NEW YORK ? Millennial Media's top executive at the Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2012 conference said that location-based marketing is a tactic unique to mobile that allows marketers to understand the shopping habits of consumers and track them in action.

Since luxury marketers are especially interested in focusing on a specific group of shoppers, location-based ads can help them to track while they are shopping. Furthermore, location-based marketing plus recentness is the real money-maker.

?Mobile helps us to target real-world audiences with location-based services and tell us about users? behavior,? said Paul Palmieri, CEO of Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD. ?Online behavioral targeting is not real shopping behavior, it?s browsing behavior.

?But mobile is the ability to say where we go and what we do and how we fit into an audience,? he said. ?What makes this powerful is its simplicity.

?You can target someone who is in the market for a car by seeing that they are looking at car Web sites, or you can actually target them by seeing that they are literally going to car lots.?

The Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2012 conference was a Mobile Marketer event.

Location, location, location
Consumers are already shifting towards mobile, so it makes sense that marketers are on the forefront of this behavioral turn.

Mobile is the only medium that is actually based on location.

Mr. Palmieri

Especially during this holiday season, it is integral that marketers use mobile to get in touch with consumers while they are buying.

Marketers could put up a billboard in front of their competitor?s store or put an ad up in a taxi, or they could get to shoppers on their phones and take them right through store doors.

?I can tell you that consumers don?t really care about taxi ads or signs that are hung in stores anymore, but they do care about what is on their phones,? Mr. Palmieri said.

Mobile spending could especially be important for luxury marketing, since it has the most engagement with the least cost, according to Millennial.

Consumers spend 10 percent of time with mobile ads with one percent dollar spend by brands.

This is compared to four percent time spent on newspaper ads and 14 percent of ad dollars spent, and three percent time spent on magazine ads with 11 percent of dollars spent, according to Millennial.

Mr. Palmieri

Holiday cheers
The percent of ecommerce on smartphones is steadily increasing.

Furthermore, it is expected to greatly increase this holiday season for two reasons. First, because of the sheer number of tablets and smartphones and secondly, because of the growing comfort consumers have with these devices.

So, how can marketers take advantage of this during the holidays?

The first step is to just be there for your customers, per Mr. Palmieri.

Mobile should not just be in the decision process, but when consumers are actually buying.

Marketers need to be top-of-mind when consumers are asking themselves, ?What should I buy? How should I buy it? Where should I buy it? How much should I pay??

?Marketers need to start honing in on the right person to engage at the right time, and they need to start doing it now,? Mr. Palmieri said.

?The place where you can do it is during the holiday season,? he said. ?And if you don?t do it, your competitors will.?

Final Take
Paul Palmieri, CEO of Millennial Media, New York