Survey finds top mobile brands aren't what many expect

Of the brands with the highest recall amongst consumers, 23% were mobile carriers or operators such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile among others. Just under 20% names major retailers like Macy's or JCPenney and 5% noted handset manufacturers such as Nokia or BlackBerry. Surprisingly the auto and travel sectors didn't make the top twenty list, nor did categories such as dating, music or restaurants - all categories expected to do well because of the way many consumers utilize mobile.

Interesting findings include:

• More than one-third (37%) of mobile consumers recall specific mobile ads
• Women have slightly (37% vs 36%) more mobile brand recall than men
• African Americans (41%) have more mobile brand recall than other demographics
• One-fifth (20%) of consumers could recall specific brands advertised via mobile

"We believe mobile brand recall goes beyond the mere power of brand spending," said Casey Jones, Vice President of Marketing and Music with MocoSpace. "Certainly frequency matters, but so does the ad content, design and relevance. As more brands focus on mobile, we think brand recall will evolve and diversity to become a crucial measure of engagement."

For brands thinking of going mobile, this survey is one indicator that thinking outside the proverbial box is a good idea. According to comScore, consumers are most likely to use smartphones for other-than-browsing purposes. In November 2010 the majority of consumers texted (66%) while only about one-third of consumers used mobile browsers (35%) or downloaded apps (33%).

Researchers surveyed more than 12,000 mobile consumers to come to their conclusions.

Tags: Briabe Media, mobile advertising, mobile brands, mobile engagement, mobile marketing, mobile research, MocoSpace