NEW YORK ? Mobile marketing may be more effective than other forms of advertising, according to data from an InsightExpress study presented at Mobile Marketer's Mobile Marketing Summit.

The research points to mobile as more effective than more traditional channels such as print, television and online advertising. In fact, mobile is moving forward in such a way that it is a powerful standalone marketing channel.

?Mobile is leading the charge of most effective channel in all metrics except brand favorability, including more than print and TV,? said Joy Liuzzo, vice president of InsightExpress, Stamford, CT.

?I?m not saying that the others are ineffective, but mobile is something that is powerful by itself just as a media channel,? she said. ?It is even more effective than combinations of media channels.?

This data is compiled from InsightExpress? quarterly Digital Consumer Profile.

Mobile is king

When determining marketing effectiveness in single channel marketing efforts, mobile marketing led the pack above print, online and TV advertising in the metrics of unaided awareness, aided awareness, message association and purchase intent.

The only area that it was not ahead was in brand favorability.

Ms. Liuzzo at the Mobile Marketing Summit

However, when multiple channels were used to advertise, a single mobile marketing effort still stood out amongst multichannel efforts.

For example, mobile marketing was more effective in unaided awareness than combined print, TV and online marketing and combined TV and online marketing.

Furthermore, a single mobile marketing effort was more effective in message association than combined print, TV and online marketing, combined TV and online marketing and combined print and TV marketing.

?This component is still holding its own across combinations of channels,? Ms. Liuzzo said.

?The biggest thing to take away from this is that if you haven?t integrated mobile, you?re losing out because this media channel is increasing significantly,? she said. 

Crunching numbers
The most-measured demographic in the study by InsightExpress was smartphone users.

Approximately 50 percent of smartphone users are saying that they will spend more than most owners this holiday season.

Furthermore, approximately 60 percent of smartphone users claim that they intend to make more in-store purchases than on the Internet.

Ms. Liuzzo at the Mobile Marketing Summit

Marketers would do well to integrate these two channels to combine traditional and modern advertising.

Most consumers use smartphones in-store to send a picture of a product to someone, search for the item in a different location, search for an item to find reviews or scan a bar code.

?About 33 percent of consumers are taking a picture and sending it to someone for our opinion, but no marketer has yet to take advantage of this behavior,? Ms. Liuzzo said.

In fact, 40 percent of all smartphone users are willing to make a purchase from their mobile devices in-store.

Furthermore, many male smartphone users are more likely to use their mobile phones in-store to check reviews, look for related products and research product features before asking a sales associate.

This means that brands would greatly benefit from having a mobile-optimized site or application so that consumers can easily access information.

Fifty percent of smartphone users believe that having an optimized site is either important or very important, according to the study.

Furthermore, consumers are more likely to visit a third-party site than a retailer using their smartphones, but 67 percent of users use both resources for information when in-store.

?Consumers are starting to shop for the holidays now, and only a few are taking advantage of this,? Ms. Liuzzo said.

?If you need to process your payment system or something like that, you need to start doing it now.?

Final Take Joy Liuzzo, vice president of InsightExpress, Stamford, CT