How did m-commerce wrap up 2011? According to a post-holiday study from Motricity, nearly four in 10 consumers (38%) used their mobile devices to purchase a gift, followed closely by using a digital coupon or signing up for a coupon (37% each).

Almost three in 10 maintained a digital gift list, sent gift ideas to friends, gave contact information to a retailer or rated a product or service. The Motricity survey was conducted online from Dec. 27 to Jan. 3 by Wakefield Research among 664 U.S. adults who own a smartphone/and or tablet.

Younger people were the most likely to make mobile purchases, with 41% of 18- to-34-year-olds buying at least one gift from their tablet or smartphone during the holiday season. Despite the abundance of location-based deals and “secret” online coupon codes, convenience rather than savings mattered most for mobile shoppers.

Only 16% said savings was the biggest benefit of mobile, compared to about a quarter that cited its multitasking features and ability to help them avoid crowds. Overall, 93% said they had a positive mobile shopping experience over the holidays and more than two-thirds (64%) predict they will use their mobile device to shop more often in 2012.

Separate data released by IBM on Jan. 10 showed that the proportion of mobile retail traffic and sales doubled in December compared to a year ago. Mobile traffic as a proportion of all online sessions last month increased to 14.6% from 5.6% in December 2010, while mobile sales rose to 11% of online sales from 5.5% in the year-earlier period.

The iPhone and iPad drove the most retail traffic, while the iPad generated more mobile purchases than any other device.

In another sign of growing m-commerce activity, eBay CEO John Donahoe said gross merchandise volume on mobile devices in 2011 hit $5 billion for eBay and $4 billion for its PayPal unit. He expects those figures to increase to $8 billion and $7 billion, respectively, in 2012. Nearly 900,000 eBay shoppers made their first purchase via mobile last year, more than double the total in 2010. Read more at www.mediapost.com

In the world of search advertising, mobile phones and tablets continue to outpace performance of search ads on PCs, although they still represent only a fraction of impressions and investment, according to a new report.

Quarterly figures from Marin Software indicate that mobiles and tablets accounted for 10 percent of all search ad clicks in the U.S. in Q4 2011. That is double the amount of clicks seen on those devices in Q3 2011.

On tablets, search ads—the ad units that typically appear alongside a search made through engines such as Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) or Bing—also accounted for the highest of all click-through rates.

Tablets’ CTR (the ratio of clicks/the number of times the ad appears) for the quarter, according to Marin, was 1.31 percent, compared to 0.95 percent on desktop computers. Smartphones had nearly as high of a CTR, at 1.25 percent. Marin does not break out which devices are proving “more” interactive, although recent figures from Jumptap indicate that at least on its network Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) devices continue to dominate in interactivity.

Search advertising is currently the most-popular form of interactive advertising, above display, and video and other rich media. It’s the case as well in mobile, where search is projected to have accounted for $349 million of the estimated $1 billion spent on mobile ads. But overall, PCs are still a vastly more popular platform for searches, and subsequent search ads. Marin notes that in the last quarter, mobile devices accounted for just seven percent of impressions on search ads, with PCs taking 93 percent:

On PCs search ads were estimated to have accounted for 25.6 percent of $73.8 billion spent on online advertising, or $18.9 billion, according to Publicis’ ZenithOptimedia.

Marin, which offers an online advertising management platform to brands and agencies, says that it based its conclusions on its own Marin Global Search Index. This includes more than 1,000 advertisers and agencies that invest over $2.7 billion annually in paid-search, which each brand or agency typically spending over $1 million annually on paid-search, social and display.

There are a couple of reasons why the numbers could be higher for tablets and mobile phones, which are worth pointing out here. As mobile ad skeptics have pointed out in the past, it can be much easier to “click” accidentally on ads on a touchscreen compared to a PC. That is partly due to the touch element, but also because of the smaller screen sizes. At some point advertisers might start demanding better metrics to try to account for accidental clicks on touchscreen and other mobile devices.

The other issue that could account for the rise in clicks in Q4 in particular is the fact that it covered the holiday season. As we’ve seen from other studies, mobile devices had a double-whammy for increased use over that time period, as people received or bought new devices for themselves as presents; and others used them to look for goods other information related to the holiday shopping season. We’ll have to keep an eye out how numbers look in Q1 of this year to see whether the increased clicks are a trend, or a seasonal blip. Read more at paidcontent.org

Most retailers won’t equip associates with tablets for at least a year

Smartphones are turning millions of Americans into mobile shoppers, and retail is the fastest-growing category for mobile content, but retailers still have a long way to go before they make the most of mobile.

When in-store mobile retail solutions firm AisleBuyer surveyed retailers in December, about 20% said they had a mobile app that enabled usage of their ecommerce site. More likely have a mobile-optimized website, but for those with an m-commerce app, functionality was often limited.

Fewer retailers had apps intended specifically for in-store use, at 14%, and these had even fewer features. A majority (54%) included QR code scanners, while half had GPS-enabled score locators and slightly fewer sported old-fashioned 1-D barcode scanners. But features like buy in-store and ship home, or mobile self-checkout, were uncommon.

Similarly, mobile points of sale where store associates are armed with tablets, smartphones or an iPod touch remain far in the future for most retailers—if they are even on the horizon.

Many of these options will not make sense for all brick-and-mortar stores, especially considering the time and effort of training associates to use new devices when the need for self- or mobile checkout might not be there. But as shoppers become accustomed to using mobile devices for more shopping-related purposes, they will expect fully featured apps or mobile websites to assist them both in-store and before they get there.

While most included a store locator and the option to browse the site’s catalog or check prices, only a slight majority allowed users to buy online and ship items either to a store or their home, or even to search. Read more at www.emarketer.com

Teens have officially joined the mobile Data Tsunami, more than tripling mobile data consumption in the past year while maintaining their stronghold as the leading message senders. Using recent data from monthly cell phone bills of 65,000+ mobile subscribers who volunteered to participate in the research, Nielsen analyzed mobile usage trends among teens in the United States. In the third quarter of 2011, teens age 13-17 used an average of 320 MB of data per month on their phones, increasing 256 percent over last year and growing at a rate faster than any other age group.  Much of this activity is driven by teen males, who took in 382 MB per month while females used 266 MB.

Messaging remains the centerpiece of mobile teen behavior.  The number of messages exchanged monthly (SMS and MMS) hit 3,417 per teen in Q3 2011, averaging seven messages per waking hour.  Teen females are holding the messaging front, sending and receiving 3,952 messages per month versus 2,815 from males.  Aside from messaging, data heavy activities such as mobile internet, social networking, email, app downloads, and app usage are the most popular mobile activities.

See more at blog.nielsen.com

Nielsen’s State of the Media: The Mobile Media Report provides a snapshot of the current mobile media landscape and audiences in the U.S. and highlights the potential power of mobile commerce in the near future.

Key findings: The majority of 25-34 and 18-24 year olds now own smartphones (64% and 53% respectively); The majority of smartphone owners (62%) have downloaded apps on their devices and games are the top application category used in the past 30 days; The number of smartphone subscribers using the mobile Internet has grown 45 percent since 2010; 87 percent of app downloaders (those who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days) have used deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon or Living Social; Younger groups text the most. In Q3, teens 13-17 sent and received the most text messages (an average of 3,417 each month).

This report draws from a broad range of Nielsen data sources, including: Nielsen’s in-depth monthly surveys of mobile consumers (more than 300,000 consumers surveyed each year); Device metering data from the iOS and Android smartphones of thousands of consumers who have volunteered to be a part of our research panel; detailed, monthly analysis of the cellphone bills for 65,000 lines in the U.S., again, thanks to volunteer panelists. Read more at blog.nielsen.com

Mobile apps and presence on social media sites top investments in the coming year

Social media and mobile are quickly establishing themselves as more than marketing channels simply worthy of a test budget. And, as marketers continue to understand how to leverage both social and mobile to meet their overall marketing objectives, they are looking to better integrate them into their overarching marketing strategy, tying them to other more established digital formats, such as email.

According to StrongMail’s annual marketing trends survey, conducted by Zoomerang, the majority (68%) of business executives worldwide said they plan to integrate their social media marketing efforts with email in 2012. In addition, 44% plan to integrate mobile with their email campaigns. Executives were less likely to focus on integrating more tenured online ad formats, such as search and display, into their email strategy, perhaps indicating such integration consideration and action has already taken place.

Additional data sheds insight on similarities in how valuable each of these channels is to meeting overall objectives. Business executives said email, social media and mobile were all effective marketing channels for building customer loyalty and retention. In fact, 67% of business executives worldwide said email was a valued asset to achieving this goal, with 48% saying the same for social media and 35% for mobile.

Almost half of respondents looked to social media to build customer loyalty, while most executives (64%) said social media was most valuable for awareness-building. Awareness-building was the second most-mentioned value for email (51%) and the third most-mentioned for mobile (28%), slightly behind expanding brand footprint (29%).

See more at www.emarketer.com

With strong winds in their sails from the warm consumer embrace of smartphones and tablets—and the apps, content and media consumption they enable—mobile marketers are setting their sights on using these devices to influence transactions. This represents an evolution of the mindset of getting the consumer in the door. Broadly, this is a cultural shift from check-ins to checkouts.

While many mobile users have taken advantage of their device’s ability to connect location with useful information, such as maps, directions or recommendations, comparatively few ever caught on to the check-in trend. Pew Internet & American Life Project found in May that while 58% of smartphone users had used some kind of location-based service on their phone, just 12% had checked in somewhere.

But even as these geosocial services have failed so far to catch on among a mass audience, smartphone owners are only becoming more interested in other types of location-based services—especially deals. Mobile advertising and marketing firm Hipcricket reported in October that interest in time- or location-based mobile offers had increased from 40% of smartphone owners in 2008 to 54% of smartphone owners in 2011.

Although marketers and consumers still find value in services that use location parameters for their own sake, they are now more interested in harnessing geographic data to close a sale. This transition is driven partly by the fading novelty of services that were designed mainly to give people bragging rights for being the “mayor” of a local establishment. Consumers seem more interested in using their smart devices to get real-time deals or make purchases. Read more at www.emarketer.com

The chart below shows that most of the growth in action codes is coming from advertising. In January, there were seven advertising codes for each editorial code. By September, the ratio was nearly 20:1.

Another area where we saw growth from Q1 to Q3 was in the number of magazines that contained at least one action code. This number climbed from 63% of surveyed magazines in January to 96% in September. (If any issue or all of the issues of a particular magazine title had a code during the month, then it was counted as one.)

However, most of the growth in the number of magazines with action codes happened during Q2. Beginning in March, about 80% of titles contained at least one action code.

Over the year, both the average and median number of action codes per issue increased. During Q3, nearly five action codes appeared in each issue that contained at least one action code. While the average number is influenced by these large campaigns, the median, which is not, also jumped each quarter.

Q1 2011 Q2 2011 Q3 2011 Average number of codes per issue 2.33 4.23 4.83 Median number of codes per issue 2 3 4 Largest number of codes in an issue 12 29 54 Read more at www.nellymoser.com

Nielsen’s third quarter survey of mobile users reveals that while only 43 percent of all US mobile phone subscribers own a smartphone, a mobile phone with a powerful operating system, the vast majority of those under the age of 44 now have smartphones. In fact, 62 percent of mobile adults aged 25-34 report owning smartphones. And among those 18-24 and 35-44 years old the smartphone penetration rate is hovering near 54 percent.

After younger adults, the segment with the second fastest-growing smartphone penetration rate is those aged 55-64. Smartphone penetration among this older group is only 30 percent, but it jumped 5 percent this quarter.

As the smartphone market continues to expand, Android remains the most popular smartphone operating system in the United States, with 43 percent of the market, while Apple is the top smartphone manufacturer, with 28 percent of smartphone consumers sporting an Apple iPhone.

See more at blog.nielsen.com

More and more, people are turning from traditional media channels to their mobile devices for content consumption. In a recent study, comScore stated that the smartphone audience has increased 53% in the past year alone. Silicon Valley researcher and venture capitalist Mary Meeker predicts mobile usage will overtake desktop Internet usage within three years. In response, marketers are increasingly investing in mobile advertising. Within the mobile space, video is emerging as one of the most effective ways to influence target audiences.

Where will my mobile video ads run? Mobile video advertising appears across all mobile platforms and content types. Because of increased demand for mobile video ads, publishers and networks have begun to insert them in both natural and unnatural environments. As with any advertising, the first consideration should be the expectation of the audience.

In-stream video advertising Video ads that appear before or within video content are the most effective way to engage the mobile audience. Completion rates for in-stream video ads average 87%.

What is the proper environment for mobile video advertising? This question has been asked in other media for years. With the proliferation of mobile Web content and apps, it is crucial to consider. Association with premium content (i.e., mobile content created by well-respected media companies) allows marketers to maintain their status as trusted brands. Video advertising in premium content also increases the effectiveness of campaigns because consumers are comfortable with the value exchange in watching the ad in order to access sought-after premium content.   Buyers should discover which publishers and content partners offer exclusive premium content.

Which best practices help maximize mobile campaign effectiveness and reach? Buyers can effectively optimize mobile video ad campaigns by taking advantage of their unique attributes. For example, campaigns that combine video with display or rich media see increased consumer engagement. Consumers who have already been exposed to the brand message through video are more likely to subsequently engage with display and rich media ad units. Banner and full-page ads experience a 45% and 50% increase in click-through rate, respectively, when paired with in-stream video. Campaigns with social media goals should utilize full-page ads. These ad units see a 57% higher CTR when they include social media options. In addition, in order to maximize reach, marketers often run multiple types of video ad units. Utilizing in-stream ads before video content along with video ads played within app content or casual games will expand the reach to a wider audience.

What interactivity and targeting options are available? A unique aspect of mobile video advertising is the number of possible actions a consumer can take. This interactivity can help brands achieve specific goals for their campaigns. There are many options for tailoring a mobile campaign. Some examples: Mobile advertising features unique call-to-action buttons that allow consumers to “like” a product on Facebook, share the video on Twitter, make a purchase on Amazon or Fandango, etc. Mobile also takes advantage of proven methods for zeroing in on the audience like daypart and demo targeting. Geotargeting is another excellent way to take advantage of mobile.

How much does your partner know about mobile video? Serving high-quality mobile video advertising is a unique and challenging endeavor. Mobile video ads must launch consistently on different devices and operating platforms with various screen sizes. In addition, video ads must serve at assorted speeds, adhering to a variety of streaming protocols. Your advertising partner must be a mobile expert in order to successfully navigate these and other variables and ensure delivery of the highest-quality video possible. Mobile video advertising is rapidly becoming one of the best branding media ever. When deployed effectively, mobile video ads combine the best of TV and online advertising through unparalleled consumer immersion. But not all mobile video advertising is created equal. Asking the right questions up front will ensure transparency in the process, and ultimately, help maximize the effectiveness of mobile video advertising campaigns. Read more at www.mediapost.com

Three hot areas of marketing are social, local and mobile. There’s even a name for the collision of all three: SoLoMo. Nielsen and NM Incite have created infographics with interesting figures in each area.

Parents turn out to be big on social media. Nearly half of visitors to local deals sites recommend those sites. Smartphone users spend two-thirds of their time using their phones on apps, rather than talking. And more: Read more at searchengineland.com

Search is directing consumers to local businesses, not their sites. Nearly two-thirds — 59% — of adults start researching information about a business on search engines, and less than one in 10 head to the merchant’s Web site first, according to research released from CityGrid Thursday.

“They view search engines as a valid place to find review sites and they’re comfortable clicking in and clicking out of many,” she said. “On mobile, you have a need and must deal with a smaller screen. Rather than go in and out of search engines, you’ll likely either go to the brands you know or to a review site.” The study also finds that 17% of adults admit to basing their decision on a search engine when researching a local business or restaurant from their mobile phone, but 15% admit to considering information on review sites. When it comes to trying a new local business, consumers prefer to stay close to home. About 39% of adults will travel between 15 and 30 miles to try a new local business. The majority of respondents said they will not travel more than 30 miles to try someplace new. This means brands need to target and retarget campaigns by geography and category. Read more at www.mediapost.com

Nielsen’s recent Women of Tomorrow study highlighted not only the growing influence women have on purchasing decisions, but also provided insight into their behavior across social media. A key finding from this research illustrates that “social moms” (defined as females with at least one child who actively participate in social networking) are quite influential. A new study by NM Incite and Nielsen provides additional context on social mom’s content trends, shopping tendencies and overall social media engagement.

How Social Moms Access Content The social mom is highly active in accessing social networks via mobile devices. Fifty percent of all moms actively participating in social media access platforms via mobile devices, in comparison to 39 percent of females overall, and 37 percent of the overall population in general.

How Social Moms Shop Social moms tend to be cost-conscious, being 56 percent more likely to download coupons than the general population. They are also more likely to shop online for CPG products than other product categories, with the research showing that 86 percent are more likely to shop online for cosmetics than the general public, as well as skincare products (85%), hair care goods (74%) and fragrances (68%).

Social Moms: Likes and Dislikes The growing influence of women and moms is increasingly apparent, and so too is their level of activity in social media. Moms who actively participate in social media are 81 percent more likely to become a fan of or follow a brand online, 86 percent more likely to post a status update, and 84 percent more likely to comment or post content than the general population. The research also shows that social moms definitely aren’t shy in sharing their advice and reviews of products with others. This segment is 85 percent more likely than the general population to share frequent advice about beauty and cosmetic products, 28 percent more likely to provide frequent advice about online shopping/e-commerce and 6% more likely to post a product review online. Read more at blog.nielsen.com

As the iPhone 4S announcement crashed popular websites and we learned that Google’s mobile revenue is now on a $2.5 billion annual run rate, one thing became clear these past few weeks: mobile is H-O-T. So what does this mean for search geeks around the world? Quite a L-O-T.

By 2012, there will be 5 billion mobile devices in use, the equivalent of 70% of the world’s population.

Penetration of smartphones stands at more than 40% in Western Europe and 38% in the U.S.

Mobile makes up about 20% of searches globally for Yahoo.

15% of all Google queries are mobile.

Nearly 30% of all mobile search queries are with local intent, compared to just 16% for the PC.

Mobile phones are used by nearly one of every five shoppers.

Of holiday smartphone shoppers, 80% used their phones to shop/research while in a store.

49% of mobile searchers made a mobile purchase in the past six months.

U.S mobile ad spending to top $1 billion for first time in 2011.

43% of mobile Internet usage happening in home.

86% of mobile Internet users surf the mobile Web while watching TV.

39% of people use the Internet on their smartphones while using the bathroom.

43% would give up beer if they would otherwise have to give up their smartphones.

48% of mobile ad clicks are accidental.

In Japan, the average consumer has 45 mobile apps installed on his phone, compared to 23 for the U.S. and U.K. Read more at www.mediapost.com

American consumers are increasingly connected and our recent survey shows they are increasingly multitasking when it comes to multimedia.

Roughly 40 percent of tablet and smartphone owners in the U.S. used their devices daily while watching TV, while only 14 percent of eReader owners said they watched TV while using their device every day.

Advertisers should take note that while viewers may be splitting attention between two (or three!) screens, 19 percent of smartphone and tablet owners searched for product information and 13 percent searched for coupons or deals while the television was on. Read more at blog.nielsen.com

Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular among U.S. consumers for accessing the Web, according to data released today by market researcher ComScore.

Some 6.8 percent of Web traffic originated from “non-computer” devices in August, compared with 6.2 percent at the end of the previous quarter, ComScore said. Mobile phones accounted for 4.4 percent of that traffic, while tablets made up 1.9 percent.

Apple’s iPad dominates among tablet Web traffic, delivering 97.2 percent. The iPad also accounted for more Web traffic than iPhones (46.8 percent versus 42.6 percent of all iOS device traffic). Apple’s iOS platform also beat out Android, accounting for 43.1 percent of mobile Web mobile Web traffic, compared with the 34. 1 percent delivered by Google’s mobile operating system.

News and socializing were key activities among tablet owners, with about 58 percent saying they used the device for news consumption, while a similar number said they used tablets for social networking.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. consumers using mobile devices to access the Web grew to more than 116 million, a 19 percent increase in the past year. Read more at news.cnet.com

According to online research provider Knowledge Networks, 56% of Gen Y internet users stream video on a weekly basis—twice as many as among boomers. Gen Y is also four times more likely to watch video via mobile than boomers.

A Nielsen survey supports some of the Knowledge Networks demographics findings. According to Nielsen, consumers ages 18 to 49 watch more than twice as much television content on the internet as those older than 50. Gen Y and Gen X males are especially heavy internet video users, watching more than 7 hours a month. When it comes to mobile, males and females ages 18 to 49 watch roughly the same amount of video on their mobile devices, about 4 hours, surpassing those older than 50, who watch 2 to 3 hours of mobile video a month.

comScore data provides a contrast, indicating that more males than females watch mobile video content, regardless of time spent. According to comScore, 62% of males viewed mobile TV or video in June 2011, compared to 38% of females. comScore’s generational data largely lines up with that of Knowledge Networks, and adoption by consumers older than 45 makes up only a sliver of overall usage. The majority of mobile TV and video viewers are younger than 44.

Marketers should take note of the 18-to-34 age group as a sweet spot for over-the-top video marketing. As online and mobile video content continues to proliferate, consumer usage of alternative viewing channels will continue to climb. eMarketer predicts that by 2015, 76% of internet users, or 195.5 million people, will watch video content online each month. Read more at www.emarketer.com

According to the first mobile media rankings based on audience measurement data from metered Android smartphone usage, aside from the Android Market app itself, Facebook, Google Maps and Gmail were the most used among U.S. Android users 18 years and older. To determine each apps “active reach,” — the percentage of Android owners who used an app within the past 30 days — Nielsen analyzed the data from on-device meters on thousands of Android smartphones.

While many of the top 20 apps, including the streaming music service Pandora and two versions of the popular game Angry Birds, showed similar usage by both men and women, there were notable differences in active reach for social apps. Facebook’s mobile app saw an active reach of 81 percent for women compared to 69 percent for male Android users. Twitter also had slightly higher active reach among women (16.5%) than men (13.4%). However, Google+, Google’s new social network, had more than twice the active reach among men (15.8%) than women (7.2%).

Outside of social media, apps like Amazon’s Kindle and Words With Friends showed higher active reach among women, while apps like Quickoffice Pro and the Amazon Appstore had higher active reach among male Android smartphone owners. And despite the stereotype that men don’t like asking for directions, they seemed pretty comfortable using Google Maps, which has 77 percent active reach among men compared to 71.8 percent among women.

See more at blog.nielsen.com

For the month, Android ad impressions jumped 48 percent over July, giving Google’s mobile OS a 54 percent slice of the ad network, according to Millennial Media’s August Mobile Mix report. In contrast, Apple’s iOS failed to gain much ground from July, leaving it with a 28 percent share.

The new market share figures actually showed a decline for Google and a gain for iOS from July. However, the August numbers included both smartphones and connected devices, such as tablets, whereas past rankings covered only smartphones. So the strong demand for the iPad and the lackluster sales for Android tablets certainly played a role in the latest results.

Smartphones in general continued to inch up in popularity, as measured by the report. Growing 6 percent from July, smartphones grabbed 72 percent of all ad impressions last month, compared with 14 percent for connected devices and 14 percent for feature phones. Those numbers show a dramatic difference from August 2010 when smartphones held 51 percent of the market and features phones 33 percent. Read more at news.cnet.com

The telecom industry is one of the biggest spenders on online advertising. Between 2010 and 2011, telecom ad spending climbed by 7% to $3.62 billion and eMarketer estimates the industry will spend close to $4.6 billion on online ads by 2015. New research suggests the industry has unlocked some key findings in order to achieve high user engagement with its display ads.

Although engagement rates for telecom are best-in-class, analysis of DoubleClick data by comScore indicates that clickthrough rates for telecom rich media ads are not quite as noteworthy. According to comScore, telecom CTRs come in at around 0.07%, compared to 0.15% for the automotive industry, the segment with the highest CTRs.

Examination of telecom display ads reveals that factors such as placement, format, size and frequency do influence a user’s decision to engage or convert. Marketers from all industries should make note of telecom’s findings in order to create highly relevant ads that consumers will want to engage with. Read more at www.emarketer.com