NEW YORK - Brands should focus more on the overall consumer experience rather than contemplate choosing a mobile Web site or application, per panelists at the Mobile Marketing Forum.

During ?The Great Debate: Mobile Web Versus Applications,? panelists agreed that it does not matter whether a brand offers a mobile site or application. What matters is that consumers are engaged in the content.

?Brands don?t necessarily get the difference between them,? said Bradley Cressman, director of sales and marketing at Sympatico, Toronto. ?You have a lot of brands thinking this is where I want to go, and it?s great that it starts the conversation, but there?s still a lot of education that needs to be done.

?There?s still a learning curve, both on the user side and on our side,? he said. ?It?s a big challenge, but we?re learning everyday."

Doug Busk, executive vice president of mobile strategy and business development at Whoop, Atlanta, moderated the panel.

Mobile real estate
The panelists agreed that in the next few years, brands are going to be looking at mobile devices as real estate.

Companies will need to make sure that consumers will want to download the brand?s application and that there is valuable content in that application, so that it does not just take up room in a user?s handset.

According to Patrick Mork, vice president of marketing at Get Jar, San Francisco, there have been applications that have been proven to not work on all handsets.

The only way to get repeat consumers is when a mobile site or application works.

?The battle over the next year is going to be the phone real estate,? Mr. Mork said. ?What the value on being on that mobile desktop is ? whether it?s a short code or app.

?Brands should be making a conscious decision on engaging consumers with that app or URL,? he said. ?From a consumer point-of-view, it?s not so much about how many applications are in the App Store, but the quality and reliability of the content.

?One of the changes that we had to do was to tighten our policy on what we?re allowing up there.?

Mobile incorporation
Many companies have incorporated both a mobile Web site and applications.

Flirtomatic, a mobile social networking site, has a cross-platform presence that lets consumers download the core content of its application and, according to Mr. Mork, because of consumer satisfaction, the company found innovative ways to sell users premium services that they are willing to pay for.

Additionally, Fandango is another good business model, per Mr. Mork.

The company has applications across an array of smartphones, including Palm, Android, BlackBerry and iPhone.

In addition to its applications, the company has a mobile-optimized site where consumers can find showtimes, view movie trailers and purchase tickets.

?There are a lot of innovative business models that people getting into the app space might want to embrace,? Mr. Mork said. ?There?s reach versus frequency and for brands, it?s a challenge.?

Chrysler, however, is one example of how a company has not done a good job creating a mobile site.

Chrysler was running banner ads in The New York Times application, but when users clicked on the ad, they were rerouted to a non-optimized mobile site.

The experience can be frustrating and consumers might not want to click on that ad again (see story).

Mr. Mork also said that if companies plan to develop an application, they should look at monetizing it.

?I think there?s a tendency in business that free means free,? Mr. Mork said. ?People are going to have to be more creative about their business models going forward."

Mobile all the way
While applications can be successful for many brands, others should not ignore mobile-optimized sites.

?The mobile Web is vastly understated and vastly underappreciated,? Mr. Mork said. ?I think this industry is changing rapidly and the number of application downloads is not the way to look [at it anymore].

?If you built a great iPhone app and you only get a million downloads and only 10,000 of those are using the app, your chief marketing officer won?t be pleased,? he said. ?The iPhone is a great platform, but you?re only going to reach some consumers.

?It?s about traffic and usage ? and usage is where it?s going to be at in the next 12 months.?

According to the panelists, brands and agencies should be looking at reach and the experience that they as a company want to give the consumer.

If a brand wants a simple experience, they should have a mobile Web site. However, if it wants a deep, engaging and rich experience, they should choose applications.

?I think the mobile Web is going to have a very strong play moving forward,? said Scott Drake, vice president of digital technology and products at CNBC, New York. ?As you get more apps, consumer confusion is going to cut through them and consumers will get a lot more stingy about the apps that they?re going to be using."