by David Ip
It's kind of a running joke in the mobile community when we hear the phrase, "the year of mobile". It began in 2005, and for the past 3 years, many marketers have proclaimed that next year would definitely be the year. In my personal opinion, the ones probably saying it were the ones that wanted to get in and cash out. Real mobile marketers (those that actually plan to be here for the long haul) have been cautiously optimistic on the future of mobile.
For many pioneer brands, mobile marketing has finally progressed beyond the testing and learning phase. As a result, the community as a whole should expect to see an increased amount of integrated marketing campaigns integrating the mobile channel. What we're really waiting for is for mobile to become part of the creative and media plan for traditional brands. From my perspective, these traditional brands are finally starting to "get it".
From the agency world, my most frequent requests are for stats to prove that mobile really works. What I have found is that many agency folks (on the account, media and creati