Marketers Use of Location Insights is Expanding, Shows MMA Study | MMA Global

Marketers Use of Location Insights is Expanding, Shows MMA Study

November 21, 2016

November 21, 2016, NEW YORK — When engaging consumers via mobile, the most personal of devices, marketers are advancing their strategies, says a new report from the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). The report reveals a significant increase in spend and use of more data-centric approaches that impact ad delivery and creative.

While most marketers use location data for social and search, more than half of marketers polled are now leveraging location for targeting. The marketers who have increased their spend are becoming more sophisticated and value location for driving brand equity and customer experience versus just leads and sales. Marketers who gained confidence by leveraging location for increasing foot traffic now focus on applying the learnings for brand insights, measurement and attribution. On the flip side, small spenders, those that self-reported spending less than 8 percent of their digital marketing budget on mobile, are slower to adopt location tools and are less confident in their mobile efforts.

Marketers cited data quality and transparency (40 percent), creating understandable differentiation among providers (39 percent) as top concerns. Data quality and reach are key factors when buying location targeting.

“While targeting is still the key application for location, marketers are beginning to see the value in the data captured for insights, measurement and attribution. They all now see location data as valuable for driving both brand equity and customer experience, not just leads and sales,” explains Sheryl Daija, Chief Strategy Officer, Mobile Marketing Association. “However with an increase in adoption and value recognition, they expressed some concern around data quality and transparency and a lack of clear differentiation among providers. Both issues are important agenda items for the MMA and the Location committee to continue to address and we applaud the location providers for asking the tough questions.

The report also alludes to some differences between the marketers and their agency counterparts:

  • More Brands perceive mobile as critical: Nearly two-thirds of marketers report mobile is critical to their marketing strategy versus only half of agency respondents indicate mobile is critical to their strategy.
  • Brands trust data more: Marketers report that they are more likely to trust data and results than agencies; The brands also report that they are aligning that data with their business KPIs versus the agency focus on campaign performance metrics.
  • Marketers seek reach; agencies more divided: More than half of marketers reported that they are willing to sacrifice some precision for research versus only 43 percent of agency leaders. In return, agency leaders are slightly more inclined aligned to sacrifice some research for precision.

“This research clearly demonstrates that mobile marketing is rapidly moving up the location data adoption curve,” said Vikas Gupta, Vice President of Strategy at Factual.  ‘Location has moved from a niche tactic to an underlying data layer that marketers are using with increasing sophistication for targeting, measurement, analytics, and insights.”

The Location Data Study is the first MMA offering on the subject. The study is based on surveys and interviews with more than 400 brand leaders and senior agency executives.  Supporting the research, Factual served as the primary report sponsor with participation from Digital Element, Dstillery, PlaceIQ, Plexure, Skyhook Wireless, Teralytics, Thinknear by Telenav, Ubimo, Verve Mobile, xAd.

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The MMA is the world’s leading global non-profit trade mobile marketing association comprised of more than 800 member companies, spanning nearly fifty countries around the world. Our members represent the entire mobile marketing ecosystem, including brand marketers, agencies, mobile technology platforms, media companies, operators and others. The MMA’s mission is to accelerate the transformation and innovation of marketing through mobile, driving business growth with closer and stronger consumer engagement. Anchoring the MMA’s mission are four core pillars: cultivate inspiration by driving innovation for the Chief Marketing Officer; build mobile marketing capabilities for marketers through fostering know-how and confidence; champion the effectiveness and impact of mobile through research providing tangible ROI measurement; and advocate for mobile marketers. Additionally, MMA industry-wide committees work collaboratively to develop and advocate global best practices and lead standards development. 

Members include: 1-800-Flowers.com, Allstate, American Express, Bank Of America, Campbell’s, Chase, Chobani, Choice Hotels, Citi, Colgate-Palmolive, DataXu, Dunkin’ Brands, E*TRADE, Electronic Arts, ESPN, Facebook, Ford, Foursquare, Google, Havas, Hilton, iHeartMedia, InMobi, Johnson & Johnson, Krux, Marriott, MasterCard, McDonald’s, Mondelez, Nestle, OpenMarket, Pandora, Pfizer, Pinterest, PlaceIQ, Procter & Gamble, R/GA, RadiumOne, Razorfish, Samsung, SAP, Sears, Spotify, Starcom, The Coca-Cola Company, The Rubicon Project, The Weather Company, T-Mobile, TUNE, Ubimo, Unilever, Verve, VEVO, Vibes, Visa, Walmart, Wendy’s, xAd , Zurich and many more. The MMA’s global headquarters are located in New York with regional operations in Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM). For more information about the MMA please visit http://www.mmaglobal.com.

Download the report and dive deep into the study’s key findings.