NEW ORLEANS ? Brands who are not yet implementing mobile advertising and marketing strategies are losing the opportunity to engage with their current and prospective consumers, according to panelists at the International CTIA Wireless 2012 conference.

During the ?Brand Adaption? session, industry experts agreed that by implementing strategic, targeted mobile marketing campaigns, brands are able to reach a larger audience. The panel was moderated by Jill Rosengard Hill, senior vice president of Frank N. Magid Associates.

?What we?re seeing is marketers not just specifically building an app,? said Alex Hall, president of TigerSpike. ?It?s about what their consumer and end users want."

Head first
Nowadays, marketers are jumping head first into the mobile space without looking at their goals and creating a complete mission statement.

Although mobile apps might work for one company, this does not mean that they will work the same way for others ? one size does not fit all in this case.

?Mobile is happening, apps are happening and brands are trying to figure out what the ROI on this is,? said Scott Kveton, CEO of Urban Airship.

?There?s a whole bunch of education that will happen in the next few years,? he said.

According to Mr. Kveton, SMS is relatively limited and apps provide marketers a great way to engage consumers and have them keep coming back.

?When a consumer downloads an app that?s the first opt-in,? Mr. Kveton said. ?Then you ask them if they want to receive push notifications and that?s the double opt-in.

?If you can bring location and context and previous behavior and provide the content that consumers want, they?re going to be really happy.

All about the user
No matter what a marketer?s mobile strategy might be, it all comes down to the target user and making sure that they are engaged with a company?s mobile products.

?It?s about delivering a sort of value to your fan base,? said Patrick Mahoney, vice president of Mogreet.

Mr. Mahoney suggests that marketers not dive into mobile without having a clear understanding of what they are looking to achieve.

Marketers must constantly test to make sure that their mobile efforts are at their peak.

Consumers are constantly on their mobile devices and brands need to see what the best way to reach them is.

?We?ve tried to adapt our brands to mobile in every way that we could think of and we?ve had some successes in all of those areas,? said Melissa Patterson, mobile manager at Cox Media Group.

?Finding something that fits everyone is a great challenge," she said.

According to Ms. Patterson, it is important to see what devices a target consumer is using and to make sure that there is a mobile presence there as well.

?Depending on your business, smartphones might not be the majority,? Ms. Patterson said.

?In our case, it is a majority, but a very large chuck is feature phones.?

Final Take