This year look for mobile to go beyond single-channel and one-off campaigns to permeate all aspects of brand, agency and publisher multichannel marketing.

Mobile Marketer?s Dan Butcher interviewed Brenna Hanly, mobile catalyst at Mullen, Boston. Here is what she had to say:

What is the outlook for 2011 for mobile marketing, advertising and commerce?
Everything will be bigger and better?better mobile experiences, better advertising driving to those experiences and bigger amounts of revenue generated from the devices.

Mobile will go beyond advertising?it will be the lynchpin of all major corporations.

It will serve to encourage loyalty through mobile couponing, activate all offline communications through QR codes, SMS or image recognition, enable commerce through mobile-optimized sites and applications, entertain through richer content and video offerings and drive traffic in-store through location-based services.

What are some of the opportunities for ad agencies in the coming year? What are some issues and challenges they will face?
We do not see mobile as an opportunity at this point. Opportunity implies an option to take advantage of, or not.

Mobile is mandatory. All ad agencies need to have a mobile solution in 2011. This could mean a preferred mobile partner or an in-house capability of some sort. 

Some of the issues and challenges from 2010 will bleed into 2011: fragmentation of devices, ad units and analytics.

Mobile will need to be more accountable and integrated into the digital back-end.

How will 2011 be different from 2010?
Three key dynamics: less trepidation, better experiences and more cohesion.

2010 put mobile on the map for the majority of big brands. 2011 will put mobile in the limelight, as the catalyst and communication hub for entire corporations.

Many marketers saw mobile in 2010 as a test opportunity, to learn and grow. In 2011, we will see less trepidation and more confidence in mobile as a mainstream media channel.

4G will give rise to even better experiences in terms of the mobile Web, rich media and video content.

Lastly, brands will begin to see mobile as the connective tissue between disparate elements and build it into campaigns more cohesively.

What do brands need to know about their agency partners to optimize the effectiveness of their mobile initiatives in the coming year?
The best mobile solutions come from true collaboration?collaboration between all marketing initiatives: product, promotion, advertising and PR.

Whether you have a separate mobile agency or your existing agency of record has a mobile capability, you need to ensure that not only are those parties communicating but also that your internal teams are communicating with these parties, and that everything is seamlessly interwoven into truly famous ideas.

Final Take
Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief, Mobile Marketer