated search bid marketplaces that result will also raise bid pressure and increase cost per click rates for certain keywords and in certain locales. Higher CPCs will in turn boost mobile ad revenue further for Google and mobile publishers/developers alike.

What to watch for: The longstanding lag in mobile ad rates will begin to reverse as sources of premium ad rates continue to be found. That includes native social ads on places like Instagram, attribution, and higher performing location targeted ads from companies like xAd.

2. The Discovery Channel

Big data will continue to collide with mobile, inspiring app layer innovation in the form of personalized local discovery tools like Google Now. These will tap growing sources such as email, weather, location and behavior, to become better predictive engines for content delivery.

This discovery paradigm will also compel different user interfaces than the SERP based format that ruled the desktop. Push alerts will engage users outside of apps and swipeable card-based interfaces will replace traditional SERPs within many apps. We’re already seeing this.

Push alerts are executed well by Find & Save, and card based interfaces can be seen in local discovery (weotta, Google Now), social (Tinder), and multimedia (Swell). These more intuitive engagement points boost user inputs (sentiment) by which to base ongoing discovery.

What to watch for: This data-driven content delivery “push” won’t just apply to apps but also ads. Data will be a key driver in more effective ad delivery and thus squeezing more value out of mobile advertising, per the numbers in the above prediction.

3. How Much is That Dongle in the Window?

Real time product and transaction data will be a key battleground in the continued evolution of mobile local shopping. This will come into play at the app layer (shopping apps, product finders) as well as location targeted ads that specify product availability.

The key here will be data. Retailigence has done some impactful stuff with data sets that take form in an API for app developers and advertisers to add product inventory to mobile shopping experiences. This will become vital over time.

What to watch for: The next inflection point will be in indoor location and shopper engagement apps and technologies built around iBeacon. “Demand pricing” will be the wild card when big data can segment audiences for yield optimization via personalized offers.

4. SMB-Facing Mobile:

The local media sector will slow down it’s enamored view of consumer-based mobile apps as the shiny new thing; and take a more measured approach to mobile adoption and product development. This will involve turning attention to business-facing apps

Tools that help SMBs acquire new business and run their business on the go will be the name of the game. This will include operations like appointment scheduling and payment processing; and other back office tools accessed and managed in a mobile interface.

What to watch for: Merchant-facing mobile tools will shine and grow most within local business categories like restaurants and home services, where proprietors are in constant motion. This will be a key component of the “OS for SMBs” trend we’re covering.

5. Mobile Value Lies in MAUs (for now):

Seemingly illogical valuations will continue for mobile apps without revenue (Snapchat anyone?). This will be based mostly on the premium for user acquisition and engagement — due in turn to escalating competition in app marketplaces to sustain active usage.

The most successful and highly valued apps will continue to be those that inherently lock in users for active and recurring engagement (i.e. Tinder, Instagram, Snapchat). Foreseeable revenue models be damned; scalable and recurring active usage is the name of the game.

What to watch for: These success factors will continue to rule the mobile app marketplace in the near term, but could begin to deflate later in the year as app fatigue compels a shakeout and consolidation (read: Facebook) of apps oriented towards social sharing.

Wild Card: The Internet of Things Goes Local

The Post-PC era will continue to broaden beyond smartphones to include wearables, biometrics, in-auto and all the sensor driven technology that surrounds us in the Internet of Things. This will change development paradigms around what we consider “mobile”.

Local implications abound, considering the personalized commercial needs that the internet of things uncovers. Think home services (the connected home), auto (in-car diagnostics), and local search (Google Glass). Local will be a big benefactor of the Internet of Things.

What to watch for: The biggest challenge will be developing apps with consistent brand experiences across myriad form factors, yet optimize native experiences for each one. Best practices in multi-screen product design so far can be seen from Netflix, Spotify and HBOGo.

The post BIA/Kelsey Mobile Outlook: 5 Predictions and a Wild Card appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.