With the sales of smartphones now exceeding the sales of traditional mobile handsets, the dynamics of how businesses are contacting customers to inform them of their products is changing. As a society, the Brits are now more mobile-conscious than ever. For many, mobiles have not only become their first reference point for contacting friends and family, but also the first place they go to find out news and information. As such this reliance on the mobile phone has created a new niche market for businesses to contact potential customers; mobile advertising.

Mobile marketing is a quickly growing market; in 2008 spending on mobile advertising reached £28.6 million, a year later spending had increased to £46 million and such is the exponential rate of growth in the market that by 2015, experts are confidently predicting that mobile advertising spending will reach a staggering £419 million.

The reason for this rapid rate of growth for this fledgling industry is due to the way people are communicating and receiving communications from third parties. Until recently, people used to call each other via a home phone line and watch adverts on television, see them in newspapers and magazines.

The mobile revolution has altered this markedly. Nowadays, for many people their phone is their first port of call for all forms of communication, for retrieving information and for using the Internet, and this has left broad scope for advertising opportunity.

What makes mobile advertising so special, however, is the flexibility afforded by the system. Mobile marketing is not simply a blanket exposure to people in the hope that they may be interested. Instead, mobile campaigns use the power of the Internet to ensure that their campaigns are carefully targeted; meaning that people only receive the offers and information that is most likely to be of benefit to them. So, for example, if you have been looking for ways to get cheaper phone bills, you are likely to receive mobile advertisements from companies that offer precisely these (or similar).

Better still, mobile advertising is entirely scalable and can be an affordable solution for any size of company, from a local business seeking extra customers in the local area, to massive multi-national corporations seeking global markets for their products; mobile marketing is applicable to any size and any market.

For example, if you have a brand new application for an Apple product, you can target your mobile marketing to iPhone advertising to ensure that the people receiving your offer are those most likely to want it.

It is this innovative method of targeting potential customers, with no need for blanket coverage, mailings to people with no interest in your products or expensive TV and radio advertisements, which makes mobile advertising the fastest growing form of advertising at present.

Mobile technology has facilitated businesses being able to far better target the right customer and cut down massively on spending on advertising that is non-productive. Instead of blanket market saturation, the strategy for many businesses is for cost-effective key market penetration.

The greatest strengths of mobile advertising are its flexibility and relevance for the customer. For a business, it offers the most efficient and cost-effective way to contact customers and to ensure that adverts are being seen. For the customer, it offers them the products they are most likely to want and need and find useful to their own set of circumstances. It is a harmonious recipe and one which should produce a far more relevant and useful advertising service on any standard handset.

Mobile broadband offers flexibility in connection to broadband internet, allowing access to both leisure and work functions on the move.  It is in terms of flexible working particularly that mobile broadband comes into its own, allowing the connection of the full processing power of a laptop to the internet; in comparison with, for example, the utility of the current range of smartphones and the like, which with limited processing power are more suited to leisure applications.  There are several considerations that are key when selecting a mobile broadband package.

The first of these has to be coverage.  It is essential to check the coverage offered in your area by the mobile broadband provider – this can often be found online on the provider’s website.  As well as checking this information, it is well worth checking out the particular coverage at your address if you are lucky enough to have a friend that will loan you a wireless dongle of any mobile broadband provider – very local geographical obstructions can sometimes interfere with signals in an otherwise strong signal area.

Most providers like Vodafone now offer both long-term and pay-as-you-go (PAYG) mobile broadband packages, with the longer term contracts generally offering the best value for money if you will be a fairly regular user. The longer term contracts will usually require the set-up of a direct debit that will keep you tied in for the length of the contract, so users like students, or anyone who may be moving house in the near future, should perhaps try out the service on a pay as you go basis before making a longer term commitment. Take a look at the Vodafone site for more information and to view their range of smartphones, such as the latest Blackberry handset.

Pay-as-you-go broadband packages basically offer credit in the same way PAYG mobile phone deals, with the top-ups offering a certain amount of access.  Again, students may find these packages particularly useful on an ongoing basis, as there is no need to top up outside of term-time.  Heavy or frequent broadband users may however find that their data allowance is quickly reached, and find that topping up is a regular and significant outgoing.  As with phones, both mobile and landline, it is your pattern of usage that will determine which kind of mobile broadband package is most cost effective for you.

At the last count in 2008, there were more than 75 million mobile phones in the UK. That’s more than one mobile phone for every man woman and child in the UK! And that number keeps growing – can the networks keep up with such demand? In the UK, there are four mobile operators, Orange/T-Mobile, O2, Vodafone and 3.

Recently there’s been a rise in so-called virtual operators which piggyback on the existing networks and their infrastructure. However, not all operators are equal and coverage depends on where you are and what you want to do. Whilst all operators provde 99% coverage for 2G services, today’s hi-bandwith mobile lifestyle means that 3G is the network standard that provides broadband services on the move.

Estimates put Orange at the top of the list with a staggering 94% coverage leaving 3 and T-Mobile in second place with 91% in the UK. However, since the Orange / T-Mobile merger – this should increase leaving Vodafone with a respectable 80%. Although this doesn’t tell you the whole story; what can really distinguish operators is the overall customer service. According to a report published online, O2 had the least knowledgeable staff with 35% of questions answered incorrectly followed by Vodafone (20%) and Orange (15%).

User generated reviews can tell a different story with some surprise ratings from virtual operators with Asda, Tesco and Lebara Mobile all in the top five – all scoring highly.  All the major operators can be found at the bottom with 3, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile sporting much lower ratings. This could be due to them being around for longer and having more customers than the relative new comers. Or it could mean that the new kids on the block are doing better – time will tell.

What if you live in a rural area?  Well – Coverage can definitely be a lot worse than metropolitan areas. However, people living in rural areas are quite naturally against having mobile phone masts dotted around England’s green and pleasant land. However – transmitter stations equal coverage and the situation can’t improve unless a compromise is made.

With this in mind, networks are beginning to co-operate by sharing masts wherever possible in an attempt to maximise coverage and minimising installations, but this doesn’t help everywhere. It’s even become an election issue with one Welsh MP suggesting compulsory mobile network sharing to remove some of the commercial barriers.  The UK regulator OFCOM has recognised this problem and has suggested that masts could be camouflaged as trees, chimneys or even weather vanes! However they there’s no easy fix to the problem. If you do live in a rural area then it might be worth seeing what political pressure could be applied to help the situation.

John Smith has worked in the communication industry for many years and has implemented solutions across many sectors, from hospitals to the casino and gambling industry. When he’s not playing poker he can be found playing hardball with the telecoms industry – he is famed for his ability to cut through red-tape during commercial negotiations.