NEW YORK ? A Razorfish executive at the 2012 MMA Forum said that mobile has the ability to bring together multiple channels and needs to be treated as more of a strategy than a tactic.

During the ?Agency Workshop: Buying Mobile Advertising? session, executives from Razorfish, Carat, Hill Holliday, Joule and Mindshare spoke about how mobile has revolved. The session also presented to attendees the importance of tying mobile into a multichannel marketing plan.

?Mobile is unique in that it is not just a channel but a connective tissue that ends up being a thread through many of the stories and strategies that you end up doing,? said Paul Gelb, vice president and mobile practice lead at Razorfish, New York.

Mobile spend
According to Mr. Gelb, although spend for mobile budgets is small, it is getting larger.

For example, with the introduction of Apple?s iAd platform, which is expensive, shifted the way that brands view mobile.

Mr. Gelb said it is important for brands to implement mobile initiatives with a strong enough budget to back it up. Because of this, marketers are developing stronger relationships and partnerships.

The executive also expects that the cost of mobile advertising will come down in order to get a larger scale.

Brands are also getting more strategic with their mobile spend.

In particular, television presents a huge opportunity for marketers and needs to be included in more campaigns not only as a companion device but integrated into how consumers watch TV, including channele such as social media.

According to the Razorfish executive, approximately 20 percent of smartphones and 30 percent of tablets are being used while owners are watching TV, showing the opportunities available to marketers.

Although measurement is consistently a problem, Mr. Gelb said that whatever metrics can be measured in mobile tend to be higher than desktop, pointing to the effectiveness of the small mobile screen as a way for marketers.

Mr. Gelb outlined four areas that he thinks will drive an increase in mobile ad spend: companies will get the infrastructures to back up mobile campaigns, measurement and transparency will become more available, multitasking marketing will become more viable and there will be advancements in mobile payments.

Moving target
According to Michael Lieberman, group account director at Joule, New York, one of the big areas of growth that the mobile industry has seen over the past 12 months is with targeting.

As mobile technology and marketing becomes more sophisticated, the consumer is increasingly being treated as the same across desktops, smartphones and tablets, meaning that campaigns need to be tailored to users based on things such as location and browsing history.

?The partners are where you see the biggest increase in budgets are those partners who are looking at ROI, who are seeing the effectiveness and then coming back,? Mr. Lieberman said.

?The ones who have decided to run mobile for the sake of running mobile or it?s brand specific tend to either flat line or drop off because they don?t know what they want out of the channel,? he said.

The Joule executive said that the company has noticed that marketers are shifting online display budgets to mobile.

Mobile impressions
When it comes to what is working in mobile, the combination of time, place and context coupled with rich media is a hit, said an executive from Carat.

One of Carat?s clients- Home Depot ? has used this combination with its circulars to drive foot traffic and ultimately ROI.

With mobile being integrated into more marketing departments in many companies, the idea of there only being one go-to mobile person is slowly diminishing.

Therefore, more traditional marketers are being seen as complete marketers, meaning that they combine their digital efforts with all other marketing channels.

?But all these things can work together so you?re seeing on the agency side a lot more that the education is still there, but you are seeing more complete marketers,? said Jason Newport, senior vice president of mobile strategy, Carat, New York.

?The point is to not start with the tactic, start with the strategy,? he said.

Mobile money
Craig Weinberg, mobile practice lead at Mindshare, New York, said that the reason that many brands are still hung up over mobile is the lack of ROI from initiatives.

Take quick serve restaurants for example.

?It?s not that they don?t believe in mobile but every dollar is so important to them,? Mr. Weinberg said.

However, if the ROI is not there for a brand, it is better to not force mobile and rethink a campaign or strategy to make it work.

Additionally, over the past year, rich media has made huge strides in the industry and depending on the use case can be a great way for brands to delve into mobile.

Similarly, Johnny Won, digital, mobile and gaming platforms manager at Hill Holliday, Boston, said that he is surprised by the number of industry experts who are not taking a ROI-focused strategy seriously.

?I agree with this ROI being the paramount issue, but it?s kind of remarkable that there aren?t enough people pushing it,? Mr. Won said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York