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Apple is not the only game in town and mobile marketers need to be thinking more broadly in order to reach as big an audience as possible in mobile, according to two of the executives who participated in a Mobile Marketer webinar yesterday.

Mobile advertising could be one of the breakout stars in 2012 as standards improve, smartphone penetration grows and budgets grow. However, to best take advantage of the growing opportunities in mobile advertising, marketers need to consider the myriad of ways to reach consumers via mobile.

?I really think that mobile advertising is going to be huge,? said Jeff Hawley, director of the customer experience group for Yamaha of America, Buena Park, CA, during the webinar titled The Mobile Outlook 2012: Up, Down or Flat?

?For Apple iAd, there has been a mixed reception and mixed results,? he said. ?But, as everything comes together, mobile advertising will jump up with everything else.

?As people start to take advantage of neat aspects such as geo-location and Siri, we will see some interesting stars throughout the year. It all boils down to mobile advertising and search being the big breakouts in 2012.?

What to expect
Android?s growth over the past year also suggests that Apple is not the only mobile player worth paying attention to.

This is important for marketers to understand as they look to scale up in mobile.

?Apple doesn?t have a lock on market share,? said Eric Harber, chief operating officer of Hipcricket, Kirkland, WA, which sponsored the webinar. ?Marketers need to think broader than iOS.

?Android?s share was double what it was a year ago which shows that while iOS is important, it is not the only thing,? he said.

In terms of what brands, agencies and publishers can expect in the mobile space in 2012, much of the focus will be on mobile advertising.

The focus will translate to bigger investments from brand but also on developing standards that will make the creation and delivery of mobile ads easier. 

?There have been some pretty huge swings in where mobile is going and a lot of the action is going to be around mobile advertising, how to deliver it, where it is delivered and what the expectations are,? Yamaha?s Mr. Hawley said.

?With Adobe saying it is moving away from Flash, the immediate impact of that shift will be on advertising and the expectations for how consumers get those ads,? he said.

As penetration for smartphones and tablets grows, mobile video will also be a focus.

The good news is that standards are emerging for rich media advertising, such as new standards introduced by the IAB, which could help consolidate some of the fragmentation in rich media.

?We are seeing tremendous growth in video from tablets,? said James Gaffer, ad solutions product developer for mobile and emerging media at NBC Universal, New York. ?We are very bullish on tablets - you are going to see tremendous growth to your sites from these devices.?

There will also be a more intense focus on how to make money from mobile.

Monetizing mobile is one of the biggest challenges that retailers have faced.

?Organizations are looking to make money off of mobile,? said Jennifer Lee, Toronto-based senior manager of the retailer and distribution practice for Deloitte & Touche. ?They should focus on the path to purchase and understanding how mobile ties in.

?The organizations that will win are the ones where the mobile strategy is very orchestrated,? she said. ?Mobile has to be in sync with the rest of your channels.?

At agencies, there will be a deeper integration of mobile into overall marketing strategies.

The integration will take place as brands continue to grasp how marketing has changed, with consumers looking to interacting with brands when and where they want.

?Brands have to adjust and be where the consumers want them to be,? said Tina Unterlaender, account director for mobile at digital agency AKQA, San Francisco. ?Consumers have phones and tablets and want to interact and connect with brands.

?When I look at the agency space, we will see a much deeper integration of mobile into the overall marketing mix,? she said.

Break-out stars
While the speakers were mostly in agreement that there will be no break-out star in mobile next year because the entire space will shine bright, they did point to several examples of where mobile will win big in 2012.

Near-field communication technology is one area expected to take off next year.

The growth will be driven in part by a number of NFC-enabled devices becoming available.

?What will happen as more devices hit the market, what are the interesting things we can do with NFC to enhance the consumer experience ? this will be an interesting mobile development,? said Ms. Unterlaender said.

The development of marketing and mobile experiences around mobile as a second screen will also grow significantly, such as Shazam and MTV have started to do this year.

?We know how many people are using phones and tablets when watching TV or attending events,?  Ms. Unterlaender said. ?Marketers are understanding that this is where the consumer is and are asking what can they do to enhance the experience.

?We are watching very closely what will happen will happen with the Super Bowl ? will it be a really big year for second screen?,? she said.

The mobile Web and video were also pointed to as areas that will experience significant growth next year.

?When we looked at the path to purchase and how customers use their mobile device for a large brand, we found that the mobile Web was by far the most important piece,? Deloitte's Ms. Lee said. ?We found that customers are still very basic users and the mobile Web meets their needs.

?When retailers consider what are the basics that they have to have in mobile, one of those is the mobile Web,? she said. ?That is why everybody will focus on this next year.

Surprise!
One of the biggest surprises in mobile is how few brands have actually developed strong mobile presences.

Despite the growth in penetration of smart devices and consumers using mobile in a variety of ways to interact with brands, 70 - 80 percent of the top 500 brands still do not have a mobile experience, per Tina.

?The investment in having a decent mobile experience is still not there,? AKQA?s Ms. Unterlaender said. ?That is what I hope retailers and brands react to and act upon next year.?

One of the biggest surprises next year could be in how the mobile payments space evolves.

Now that Google Wallet is available and Isis is getting to launch, retailers will be paying close attention to see what the opportunities are here.

?Google Wallet is really putting pressure on retailers to understand the full customer experience,? Deloitte?s Ms. Lee said.

?As Google Wallet rolls out, retailers will question whether to partner with Google ? then they don?t own the data ? or do their own wallet,? she said.

?There will be a battle over who owns the customer data and the customer relationship."

Lessons learned
One of the biggest lessons learned in mobile from 2011 is the importance of content.

?Content is king,? Yamaha?s Mr. Hawley said. ?Consumers kept asking for more and more content, no matter how niche.

?There was an expectation that we would have video, access to forums and other content in mobile,? he said.

When crafting a mobile strategy for 2012, marketers should be paying close attention to how to integrate mobile with their CRM program.

Marketers who do not integrate properly will begin to have issues properly understanding customer behavior as mobile continues to grow.

?I can?t stress enough how important the CRM part is,? Mr. Hawley said. ?As we are collecting the data and doing more in multichannel, we begin to see when we?re not connecting the dots properly."

It is also important to start with mobile when developing an overall marketing strategy.

As consumers expectations around mobile grow, mobile will start to play a role in all areas of a mobile strategy.

?Baking in mobile as part of the broader strategy rather than an afterthought ? that is where clients have seen the greatest success,? Hipcricket?s Mr. Harber said. 

Please click here to access the archived webinar

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York